MOVIE REVIEW: 'Land of the Lost'

My review in today's Oregonian (though evidently I'm in the gross minority on liking this one)....

Like most kids who came of age during the psychedelic freak show that was 1970s children's television, my relationship with Sid and Marty Krofft's "Land of the Lost" is equal parts fascination, revulsion and sheer unmitigated terror.

The fascination was because the 1974-76 show had a killer premise: A single-parent family is trapped in a parallel dimension full of lizard aliens, proto-cavemen and, hey, dinosaurs. The revulsion came from knowing, even at age six, that the special effects were terrible. And I was terrified because the relentlessly encroaching, ever-hissing lizard-alien Sleestaks were zombie-scary before I'd ever actually seen a zombie movie.

Of course, the years have mellowed and/or flipped all of those reactions. I now appreciate that the effects are awesomely cheap because the Kroffts were trying to squeeze "Lost World" production value out of a $1.95 budget -- a heroic effort, really. I also appreciate that the Kroffts were keeping several '60s "Star Trek" writers employed crafting those goofy scripts. And the Sleestaks, nightmare fuel of my childhood, are now revealed as the slow-moving non-threat they always were. Rick, Will and Holly could have walked up and cow-tipped any of those hissing rubber-suited morons at any time, knocking over half the set in the process.

I'm pleased to report the new "Land of the Lost" movie keenly understands that what was once scary is now ridiculous. Star Will Ferrell and director Brad Silberling take the '70s premise (which was played perfectly straight back in the day); tweak it so all the once-annoying characters are now annoying in a funny way; and acknowledge that the show's original fans are circling 40 by milking a lot of PG-13 humor out of the Kroffts' far-out ideas.

If there are any "Land of the Lost" continuity purists out there, I suppose they'll be outraged to hear that the 2009 characters only share names with their '70s counterparts. Here, Dr. Rick Marshall (Ferrell) is a laughing-stock nervous eater of a scientist who believes the energy crisis can be solved with time warps and something he calls "trans-dimensional energy." He goes on "a routine expedition" with Holly ("Pushing Daisies"' Anna Friel) -- no longer Rick's daughter as she was on TV, but now the one scientist who believes him.

As they're getting a tour from a hick named Will (Danny McBride), they fall through a dimensional portal into a junkyard full of the classic Krofft dinos/aliens/cavemen (which I'm pleased to report haven't been updated all that much, beyond having better mouth articulation). From there, the movie becomes complete and utter nonsense, in a nice way -- a grab bag of set pieces incorporating all the goofiest Krofft locales, characters and ideas, only with Ferrell and McBride (playing riffs on their usual myopic-fool characters) commenting on everything in the free-associating style that we've come to expect from a Ferrell production. (My favorite example from the movie is McBride walking up to a giant cheesy crystal pyramid and saying, "Maybe this is where our ancient ancestors hosted the Latin Grammys.")

Of course, that free-associating Ferrell style is hit-or-miss -- you can end up with "Anchorman" or "Kicking & Screaming," depending on the director and what Ferrell had for breakfast that morning. But this one's pretty consistently funny -- even despite the omnipresent special effects, which are usually the sworn enemy of comic timing. McBride and Ferrell wind each other up nicely. The infamous T-rex from the Krofft show gets a raging-stalker character arc. Michael Giacchino's score sounds like "Planet of the Apes" as performed with banjos.

And Chaka -- a feral missing-link cave-boy who was without a doubt the most irritating character on the original show, and thus one of the most irritating TV characters of all time -- is absolutely hilarious here. He's played by Jorma Taccone of the Lonely Island comedy troupe, who reinvents Chaka as a perverted little troublemaker, and most of the movie's funniest bits involve Ferrell verbally abusing Chaka or McBride maniacally bonding with Chaka. (Probably the best protracted scene in the film involves the three of them whacked out on a native intoxicant, bonding in a swimming pool as they eat giant crab legs with a giant lemon wedge. If you can't see how that might be potentially funny, you might just want to watch "Star Trek" again.)

I don't want to oversell it, but I laughed a lot harder than I thought I would. Maybe that's because the movie basically spent 90 cathartic minutes pointing at everything that terrified me as a child and saying, "See, kid? This was stupid. Let's throw dirt clods at it."
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B; 93 minutes; rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference.

'Land of the Lost' (The Oregonian, Friday, June 5, 2009)

Comments

[Lipstick Nrrd]

Nice review. I was born in 74, and overseas to boot. I have no concept of Land of the Lost. Would I still enjoy it?

[Mike Russell]

Depends. If you enjoy the moron-with-laser-focus comedy of Will Ferrell and the free-associative-white-trash-magnificence comedy of Danny McBride, then probably yes. (I happen to be quite capable of enjoying both.)

BTW, I passed your earlier message on to Fatboy. He declared it his "Chasing Amy" moment.

[sue]

I'm in the camp of wanting to see this! I found reruns of Land of the Lost a few weeks ago and was so excited to see them! Yeah, they're dumb and silly, but I grew up with them, and I, too, was scared by the Sleestaks! I'm sure I will enjoy the movie, even though the only Ferrell movie I've ever like was Elf.

[Land of the Lost (2009)]

Funny Comedy, Not exactly like the Series some of us grew up to know, but definitely worth a watch if you wanna laugh and smile.