Netflix Sci-Fi Comedy Remake Flop Deserves Another Look
It’s not often that Will Ferrell lands a starring role in a film that winds up being a commercial flop. But with a lengthy list of entries on his acting resume, the inevitable failure is bound to happen sooner or later. One rare example is the 2009 film adaptation of Land of the Lost, a big budget box office bomb that is getting another chance at a fan base on Netflix.
Will Ferrell’s Insane Device
Land of the Lost stars Will Ferrell as disgraced paleontologist Dr. Rick Marshall, a dynamic and excitable character whose latest theory in his field of study landed him on Today with Matt Lauer for an interview. But the TV appearance goes quickly south as the host purports that Marshall’s theory of time warps leading to renewable biofuels is pure lunacy, and chides the paleontologist for wasting $50 million of taxpayers’ money on his “research.”
This ruins Marshall’s career and the once well-respected professor now finds himself working a menial job at the La Brea Tar Pits. But the bored Marshall soon meets student Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel), who approaches him with evidence that his insane theories of time warps are valid. Land of the Lost sees a rejuvenated Marshall working to complete his “tachyon amplifier,” a machine that will use these tiny particles to open a time warp and allow him to travel through time.
Let’s Do The Time Warp Again
Marshall, Anna, and park ranger Will (Danny McBride) enter a cave in the Devil’s Canyon Mystery Cave on a raft and use the tachyon amplifier to open a portal. After an earthquake opens the time warp and sucks the trio inside it, the travelers awake in a prehistoric desert and see artifacts from various eras settled on the ground around them. This confirms Marshall’s theory of the time warp, though without their tachyon amplifier (which is now missing), they might be doomed to stay in this new world.
Outrageous By Design
Land of the Lost has Marshall, Anna, and Will encounter telepathic dinosaurs, a talking ape named Chaka (Jorma Taccone), and an ancient race of lizard people called Sleestaks. After retrieving the missing tachyon amplifier, it becomes a race to find the portal back to their own time before it closes and traps them there forever.
On first glance, Land of the Lost is an absolutely ridiculous movie with Ferrell and McBride attempting to one-up each other as the co-stars work to see who can ham it up the most. The plot is outrageous, the dialogue zany, and the character sketches stretch the definition of tasteful.
You Just Need To Embrace The Ridiculousness
But the beauty of Land of the Lost is just how insane the movie gets. Each scene introduces a character, plot device, or concept that is even crazier than the last, which begins with Marshall physically attacking Matt Lauer on air, fills in the middle with Marshall and company singing “I Hope I Get It’ from A Chorus Line, and ends with the Today host getting his due.
Stream Land Of The Lost On Netflix Today
GFR SCORE
Land of the Lost is easily Will Ferrell‘s craziest film, making his characters in Anchorman, Stepbrothers, and Old School appear tame by comparison. Viewers who enjoy over-the-top performances from the former Saturday Night Live star will likely have an enjoyable time.
You can stream Land of the Lost on Netflix.
