| LAND OF THE LOST... |
| Written by Luke Oram |
| Tuesday, 23 June 2009 11:39 |
 In Hollywood, remaking classic films is a dangerous business. They walk a wire-thin line between success... and dismal failure. And they’re hard work – sometimes there are millions of pedant fans analysing your every move – and I’m pointing my phaser squarely at you, Trekkies. "Oh my God, did you see the new Spock’s ears? They’re not half as pointy as they should be, in fact, I could swear they came to a convex point rather than a proper vulcanised angle." And hell, while you’re not fending off an army of multi-coloured polyester-clad physics students who still live in their mother’s basement, you’re spending all your waking hours worrying about losing the essence in translation. Take ‘Lost In Space’ for example. The best thing about that show was that everything was made out of some form of cardboard. The robot was made from half of an old Kelvinator and the plot was ridiculous. Remove all that for the modern movie remake and all you have, is Joey Tribbiani poncing about in front of a green screen in bad rubber and spandex. Admittedly, this kind of scenario is someone’s idea of heaven, but those kinds of people don’t go to movies. They stay at home... and trap grammar students down wells. For these watertight reasons and many more, one could be forgiven for approaching the new Will Ferrell pic 'LAND OF THE LOST' , with suspicion. The 1974 cult classic TV show was a beloved children’s series, a juvenile acid-trip of hand-puppet monsters (SCARY!) and stop motion animation, ordered by a shoestring budget. The remake, while proceeding to take a big hairy dump all over it’s lo-fi predecessor to the tune of a $100 million dollar budget, tried not to err too much from the spirit of the original...  The plot was simple enough. Will Ferrell, as brilliant but misunderstood palaeontologist Dr. Rick Marshall, builds a time machine/ghettoblaster (the details are irrelevant) which ends up creating a PORTAL TO ANOTHER DIMENSION, sucking himself, fellow palaeontologist (and coincidentally, beautiful woman played by Anna Friel of 'Pushing Daisies') Holly Cantrell and token funny white-trasher Will Stanton with him. The intrepid trio lose their machine (THEY CAN’T GO BACK!), find a monkey-man friend, get chased by a dinosaur called Grumpy and get double-crossed by highly intelligent Lizard people (THE LIZARDS PULLED A SWIFT ONE ON US!). Perhaps, this isn’t as satisfyingly complex, a plot for you. If that’s the case, you should probably avoid this movie. Get out 'Usual Suspects' instead, and then lie to all your friends about how you knew Kevin Spacey was the bad guy all along. Will Ferrell is his usual one-trick pony-self, mastering the art of the deadpan slapstick. Whether it be while being chased by CGI-dinosaurs, being sucked dry by a prehistoric mosquito, or doing a subtle-yet-brilliant rehash of the show’s original 1974 theme tune on a banjo. What did you expect from Ferrell? A seamless transition to high-drama aka Jim Carrey? Ferrell finds himself matched in the comedy stakes by his co-star Danny McBride, who you may remember from his superb camp performance in 'Pineapple Express'. McBride almost steals the limelight from Ferrell, upgrading the LOTL’s G-rating a few notches with all kinds of naughty innuendo, guaranteeing you some out-loud laughs in the “mysterious pylon with auto-tune-vibration properties” scene.  Even the token babbling-animal companion Cha-Ka has his moments, although few. Luckily, he manages to disappear for a few scenes at saturation point. 'LAND OF THE LOST' is a complimentary parody of the original. It’s not gonna be a blockbuster (Boo-Hoo, we only made $7 million on opening night), and Ferrell is hardly gaining any character depth... But he’s a one-trick pony we’ll all be happy to ride for a couple more films, methinks. The double-crossing lizard-like Sleestak’s are saved by the fact that one of them is voiced by LEONARD NIMOY! It’s actually pretty funny... and good, cheap laughs are what the world needs in these harsh economic times. |
