Land of the Lost

In the latest Will Ferrell vehicle our comic hero finds himself trapped in a fissure beyond the space-time continuum as we know it, a twilight zone where zany conflicting signifiers – ice cream truck, dinosaurs, reptilian spacemen – dominate the landscape. The chaos is emblematic. Neatly echoing its own title, Land Of The Lost is never too sure where it’s at.
Reviving some family sci-fi series from the ‘80s that nobody can seem to remember, Brad Silberling’s leftfield $100 million production never settles into one groove where ten are available; LOTL is, quite simply, all over the shop. Danny McBride does excellent work with locker room dialogue that might have spewed forth from the mouth of a younger Vince Vaughn. Anna Friel and the director are making something closer to Ghostbusters in tone. And Will Ferrell is busy being Will Ferrell.
There is, moreover, something utterly twisted about the notion of blowing a sizeable summer blockbuster budget to make a movie look like a crummy early TV set. They even replicate that early Trek-like emptiness that takes you where no man has gone before – deserts, caves and stage three on lot 24.
Weirdly, it works, despite being most uncertain as to whether it’s acting out for the kids or the Bromance contingent. The film does, after all, feature Will Ferrell as a pompous ass faux-scientist. Sold!