Review: Land of the Lost 2009

[Tim Voon]

Film Review - Land of the Lost 2009
By Tim Voon
0 out of 5 stars

I'm not sure where to begin with this movie. Frankly, I'm almost at a
loss for words after viewing LAND OF THE LOST 2009 and being bombarded
with images of one of the silliest attempts at movie humour to hit our
screen.

I should have seen this coming, after all it stars Will Ferrel, but
even this is considered pretty low in the long list of silly movies to
emerge from his neck of the woods. I should have known better then to
have clicked that box asking Qickflix, my online DVD store, to mail it
to me. I should have stopped watching when I saw the ape man dressed
in the guerrilla suit start hugging Will's legs and fondling his
crotch .... but I kept watching, sigh.

When I heard that a movie called LAND OF THE LOST was being made, I
had hoped that it would carry the same style of adventure that the
1974 Television series portrayed. It had a kind of Jurassic Park/
Indiana Jones feel about it. When I heard that it was being carried by
Will Ferrel, my heart dropped and missed a beat.

In short, Will Ferrel is Dr. Rick Marshall a scientist who believes
that Tachyon beams can in fact allow a person to travel through time,
space and into alternate realities. His theories are rejected by his
scientific peers and Matt Lauer, until on an expedition with his two
companions ends up over a waterfall and into the prehistoric alt
universe. How this occurs, is never fully explained. At this point,
the movie slides down into a pool of sillier and sillier happenings.
His travelling group befriend an Ape Man called Chaka (Jorma Taccone)
who is literally dressed in a monkey suit and mask that I could have
rented from a costume party shop. They are then attacked by green
aliens and a sinister head alien who wants to steal Dr Marshall's
tachyon technology to do great evil. At this point in time, I am
screaming how do movies like this even get the funding to be made ....
oh, it stars Will Ferrel.

A big part of the problem with this movie is how amateurish it looks.
It is as if the Production team really didn't go to a lot of trouble
in making the settings of the alternate universe believable. A good
example is Chaka but a better example are the aliens - they are
dressed in green suits that my grandmother could have made on her
sewing machine, big bulgy shiny eyes and some sharp teeth ... and that
is meant to like scare us silly with laughter? The T Rex is of course
computer generated but it would probably be more on par with a BBC
production of a dinosaur documentary than what would expect from a
multi-million dollar Hollywood production.

The movie moment that I most remember and probably would most like to
forget, is when Will Ferrel discovers a way to return to our universe.
However, standing in his way is the T-Rex who has been hounding to eat
him the whole movie. With his eyes opened wide he pole vaults straight
into the T-Rex mouth and belly, this is followed by his girlfriend
(Anna Friel) telling the T-Rex off for eating the only person who
cared about him (this is in reference to the fact that Dr Marshall
believe that T-Rex's were actually very intelligent beings). In a
moment of rage she rips of her belt and starts whipping the green
aliens who retaliate and capture her. The other travelling companion
(Will Stanton) comes to her aid by grabbing Chaka the ape man as a
weapon in a vain effort to ram the green aliens. They are easily
subdued and about to be eaten when Will Ferrel emerges triumphant on
top of the T-Rex who swallowed him earlier, in order to save the
day!!!!!

I guess I expected a more serious, adventure style plot with doses of
good humour with this movie, I just wasn't expecting the ridiculous.





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