Land of The Lost - Test Screening Reviews!

[WyldeMan45]

After reading these reviews I have much higher hopes for Will Ferrell's next movie, I thought like the reviewer this was supposed to be a lame ass kids movie, but read this and make your decision:

Read all 3 reviews here http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40569

MAJOR SPOILERS HEREIN:


Got to see a test of LAND OF THE LOST tonight in La Jolla. Early, way
unfinished, usual disclaimers given.

I suppose I expected something along the lines of Journey to the Center of the Earth or Night at the Museum. A kiddie movie with some spectAcle and humor thrown in. What I got was a cracked-out comedy with some spectacle and stuff for the kiddies thrown in. I went because I'll pretty much go see anything if it's early and free, which doesn't happen that much in the SD area, but I was kinda shocked that the movie is geared more toward me at age 24 than to a kid audience. If anything, the movie this looks most like right now in terms of tone (from the trailer I saw) is Year One. I was at Comic Con last year when they showed a little bit of Land of the Lost and it seemed totally geared to kids, but the film -- well, it sure as hell made me laugh more than I expected. Half out of thinking "I can't believe they're doing this" and half just because it's pretty goddamn funny.

It's Will Ferrell in trademark arrogant buffoon mode, so decide if that's to your taste. It kind of is to mine especially after watching his Bush satire on HBO. This thing is like Anchorman crossed with Jurassic Park. Danny McBride is in his (too early to call it a trademark?) gonzo hillbilly mode. At one point he says something like "I moved tres times just to be closer to a Ruby Tuesday's." Actually Ferrell and McBride play this whole thing like Ricky Bobby and Kenny Powers' Excellent Adventure." Soo For example, one of McBride's earliest lines is calling a firecracker a "Mexican vasectomy." Later he tells the British Holly character (I looked it up and it's Anna Friel --don't know her) that she should sit on this gigantic vibrating pyramid sculpture they find. Cracked out.

When I looked up Anna Friel I also saw that Chaka is played by Jorma Taccone. Had no idea. From **** in My Pants to this. I don't really know the TV show it's based on outside of just the basic cheeseball look of it and knowing it's in some prehistoric land with dinosaurs and lizards. A lot of the audience seemed to know it, though, because they were laughing at things that were obvious call-outs to the series (like they repeat "a routine expedition" about 10 times and Ferrell comes out playing the banjo and singing what is the theme song at one point). The monkey boy character called Chaka is a horny little b**** in the movie. In fact, Ferrell is always yelling after him like "quit being such an a******, Chaka!" I'm pretty sure that didn't happen in the TV show.

The plot is ridiculous but it knows it is: Ferrell plays a disgraced scientist (by the way, one of the funniest bits in the whole movie is an interview with Matt Lauer right at the top. That guy has unbelievable timing. Really funny.). Ferrell has invented some contraption that reads tachion hits (?) and attracts this British scientist, Holly, who thinks he's a genius. They go out to a rinky-dink souvenir stand in the desert run by McBride and get sucked down a waterfall into another dimension. This is when things get really weird. It's not really the past, because there's random stuff thrown around like parts of the Golden Gate Bridge, a Viking ship, a Big Boy statue, etc. They make pals with Chaka who's been cast out of his village for being too horny. He feels up Holly repeatedly through the movie.

One of the best things -- and something that will work for the kids, too -- is the main dinosaur, Grumpy. There's nothing really new or interesting about another CG dinosaur, but this one has a bad ass personality and they make him expressive. He gets to be a strategist, not just a dumb animal. He zeroes in on Ferrell as a dumbass and just goes after him for the rest of the movie. The Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner style of one-upping each other and the personality they give the T Rex makes it more interesting than just another digital dinosaur. There's also raptors and pterodactyls and the all the usual stuff. But there's also -- alert: MEN IN SUITS! A bunch of them. They play this slow-moving lizard race called Sleestacks (again from the series) and then there's this one lizard guy stuck in an alternate dimension named Enok. He sounds like Lawrence Fishburne crossed with a Dr. Who villain and is in a costume that looks about as good as one you'd buy for Halloween. But for some reason the very ridiculousness of it all is what is funny. Clearly everyone is in on the joke.

There are some clever things thrown in, my favorite one being after the three of them go over the waterfall. Screen goes black for a few moments and then BAM! goes bright white with a big orchestral note played that is a direct homage to the opening of Close Encounters. And then there's just stupid stuff that you find yourself cracking up at like when Chaka is trying to say something in his language and McBride insists he's saying "chorizo tacos." I dunno, it works in that big belt buckle idiot kind of way.

And I haven't even mentioned the show tunes. It's just all committed to being stupid, silly and funny and it works for the most part if you go with it and don't expect THE DARK KNIGHT. It's quintessential Ferrell put in a big-budget action movie. It's his usual jackass plopped down into THE LOST WORLD and left to fend for himself. One of the running gags is how stupid it was for him to go on an adventure dressed in Florsheim zipper boots. You half expect John C. Reilly to pop up at some point. He'd be right at home.

In the end, I was glad I went. I'm not sure I would have been motivated to pay for this in the summer because I'd think I'm too old for it, but that isn't the case at all. It's crazy but maybe they've made the first stoner/frat-boy/kiddie/mainstream/mom-and-dad movie ever? If you've laughed at the Ferrell shtick before or if you think Eastbound and Down is awesome, you will laugh a lot.