Land of the Lost

There’s nothing worse for writing a review than when the movie is just bland. I can’t praise it and I can’t write pages of impassioned hate for it. It’s just there and it’s not good. That’s what Land of the Lost is. I kinda want to stop there, but I believe that no movie can be so simply critiqued.

I can’t say I’m disappointed by LotL because I had zero expectations for it, and there were times when those exceptions were exceeded, but I will say I think it’s a shame that this is the vehicle that Will Ferrell and Danny McBride chose for their big screen compilation. I’m a huge fan of Ferrell and I think that McBride is great in complementary roles (and showed real talent in both Eastbound and Down and Footfist Way). They both have very unique and funny deliveries and I’m still hoping that the two of them do a movie that better suits their talent. The times that I did laugh in the movie were rarely a result of the plot or the crazy situations the group finds themselves in, but were mostly dialogue based scenes that allowed Ferrell and McBride to do their thing. Sadly for the audience, there is not enough of these scenes, and way too many silly scenes. There are two small cameos that deserve mention because they are both very funny. The first is Matt Lauer as himself, and the second is Bobbe J. Thompson (Role Models) as a member of a class that visits Ferrell early on in the movie.

The whole plot (and yes, the movie has a plot) is just stupid and silly. I really don’t understand how they pitched this movie to the studio. The only way this movie would have worked is if they completely cranked up the campiness and tripiness and made it an R-rated comedy. I really don’t know what the intended audience was for this movie. There are times when it feels like a kids film, complete with sight gags and cartoonish action, but there are other times when it feels like they are trying to make the movie for more mature audiences (not that much more mature, but still). I really don’t know if the camp in the movie is intentional or not, but it is this camp that makes me think somewhere down the line, this movie will find a cult following of stoners and weirdos.

I wish there was something I could really riff on, but there isn’t. This movie does not deserve the lashing it’s getting from all the critics, but it’s still a bland, boring movie that has nothing redeeming about it. Avoid Land of the Lost because it brings nothing to the table worth seeing.