Land of the Lost (15)

Dir. Brad Silberling, USA , 2009, 97 mins

Cast: Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny McBride

Review by Christopher Upton

Will Ferrell returns to children's film for the first time since Elf, to varying degrees of success, in this remake of the classic 70s kids show. Alongside him taking on the rampaging Sleestak's are Anna Friel and stalwart comedy sidekick Danny McBride.

Dr. Rick Marshall (Ferrell) has discovered the secret of time travel; or rather he has created a theory about it. After a humiliating turn as a guest on the Matt Lauer show, Marshall is laughed out of science, discredited and loses interest in his travelling device; until the entrance of Anna Friel. As enthusiastic Holly Cantrell she encourages Marshall to finish his invention and, after picking up McBride's Will Stanton, they're on their way to the Land of the Lost.

Predictably, this land is hardly welcoming and an encounter with a particularly upset T-Rex named ‘Grumpy' convinces them that escaping here would be for the best. All they need for that to happen is the misplaced travelling device and help from stranded Sleestak, Enik.

First problem that comes to mind as soon as you see the box of the DVD is the new rating; thanks to an explicit commentary track this film is now further away than ever from its target market. The original TV show was perfectly aimed at kids, with it being silly enough to get away with calling a conquering alien race Sleestak's, but not childish enough as to stop parents from watching it as well. If this film is intended for an older audience as this new classification suggests then it has seriously misjudged itself.

Sure the jokes in places have become more adult, and the position of the daughter in the original has become the love interest (worryingly with the same name) but it's still a children's film at heart. No one could take the monsters as a serious threat in this film when they intentionally look like men in green suits, albeit with multiple rows of teeth.

The acting is as expected from Ferrell and co and they perform their roles well enough, but the film tries to get a lot of comedy out of its set pieces and its outrageous events. And while the graphics and dinosaurs are impressive, the switch between the high tech CGI T-Rex and the rubbery Sleestaks, gives the film a completely different tone from scene to scene. It's a testament to the actors that the most laugh out loud moments of this film are confined to the scenes of just dialogue.

It's a shame this film doesn't seem to know exactly who it is aiming for, not quite fantastical or childish enough to be aimed at children but with a lot of jokes that'll fall flat on anyone older. Land of the Lost could have been a perfect children's fantasy film, and with Will Ferrell it certainly had charm, but it missed its target, and if Matt Lauer really felt the way he did on screen, he'd be the only one really laughing right about now.