Land of The Lost was a TV show that aired on CBS from 1974 through 1976 that followed the adventures of Marshall and his children Will and Holly as they were transported to a world of dinosaurs. The show was cheesy, campy and fun for the kids watching it and has become a cult favorite.
In 2009 a theatrical version was released, starring Will Ferrell, Anna Friel and Danny McBride. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) is a paleontologist who has a theory about time warps and after attacking Matt Lauer on The Today Show is kicked out of the science department and ends up working at a museum teaching children. All that changes when Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel) shows up showing him a fossil imprinted with the image of his lighter. She urges him to finish his tachyon amplifier which will detect these time warps. Using the amplifier Rick and Holly find a strong warp presence at the Devil’s Canyon which is being run by tour guide Will Stanton (Danny McBride). Rick activates the amplifier and the three are transported to a parallel universe and lose the amplifier.
In this universe they find all sorts of items that have been transported there, as well as numerous dinosaurs including a T-Rex with a bad attitude Anna nicknames “Grumpy” as well as a Pakuni named Chaka (Jorma Taccone) who is their guide in this new world. They must find the amplifier to return home, avoid all sorts of dinosaurs including Grumpy who is stalking them, and stop an invasion by the lizard-like Sleestaks.
While the movie wasn’t a financial success, it was a fun movie to watch. I had gotten tired of Ferrell doing the same character in a sports-comedy and this was a refreshing change of pace. McBride is funny and if you’ve seen Eastbound & Down, which McBride stars in and Ferrell serves an executive producer and has appeared a couple of times, you know how funny they can be when teamed up. Friel is great at portraying Marshall’s equal as well as his love interest. The movie differs from the show in many ways including making the leads non-family members, but it also looks great and was a fun adventure and includes elements from the show, instead of making fun of it. It’s too bad it didn’t do better than it did, because it would have been fun to watch several movies with these characters.
.jpg?t=20130517094513)
Article comments