ScreenWize

If you can cast your memory back to the good ol’ days of 1970’s trash television, you might remember such titles as H.R. Pufnstuf, The Donny & Marie Show and perhaps even Land of The Lost – a sci-fi adventure series about a family who are sucked down a huge waterfall into an alternative world. These were all products of wacky TV producing brothers, Sid and Marty Krofft, and Land of The Lost was successful enough (in a B-grade sci-fi kind of way) to be revived in the 1990’s. It’s now been brought to the big screen – updated with the latest special effects, animated monsters and Will Ferrell.

Ferrell is Dr. Rick Marshall, a scientist practicing at the loopy end of the space-time continuum, a believer in parallel universes and time travel. With nothing much to show for his career other than a half-built Tachyon Amplifier (the secret to time travel), he’s been relegated to teaching primary-school children science, until Cambridge educated research assistant - and thinly disguised love-interest - Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel) walks into his life. She convinces Marshall to complete the Tachyon and head for a handy “portal” she knows, where the adventure in space-time can begin. The two of them – along with downbeat theme park guide Will (Danny McBride) hop in a raft and promptly disappear - via a mysterious waterfall – into the Land of the Lost.

And what a land it is! A potpourri of past, present and future earths, complete with dangerous dinosaurs, alien zombies, a chimp-like creature called Cha-Ka (Jorma Taccone) and some of the worst acting this side of Ursa Major. The plot morphs from random adventure with crystals to a vacuous mission for Ferrell to save the world and get the girl, fighting off a giant T-rex and the evil Zarn (Leonard Nimoy) in the process. Most scenes are poorly constructed skits lacking the zippy pace or imagination that could have made this a passable sci-fi spoof – although there are occasional nuggets of wit in the banter between Ferrell and McBride. Friel – who gets to be little more than the classic “assistant” - must be wondering what she saw in the script.

Somewhere in a distant corner of the near infinite universe there must be a life form that finds Will Ferrell funny. Come and take him. Please.

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon