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Starring |
Will Ferrell
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Anna Friel
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Danny McBride
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Bobb'e J. Thompson
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Directed By |
Brad Silberling
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Running Time |
101 mins
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UK Release Date |
July 31, 2009
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Genre |
Action, Comedy, Family
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Our Rating |
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User Rating |
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Hollywood provides more evidence that it has completely run out of ideas by making a film version of the popular kids’ TV series of the 1970s, Land Of The Lost. The biggest problem here is, ironically, that the makers seem to be determined to ensure young children – the obvious target audience – can’t actually watch it. There is a smattering of bad language, including Anna Friel calling aliens “wankers”, references to drug taking, and Friel has to endure having her breasts constantly groped. No parent is going to feel comfortable watching it with their little ones.
As for the film itself, it’s pretty average. Will Ferrell plays Dr Rick Marshall, a bonkers scientist who invents a machine that allows humans to ‘move sideways in time’. No-one believes him apart from young science genius Holly (Friel), who persuades him to go out into the desert to find a ‘portal’ in an ancient cave. En route they pick up slacker Will Stanton before they are sucked into a time hole, re-emerging in a land of dinosaurs and ‘sleekstaks (aliens), but without their time machine. They befriend primate Chaka through Holly’s handy ability to speak primate language, and set about finding their gizmo while being chased by T-Rexes and aliens.
It’s not all bad. The film actually starts promisingly, with a funny scene featuring Ferrell’s gloriously mad Doctor appearing on a chat show trying to plug his time machine which, he gleefully tells the audience, “Is paid for by taxpayers’ dollars”. However, once we get to dinosaur land, tedium sets in pretty quickly. Ferrell looks too immobile for an action comedy role, and Danny McBride’s slacker Will is too cutesy to actually be funny. Then we have the Anna Friel problem. How on earth can casting a talented, gorgeous woman be a problem? Put simply, she looks completely out of place in the middle of a desert. She does her best but is not given much to work with.
The running joke about the time machine playing tunes from A Chorus Line is about the funniest thing here. Apart from that it’s a cascade of special effects of dinosaurs roaming around, and how many times have we seen that? It has the feel of a leftover project with some actors filling in roles which may have been written for bigger stars. Shame really.
Overall verdict: Tacky film version of an old TV series that should have been left at the idea stage, doing its stars no favours.
Reviewer: Mike Martin