Land of the Lost
Wherever you go in the world you’ll never be far away from someone who’s learnt hefty chunks of Anchorman by heart, and is ready to gush forth a torrent of Ferrellisms at the slightest provocation.

People love Will Ferrell. Wherever you go in the world you’ll never be far away from someone who’s taken the time to learn hefty chunks of script from Anchorman or Old School by heart, and is ready to gush forth a torrent of Ferrellisms at the slightest provocation. These people, it seems, can’t watch one of his films once and move on with their lives; they watch them again and again and again, and will regurgitate their favourite lines all over anyone foolish enough to even mention the name of their beloved comedian. If you’ve never been irritated by such a person, it’s probably because that person is you.

And all this means that Hollywood loves Will Ferrell too. Because every film he’s in, no matter how mediocre (Bewitched, anyone?), is pretty much a dead cert to be reeling in the banknotes come release day. It comes as no surprise that the man is one of the best paid actors in Hollywood when the merest touch of the Ferrell magic all but guarantees box office success. At least, that’s the way it’s been up until now. Land of the Lost might be one mediocre movie too far.

Ferrell stars as Dr Rick Marshall, a “quantum palaeontologist” derided by the scientific community, but who nonetheless manages to open up a warp-hole to an alternate dimension where past, present and future coexist. Cue Marshall and his two sidekicks – the spunky Brit, Holly (Anna Friel) and the sex-obsessed low-life, Will (Danny McBride) – running around a hybrid fantasy world of dinosaurs, monkey-men, and sinister but conveniently slow-moving alien / lizard creatures known as the Sleestak.

The film cost a reported $100 million to make, but based on its visual presentation Ferrell must have scooped at least $98 million of that himself. The sets look cheap and plasticky, as do the costumes: Chaka, for example, the primate who befriends the three time-travellers, is played by Jorma Taccone wearing what looks like a monkey-suit borrowed from Planet of the Apes – the original, not the remake. The actual CGI isn’t that bad, with some fairly well-animated dinosaurs, but as soon as the computer animation meets the live action it all goes wrong.The animation feels so flat and far-removed from the actors themselves that at times it feels like you can actually see the edges of the green-screen that Ferrell and his co-stars had to act in front of.

Part of the film’s tackiness is no doubt meant to be a knowing nod to the 70s TV show on which it’s based, but the super-slick CGI dinosaurs just don’t work with the low-fi costumes and sets. And that’s the problem with the film as a whole: Land of the Lost doesn’t know whether it wants to be a rip-roaring action-adventure or a sci-fi spoof. It ends up being caught somewhere in the middle and is rarely ever particularly exciting or funny as a result. In recent years films like Shaun of the Dead and In Bruges have managed to successfully merge comedy and parody with shock value and a genuine sense of excitement, but Land of the Lost never gets the balance right and one aspect always works to the detriment of the other.

Ferrell tries his best to lift the film, but even his comedic talents can’t carry what soon becomes a confused and aimless jumble of an adaptation. The comedy essentially revolves around Marshall’s belief in his own intelligence being repeatedly undermined, a premise that provides a fair few laughs but is rather undermined by the fact that the doctor is actually pretty clever – he created a time warp after all – and the plot requires him to demonstrate this intelligence at certain points. This character inconsistency is exacerbated by McBride, whose own brand of goofball comedy is crammed into scenes so that Ferrell must temporarily act as foil and play it straight. One moment Marshall’s a bumbling idiot, the next he’s a highly competent scientist. As a result the film soon descends into a cluttered mishmash of hit and miss comedy sketches, barley held together by its thinnest of plots.While there are a few laughs along the way – a scene involving Ferrell (in idiot mode) drenching himself in large quantities of dinosaur urine is a stand-out – it’s not enough to make up for the film’s overall lack of substance.

Land of the Lost has its moments, but they are few and far between. It’s essentially just a vehicle for Ferrell to strut his comedy stuff, but it lacks any of the charm of his early films and the formerly all-conquering Ferrell just isn’t quite funny enough to make up for it. No doubt his legion of fans will turn up at the cinemas in hoards as usual to see his latest flick, but after sitting through this one they might think better next time around.