There have been a lot of movies based on TV shows in recent years – some good, some not so good.
“Land of the Lost” is based on the 1970’s Saturday morning kids show that became a cult-classic. Will Ferrell stars as Dr. Rick Marshall, a scientist who believes in the existence of a parallel universe. Everyone thinks he’s crazy, so he invents a machine that actually takes him and two other people, through a time warp and to a Land of the Lost, which includes things from the past, present and future, including dinosaurs, talking lizard people and a monkey boy.
The plot is pretty simple: the trio needs to find the machine so they can get back to the real world.
“Land of the Lost” starts out slow, but kicks-in in the second half. Ferrell, as usual, brings his A-game, doing anything for a laugh. The movie is basically a bunch of comedy skits tossed together – some work better than others, but I did laugh a fair amount during the movie.
Co-stars Danny McBride and Anna Friel do their part – allowing Ferrell to use them to get laughs, and Matt Lauer, from NBC’s Today, plays himself in a very funny cameo.
The special effects involving the T-Rex are better than I expected, while many of the other creatures in the movie are cheesy, but on purpose – a tribute to the TV show.
“Land of the Lost” is rated PG-13 for a reason. There’s a surprising amount of adult humor and language. It is a comedy and all in good fun, but parents should know that there are some words and situations that you may not want younger kids to hear and see.
The DVD extras include funny deleted scenes and bonus features and the Blu-ray version has over 2-hours of exclusive bonus content.
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, “Land of the Lost” gets a B.
It’s not my favorite Will Ferrell film, certainly won’t go down as one of his classics and it bombed at the box office this summer. But, for me, it’s still one of the funnier movies of 2009.