‘Land of the Lost’ With Will Ferrell Should Never Be Found

Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “Land of the Lost,” starring Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, and Anna Friel, is horribly conceived, almost entirely laugh-free, and with absolutely no personality of its own. It’s one of the most inert, dull, and dead-on-arrival major summer films in a very long time with no target audience likely to be satisfied by it.

What exactly is the target audience of “Land of the Lost”? I’ll admit that I assumed it would be a PG-rated family comedy going in. Little kids love dinosaur poop jokes, right? Much to be great surprise, “Land of the Lost” is not for kids. Sure, it sounds like it was written by a 12-year-old, but parents may blush at jokes about characters getting “wet” or sitting on a vibrating crystal. Even pre-teens will roll their eyes when Chaka gropes Holly for the fifteenth time.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Land of the Lost” in our reviews section.

So, if the target audience isn’t families than it must be fans of the original TV show, a formula that has gotten Hollywood nowhere creatively. “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Flintstones,” “Bewitched,” and now “Land of the Lost” - why do they keep mining this well when it produces so little? The only positive thing I can say about “Land of the Lost” is that it’s so bad perhaps it will put an end to the classic-TV-to-film machine.

Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) is a quantum paleontologist who we meet on “The Today Show” during a rather embarassing interview with Matt Lauer about time travel. A few years later, Rick is teaching science to kids whose most interesting questions are “do dinosaurs have boobies?”

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Land of the Lost” review.

(L to R) Has-been scientist Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell), research assistant Holly (Anna Friel) and redneck survivalist Will (Danny McBride) arrive at a place of spectacular sights and super-scaled comedy known as the Land of the Lost.
Photo credit: Universal/Ralph Nelson