Land of the Lost (2009) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 2009
Director: Brad Silberling
Cast: Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny McBride, Jorma Taccone, John Boylan, Matt Lauer
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 5 June 2009
Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

The Movie Review

Land of the Lost film still 1


LAND of the LOST
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Three times a charm they say..., but probably not for famous actor/comedian Will Ferrell. In this movie, Will Ferrell has been 'honored' for the third time of awful performance by the Golden Raspberry Award. Without any intention to defend or judging anyone, it's not fair to blame Will Ferrell without blaming the script, besides he's not the only flaw in Land of the Lost. Unfortunately there are many things that might prevent the audience from enjoying it and probably even evoke the anger or disappointment of fans of the original TV-Series (1974-1976).

Famous paleontologist named Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) becomes unbelievably notorious and full of shame when he is confronted with cornering questions by Matt Lauer in his show. Dr. Rick Marshall apparently has spent millions of dollars just to create something that would able him to do time travel or visiting the parallel world. After the show, his career went straight down the hill and even kids mock him. But his luck is changing when his biggest follower/fan who's also a scientist named Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel), is giving him the solid proof of his stunning theory. And so off they go to a remote desert to locate an element called Tachyons that would enable them to do time travel, that apparently located inside a shoddy amusement ride called Devil's Canyon Mystery Cave owned by the desperate loner, William O. Stanton (Danny McBride).

But it turns out the device that Dr. Rick Marshall had created suddenly creates what appeared to be a big earthquake that sends them right to the parallel world. Confused and excited at the same time, except for (Will Stanton), they wander aimlessly until they meet a monkey-like creature, Chaka (Jorma Taccone), that apparently show certain liking to the only female of the group, Holly Cantrell. But probably only with Chaka's help, will they figure out all the mysteries in this fascinating and odd world. What will happen to Dr. Rick Marshall and the friends in their adventure in Land of the Lost?

Nobody is perfect... People do mistakes sometimes, once or twice. Land of the Lost is... a mistake, performed unbelievably awful by Will Ferrell and Danny McBride. Yes they're awful but sadly not awful as actors, because in this case, they are awful as comedians. It's actually kind difficult to exactly point who's to be blamed. Is it the script? the acting? the music? the timing? the editing? One thing for sure, the jokes really really miss the target. But the fact is that Land of the Lost accepted 6 nominations in the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards along with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), and eventually Land of the Lost won 1 category for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. While this is the 3rd Razzie Award for Will Ferrell after Kicking & Screaming (2005) and Bewitched (2005). In addition to all that, apparently breast-grabbing scenes (yes, that's plural) of Anna Friel, seem to be highlighted. I'm not a prude, but those scenes just simply feel out of place. Especially the scene near the end where there are some topless women with their breasts only covered with their hair. Movie for little kids? Movie for adults? Shoot! Definitely not for everybody I guess.

But surely, the $100 million worth of budget spent in this film eventually proved to be something advantageous in terms of production value. The world of Land of the Lost is a sight to behold. Quite vast with dinosaurs, good action scenes and chasing scenes between the scientists and the T-Rex, creepy creatures and stunning landscape. This parallel world will not bore you, but the story might. The movie's trying to be too much I guess, comedy, fantasy, science fiction, action, adventure... in some parts the cast and crew could pull it off and obviously in some parts they couldn't.

If you don't wish to be amused or if you don't expect to laugh with enjoyment, then you can easily enjoy the quite stunning world of Land of the Lost and its quite stunning inhabitants. But if you do, then what the heck are you thinking mate? Don't ever 'visit' Land of the Lost!

> Instead, why don't you just visit: Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (2008), or When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), and a highly entertaining exploitation flick titled Massacre in Dinosaur Valley (1985).