DVD REVIEW: LAND OF THE LOST ☆☆☆

Here's another popular entertainment I'm not really familiar with, the old "Land of the Lost" TV series. I hear it was enjoyably cheesy; cheap, tasteless sets, hoary gimmicks with stop-motion dinosaurs, and not-so-awe-inspiring scenery of mattes and models meant to evoke the wonder of early exotic world movies like "King Kong" and "The Lost World." Unlike the 2009 big-budget, Universal Studios remake, the original show was meant, if it failed because of how kitschy it was, to be light-hearted action-adventure entertainment.

The Universal/Will Ferrel remake is far from what the show was in terms of tone, if you can say the filmmakers aren't poking fun at it. '09's "Land of the Lost" is a huge, CGI comedy with lots of potty humor and lots of Will Ferrel, which may equal why most audiences and critics hated it; the movie was one of the, if not the single, biggest disappointment for the summer movie season and hit Universal hard when a lot of their other tentpoles failed to get audiences. Was there just too much sexual innuendo and Will Ferrel doing his overly "dimwitted showman" routine? Maybe, but...I ended up liking the movie, and not really for potty jokes and Will Ferrel, but for how the filmmakers managed to contain it.

How the jokes and gags, the countless comedic, huge action CGI sets pieces, are presented here are not in your face. That is a big problem with most all-out comedies, because they do get in your face, get too close for comfort, laughing at their own jokes, and making mockery of the audience. I felt differently for "Land of the Lost."

Will Ferrel, who does a lot of his usual stuff here, is surprisingly not annoying, nor is Danny McBride and Anna Friel as Will and Holly, or Jorma Toccone as Chaka, or even the Sleestaks or the T-Rex. The movie is, again, surprisingly, grounded to earth, and I think it's because all of the jokes and gags and Will Ferrel are on a leash that we are allowed to laugh at them (in the "with them" way). The jokes themselves, and the movie, aren't really anything special or very funny, but you allow yourself to giggle and if not at least smile all the way through. For all of the cheesiness, the bad jokes, and even the way it is all utilized in a full CGI, sound stage world, it's captured nicely. I thank the writers, and it's director Brad Silberling, who has done movies like this before mixing big budget and comedy with "Casper" and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," and the results have all either been unique or have worked. I even thank Universal for possibly having final cut when they could have let everyone go all out and let the dog off the leash. "Land of the Lost" works. The movie is enjoyable, and I think for most critics that might be giving it too much credit, but what else do you need?

Maybe some box office...Oh, yeah.

So, who is to blame for "Land of the Lost's" bad turn-out, anyway? Brad Silberling? The Writers? Will Ferrel? Universal? The audiences? I don't know. I say the Sleestaks, they were always so much trouble. Wow, that was a tasteless joke. But, hey, it works!
Piece of Trivia (because I thought it was so cool that I noticed it!): When the ice cream truck falls through the portal, and subsequently when the raptors are attacking it, the jingle heard from the truck's speakers is the music box version of "Ellie's Theme," the main motif from the movie "Up." "Land of the Lost's" composer, Michael Giacchino, also composed for "Up."