I’m a Will Ferrell fan, and will always give him the benefit of the doubt. On Monday (before I’d seen the movie), EW writer Chris Nashawaty wrote a column all about how the low opening-weekend gross for LOTL was a sign that America was getting tired of Ferrell’s doughy shtick. As someone who thought Step Brothers was unnervingly hilarious, and is still residually creeped out by Ferrell’s unapologetically loathsome car dealer Ashley Schaeffer in Eastbound & Down, I was determined to like LOTL just to prove Chris wrong. Well, Chris, you win.
Now, I’m not a big fan of writers getting into their state of mind before seeing a movie/interviewing a star/following a story. It’s gratuitous, and I’m still scarred from a Harry Knowles article from a few years ago in which he went into nauseating detail about the diarrhea he was stricken with before visiting a set. And yet here I go: I am now suffering from a herniated disc, which makes it impossible to sit down, so I had to see LOTL while leaning up against the back wall of the theater. I think it’s relevant here, because seeing this movie that way has actually made my back pain a little more tolerable. Now, every time I wince from a spasm, I can say, “It could be worse: I could still be at Land of the Lost.”
Every summer I see trailers advertising actors I like in typically overblown blockbusters, and I think, Maybe that guy can elevate it into something good! But that elevation has only happened once in recent memory: Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man. LOTL was just a bunch of boring CGI set pieces grafted on to Ferrell’s usual shtick (trotting around in briefs, making random reference-filled exclamations like “Captain Kirk’s nipples!”). Ferrell’s beady-eyed stare and manboy, spastic flailing work in either everyday (Step Brothers) or surreal (Anchorman, Elf) situations. But big-budget fantasy action needs something to ground it, otherwise it’s just a lot of noise with no consequence whatsoever. We’re told to imagine a land with dinosaurs that are realistically animated to look ferocious — but Ferrell dopily running in exaggerated zigzags to escape the beast just undercuts everything. Why bother making a beast that looks that terrifying if you’re going to void any danger? There’s a reason that Peter Boyle’s Young Frankenstein was a clown. Can you imagine that movie if the monster was horribly violent and tore children apart? You would have had a very different take on Gene Wilder.
Ferrell’s character, as a whole, made no sense. For the plot to work, he had to be a genius. But Ferrell doesn’t play geniuses, at least not when he wants to go to his usual touchstones. A genius would not be oblivious to a giant bloodsucking insect on his back. A genius would not think that Cha-Ka was saying, “Chorizo tacos.” And a genius wouldn’t pour dinosaur urine on his head twice. But Ferrell had to do those bits because that’s what he does. Fine. Then he shouldn’t play a smart character.
The blame isn’t all on him. With another actor, the movie still would have been a series of frantic, pointless action pieces. And it wasn’t helped by having a director, Brad Silberling, who has no real eye for either action or comedy, mistiming many bits between Ferrell and Danny McBride. And ultimately, as we discussed last week, who gives a crap about the old TV show, Land of the Lost?
Okay, I’m sorry to have put everybody through that. But I’d like to hear your take. Did anyone like this movie at all? (Or should I ask, Did anyone see this movie at all?) Are you sick of Ferrell? Do you think his persona could work in a better big-budget action flick, or will it always be an awkward fit?
Before we begin the discussion, I have to give my pick for next week. Now, I know I just gave you something crappy to watch, and it was pleasure-free. But this week I’m going to give you something crappy to watch that is immensely pleasurable. I’m talking about NBC's I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Wait, hear me out! I’ve been watching, and it’s so ridiculously terrible — Boneheaded “celebrities!” Cheap, asinine challenges! — that you’ve just gotta see it. Come on, it’s on four times a week, you can afford to watch it once!
Hey Josh, I’m not sure if you’re still in the process of posting this or if there’s a glitch or what, but I could only find the article by searching by your name. It doesn’t appear to be posted in the PopWatch section at all. I thought I’d give you a head’s up in case there was a problem.
Yeah, was this posted yesterday? I thought the PCC was on Thursdays? I regretfully missed last week’s.
I had to do a search on “Josh Wolk” to find this…
yeah, that’s strange. I’ve asked tech to look into this, as it seems to have been posted 11 hours before I actually wrote it. I guess that’s all in the theme of Land of the Lost time travel. But it’s being fixed now to go up on the home page.
I won’t be seeing this movie. I like my humor smart (the dryer and snarkier the better), and I HAVE enjoyed the slyness of a lot of Will Ferrell’s work on SNL. If LOTL had been more like “Elf” (the scene with Miles was priceless) or “Blades of Glory” (where the figure skating “in” jokes were dead-on), I would have given LOTL a chance. But I definitely don’t do gross-out “humor,” and the trailer told me all I needed to know about crossing this one off my list.
