Land of the Lost (2009)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Released in 2009 and directed by Brad Silberling, "Land of the Lost" stars Will Ferrell as a dubious paleontologist who is obsessed with experimenting with time warps. Inspired by a doctoral candidate student (Anna Friel), they try out his time-travel contraption in the desert and are flung to another realm where dinosaurs, half-ape men and reptilian people called Sleestaks reside. Danny McBride plays a tourist attraction owner who goes along for the wild ride; Jorma Taccone appears as Chaka.The movie was partially produced & written by Sid & Marty Krofft, the creators of the Land of the Lost TV series that ran from 1974-1977 on Saturday mornings, but also aired daily in syndication in the early 80s. Obviously with Ferrell as the star, the film version is more of a comedy than the original show, but this direction was approved by the Krofft brothers. It's reminiscent of 2008's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" but with an even more goofy vibe. I give that one the edge.The primitive world that the protagonists encounter is imaginative, but it's thoroughly CGI cartoony, which I suppose is fitting given the nature of the TV series. In any case, while this is a throwaway fantasy comedy, I regularly laughed throughout and therefore it accomplished its purpose, it entertained me. Speaking of laughing, the humor runs the gamut of stoo-pid, silly, bathroom and crude.The tyrannosaurus looks great and is even terrifying; he interestingly becomes a character of sorts. Anna Friel is likable and fits well, but she looks decidedly anorexic. If you prefer women with the non-curves of 12 year-old boys you'll likely appreciate her more than me. IMO the role called for someone like Carrie Keagan, Kelli Garner or Dominique Swain.The movie run 102 minutes and was shot at Universal Studios, California, with outside sequences done in Southern California (Dumont Dunes, La Brea Tar Pits, Lancaster & Trona).GRADE: B-

In this story three people go to a mysterious island called 'The land of lost'. There they meet a caveman called Chaka. They lost the machine to go back to the real world. So their adventure begins when they explore and go on finding the machine. It was funny adventurous movie. I have always seen serious adventurous but this one was good. Everyone watch this movie and especially I suggest people who are sad to watch this movie to laugh.

I love the idea being this Land of the Lost comedy, and oh my god is the execution on set design, costuming, visual landscape, and CG/practical effect blending excellent. It all looks great, brimming with character and fun design choices.The comedy alternates wildly between very genuinely funny, and floppy, all dependent on Ferrell, Friel, and McBride's improv delivery. I really enjoyed the banter for the most part - it just feels organic and fun, and moves at a quick enough pace that you're not rolling your eyes when a joke doesn't land. It IS that quippy style of comedy, though, so you basically need to go into LotL expecting the characters to be clowning around nonstop for the duration of the adventure. It's just improv actors having fun in a comedic role with a very self-aware plot - I'm very happy they went all the way, and built the comedy around the actors.Action is generally very fun and well-presented, with the camera-work keeping everything in-frame and clear without getting chaotic. Again, I cannot say enough good about the way this movie looks and plays out.No real complaints beyond a few recurring jokes that don't really land - the showtunes gag in particular didn't do much for me, and I get slightly annoyed by how (for the first half of the movie) Friel's character's just there to have McBride make crass jokes at and Chaka to grope. She does really come into her own during the second half, though, so eh, not that big a deal.A good, fun movie.

Will Ferrell shows his mettle as the Crown Prince of cinematic comedy, applying visual gags from every Hollywood comic come before him, from Buster Poindexter and Harold Loyd and Chaplin through to Eddie Murphy. As the average smarts smart man's Adam Sandler fan, he, with his sidekick - that guy from Eastbound and Down - even manage to slur Polish people. Lots of lines fall flat, including the gag about men liking show tunes. I mean, why?!? While not recapturing the innocent charm of the original series, which forms my earliest TV-viewing memories, the laugh count, the standard measure of any comedy production, stands at 3 halfway through. Not really a high figure on the face of it, it still is infinitely times more funny than any Adam Sandler movie ever made. Just to reinforce this a little bit for the slow readers - lots of funny shtuff. A six on the scale of 1 to 10 is actually a 10 on the comedy B movie scale, by the way. Survey question: Are you watching this on basic cable? If so, it is likely thanks to the fact that Land of the Lost lost lots of moo la upon original release.