I'm starting to wonder what America ever saw in Will Ferrell. Sure, the guy was funny on SNL in measured doses of brilliance, but as a big screen actor he's left me sorta cold. He had some marvelous turns in Zoolander and Old School, but again he was not the focus of either of those movies. I've yet to see him really elevate anything beyond what's on the written page. For example, has he ever made what would normally be an average film great? Or even just good? Case in pont: Land of the Lost, which is a remake of the campy 1974 series about a family that finds itself lost in an alternate world that resembles the prehistoric age. Ferrell is the main draw, and he fails to generate more than the occasional chuckle.
What little charm the original series had is completely sucked away for little or no reason. One of those aspects is that this was a family stuck together, and so had to deal with family rifts and squabbles while stuck in this strange world. There's no real connection between the travellers now. In this version, Ferrell plays Rick Marshall, a quirky, some would say looney scientist who is obsessed with time travel. Quitting on his exeriments after an interview with Matt Lauer goes horribly awry, he is urged back by a sexy admirer name Holly(Anna Friel). The two set out to an abandoned theme park, where they, along with grungy tour guide Will(Danny McBride) are sucked away by a time warp into a land overrun by dinosaurs.
Lost seems to have no idea of what it wants to be. Promoted mainly as a family friendly adventure, the film is actually more than a little bit vulgar, with some pretty blatant sexual references thrown in for good measure. Not that this makes the film bad, but it's like they were trying to toe the line, so that it's neither raunchy enough to satisy the dirty old man like myself, nor squeaky clean enough for families. The film's one running gag is that there's a Tyranosaurs who has a mad on for Dr. Marshall for some odd reason, but it's the same gag repeatedly. Rarely has a man been chased by a T-Rex with so little threat of actual harm coming to him. There's some other stuff thrown in here with an alien race, but none of it really works. The only redeeming quality is Danny McBride, who just seems to be having fun with the whole thing. Oddly enough I see him the same way I used to see Ferrell. He's still young enough in his career where he's mainly doing high profile spot duty on major films, and he's excelled at it. The few times I've seen him as the lead figure(The Foot Fist Way, Eastbound and Down) I've been less than impressed. Hopefully when his time at superstardom comes, and it will, he won't throw himself at every lame script that comes his way. Will Ferrell could stand to re-learn that lesson.
5/10