I didn’t see the movie – actually I avoided b/c even the previews (which can often be the best parts of a movie) looked dumb to me, so I can’t comment on the LOTL film. However, I will comment on Ferrell – I don’t like dumb characters that just do dumb things. I think Ferrell does a nice job in Elf & even Bewitched (I know it wasn’t a great film) but he plays the boy-man role well & it worked for me in those films. I liked to see Ferrell try different characters (liek he does on Eastbound & Down) rather than playing the goofy – dumb guy that runs around acting stupid.
At least LOTL had the potential to be something other than the single joke movies Ferrell keeps making: He’s a basketball player, and he’s white, get it?? He’s an elf, but he’s six foot tall, get it? He’s a NASCAR driver, and he’s dumb, get it? Also, Harry Knoweles and diarrhea are pretty much synomous, anyway. That guy’s a troglodyte.
Hey Josh – love your Amazing Race recaps…just had to say that. Anyway, I did not see Land of the Lost the movie, though I have been watching recorded episodes of the original series from the SciFi channel. Cheesy 70s stuff, sure, but the show did have some cool scifi ideas and was grounded in the idea of a father and his two kids trying to get home. The awful effects weren’t really noticeable back then when I was a kid…now, wow, terrible, but still fun to see. I think if they made the characters the same as the series (a father and his two kids) and went through the basics of the show (Sleestaks, Enik, pylons etc.) and it ended with them finding a way home…well, that would have been better. Because you’re right, Will Ferrell has perfected playing the clueless idiot…but that just wasn’t called for here. I even think if they used current day effects on everything but the dinosaurs, and used old stop motion for them that that would have been hysterical…a misfire this time.
I prefer watching movies at home because I lack the attention span it takes to watch a movie without pressing pause repeatedly. This was actually the first movie I saw in theaters in 2009. There were maybe 20 people in the theater with me, and I would say it actually sounded like most had a good time. This kind of includes myself. I wasn’t nearly as disappointed as I was expecting to be. Maybe it was because I haven’t been in front of the big screen in a while, or perhaps I’m just delusional or easily pleased, or maybe “A Chorus Line” is my weak spot? I do have to say that if you want to talk about people that always play the same character, Danny McBride has to be a part of the conversation. I’ve seen him in 3 films all in the past year (Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, and now this), and all 3 characters were interchangable. I don’t see him fading away soon either since all of the mainstream comedies are recycling the same people throughout all of their films.
I think this movie bombed because it was a stupid remake of a sh!tty show from the 60s/70s which was also remade into a show in the 90s during my childhood (which I absolutely hated). I like Will Ferrell, sure, he is a man-boy but he is still funny. I think Hollywood needs to realize that we aren’t down with these stupid remakes anymore. We need some original ideas please!
Yeah, I also did not go see this movie – every trailer just looked painfully, relentlessly awful and not funny. Josh, I think you really hit the nail on the head with your critique of why this movie looked (and is) awful.
I actually saw a clip on the Tonight Show the other night, where Ferrell and Friel stop to take a photo of McBride standing in front of the T-Rex that is chasing them – and quibble about how to take the proper shot. The actors were so low energy in the scene that you could tell they weren’t really taking it seriously. And if you’re going to have idiots in an action movie, they have to at least take it seriously, right? Needless to say, no one in the Tonight Show audience laughed when they showed the clip.
“Doughy shtick”? LOL Dirty.
I’m not “sick” of Ferrell, and I didn’t even think the movie was that bad. It definitely wasn’t good, though. I think it might have been better if Ferrell had played something like McBride’s part – the crazy sidekick. If Ferrell didn’t have to be the star, I think he would have fit in better. You’re right, Josh, he shouldn’t play a genius if he’s going to use his usual bag of tricks.
Saw this over the weekend. It was between this and The Hangover and I only went with this so I didn’t have to wait another 45 minutes for the next screening of The Hangover. I was optimistic becuase I love Ferrell and McBride but man it sucked. Some funny parts but the whole concept was boring and stupid. I understand the old show but was never a fan. It all was too unrealistic and too random. Dinos, giant crabs, golden gate bridge, aliens, monkey people, ice cream trucks. None of it really made sense. Man i wish I would have seen Hangover instead.
I took my younger siblings to see UP this weekend, and the theater workers messed up and started playing LOTL in our theater instead. This lasted about ten minutes before they put the right movie on. Let me just tell you, from the few minutes of this movie that I saw, I have no desire whatsoever to go see the rest.
I was actually really surprised that this movie bombed so badly and had such bad reviews. I had no interest in seeing it, but thought it would get a huge kid/family audience. However, I definitely agree with the author’s points about what just didn’t work here: you needed some grounding in reality and believability, or else the audience doesn’t care and the ride loses its joy. I think Ferrel and big-budget movies are NOT a good fit. He’s a talented guy, but he needs to work more of the small, silly comedies, which is his bread and butter.
It bombed because ti was designed for either teens/young adults looking for laughs [They went to see the Hangover] or families [who are still flocking to Up and Night at the Museium 2] The 20 people who have fond memories of the show new what they were in for from the trailer and just stayed home with the DVDs. Farrell is like Lewis & Murphy and needs a strong director to guide him in his films for them to be funny.