By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
If you don't find Land of the Lost, you won't have missed much.
What might be most mystifying about this time-travel comedy (?? out of four), based on the '74 TV series, is not that the characters were sucked into a space-time vortex but why such talented comic actors as Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel chose to take part. Ferrell and McBride's seemingly improvised one-liners are a highlight.
Ferrell stars as Dr. Rick Marshall, a scientist who has been discredited for his theories about a parallel universe in which past, present and future meet. Despite his career nosedive, Marshall is much admired by Holly, a British graduate student (Pushing Daisies' Friel) who becomes his assistant. The two are sucked into a parallel universe, along with their bumpkin guide (McBride).
The world they suddenly inhabit includes stampeding dinosaurs and some species of early man. They befriend a primate named Chaka (Jorma Taccone), a creature meant to be lovable despite his lascivious tendencies. Holly somehow can speak his language, though Chaka's main mode of communication is groping.
There are some absurd moments, such as the running Chorus Line jokes and a bizarre duet of Cher's Believe, as well as a zany dance by Ferrell. But the humor doesn't last long enough to sustain interest.
More time goes to bathroom humor, conventional chase scenes and familiar CG effects. It's hard to know just who the intended audience is: The movie is too surreal and bawdy for young kids and too silly for anyone older than 25.
[JPX] "bathroom humor, conventional chase scenes and familiar CG effects", sounds damn good to me!
1 comment:
From AICN, Now the the film is very funny, very goofy, VERY BROAD and hopelessly irreverent. This film is gorgeously produced, but far far more adult in its humor than anything UNIVERSAL has hinted at. To me, this was a relief and also something that I realized could end up leaving a bad taste in a lot of parents' mouths that don't want their innocent kids to ask, "Mommy, why is that man putting his hand into his pants, what's he gonna do?" Because... that scene is there. There's even a scene where the characters blitzed out of their minds on some alien prehistoric drug juice - where Danny McBride tries to get Will Ferrell's character to "french kiss" Cha-Ka. Now you don't see that happen, but they get real close.
For me, the audience for this film is anyone that grew up in the seventies with LAND OF THE LOST, but was old enough to enjoy the hell out of Ringo Starr's CAVEMAN. That's a particular audience.
All those caveats to the side - Harry, what did you think of the movie?
I had a blast with it. As did the majority of the audience. The biggest flaw with the film, isn't the film - but the marketing campaign for this movie. The fear that they had to make this a Family Film in order to market it, but the reality is - it can play to a much older audience, and by selling it as a family film - there will be very upset families, possibly. Not all. There were lots of kids here at our event, and their parents seemed to be fine with it. And none of these kids seemed traumatized by Will Ferrell's pants plunge.
The fact is kids can take the more adult stuff, because they live with adults - and at some point we all figure out why Mom & Dad's door is closed - and that weird stuff happens in the real world. Personally, I think all the kids will be distracted by Grumpy the T-Rex and those amazingly creepy fucking Sleestaks.
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