REVIEW: Land of the Lost

Remember when Will Ferrell was huge. Fresh from Old School, Anchorman and Stranger then fiction, the dude made us laugh and more importantly he was making the money. Now we've had Talledega Nights, we've had Semi-Pro, we've had Step-Brothers and his act is beginning to wear a little thin. And I like the guy. I don't imagine what his haters are saying a this point, not much of it would be too complimentary I'm sure. So, Land of the Lost. Is it another scatter shot, effects heavy summer comedy? Pretty much.

The plot is half assed beyond belief, so in that spirit I will sum it up accordingly. Ferrell is this scientist who believes in multiple dimensions, with no real evidence. After going on talk show and looking ridiculous in front of Matt Lauer, he, token female Anna Friel and random redneck Danny McBride get transported into a parallel dimension with super-smart T-Rex's, Alien warlords and zombie lizard slaves with two sets of teeth. The real problem here is that the film doesn't really know what it wants to be. On one hand it kind of wants to be another one of Ferrell's adolescent frat-boy comedies, with plenty of both bawdy and toilet humor. There are also elements of a more PG-rated, family friendly adventure. It wants perhaps to be both but ends up being neither. This isn't the fault of the actors, more the script which reeks of studio interference and a committee written lack of focus. Ferrell does what he does, we've seen him play this character before and in better, funnier movies but fans of his will get their money's worth. Anna Friel lets loose her northern accent, this is northern england for cross-continental readers, which is distracting in a way it perhaps shouldn't be. Besides her character seems to exist solely to be the girl, and there's little point analyzing her performance here. McBride is probably the best in the movie, bringing back memories of him in Pineapple express, stealing the film from Seth Rogen and James Franco. He's not outstanding here but he gets some laughs so he gets a pass. There's also a monkey named Chaka who is just embarrassing. Monkeys should never be given large roles in movies. It always ends badly.

So anyways, its mildly amusing but inconsistent and beyond all over the place. The laziness pretty much provides the lethal blow though, and you can see why this movie was such a bomb.

Rating: 5/10