BLOGS
When did it get cool to not like Will Ferrell? It seems like a growing number of people (including a few inside the TWoP offices) have had enough of him. Now, I'm not saying all of his movies have been great -- I still have not met anyone who saw Semi-Pro -- but a lot of them make me laugh just thinking about them. The mental image of Ferrell running around thinking he's on fire in Talladega Nights, putting his scrotum on the drum kit in Step-Brothers, or screaming in a phone booth in Anchorman is enough to make me at least chuckle. Maybe that makes me some sort of dimwit. I don't know. But I certainly don't think I'm a "Ferrell follower," or part of some Ferrell-worshipping cult. I just like things that are funny.
Which is why I enjoyed myself watching Land of the Lost. It has some incredibly funny moments, and not all of them are Ferrell's. As cave tour guide Will, Danny McBride is kind of a jerk, and it's still the most likable character he's ever played. While he has his moments of ridiculousness, he actually plays the Abbott to Ferrell's Costello in a lot of his scenes, which was interesting to see from him. The big surprise was The Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone as monkey-man Chaka. I expected his chattering monkey-talk to get annoying, but the subtleties that the fur-covered and tooth-enhanced Taccone injected into his body language and his gibberish let him hold up his side of several conversations (via translator, of course), and actually earned him a few completely untranslated laughs. Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) gets a few laughs for translating Chaka's monkey monologues, but the dinosaur, Grumpy, gets more, and deservedly so. That's one funny CGI dinosaur.
Ferrell, of course, carries the movie, which manages to introduce the three explorers to each other and get them to the Land of the Lost in the first 15 minutes or so. That's some efficient storytelling there, and the time they save is given to Ferrell to do his thing later on. Obviously, if you don't like Ferrell, you're gonna get bored/annoyed watching him pour dinosaur urine on himself -- that scene lasts a good five minutes, and the clips you've seen probably don't include half of it. I, of course, kept laughing the whole time. There are other scenes like that, ones where he and the cast were clearly just doing a long take and they decided to use the whole thing, and they're some of my favorites in the film. And while I'm not a musical buff, the frequent use of the soundtrack to A Chorus Line -- Ferrell's show tunes-packed iPod being part of the time machine MacGuffin -- is deliciously non sequitur whenever it appears, at least until the point when it makes perfect sense.
The plot didn't feel too convoluted to me -- it was pretty straightforward, actually, and I haven't even seen much of the original TV show. What I have seen of it certainly seems pretty bizarre, but that's standard for Sid and Marty Krofft, from what I can tell, and I certainly don't understand people who are angry at Ferrell for turning it into a comedy. Sure, maybe it could have had a second life as a Lost-style TV series, pylons and all, but I don't know if the specifics of the show are so unique any more as to warrant that. (It really is a lot like Lost.) No, a comedy seems the right way to go, and while part of me would have liked it to be a little more kid-friendly... you know what? Screw kids. They have enough movies to go see. Let the adults have something with dinosaurs in it for a change.
Besides, adults were the ones who've been waiting for this remake for so long, although some of the show's fans are definitely not happy about it. It seems that many of them would have rather had an exciting action-adventure that took the world seriously, and I'm assuming they want Anna Friel's and Danny McBride's characters to be kids again. Well, I saw that movie, and it was Jurassic Park. Just saying.
Maybe I am a Ferrell follower; maybe that's what's been wrong with me all these years. I guess the first step is admitting I have a problem. Or are you all the ones with a problem, since you went to see a Will Ferrell movie knowing full well you didn't like Will Ferrell? Did you think he was going to change for you? You can't change him. The guy played Robert Goulet doing a commercial for ringtones and killed it. He argued with a baby and broke the Internet. I am not alone in this. There are clearly others. We are legion. We will make Land of the Lost number one at the box office. Next year, it will be Anchorman 2. You have one year. You have been warned.
Land of the Lost starts tomorrow in theaters everywhere. Let us know what you thought of it below.
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Dear sweet baby Jesus, in your swaddling clothes laying in the manger with your tiny little hands and feet... Sweet tiny baby Jesus, please let Will Ferrell keep making hilarious movies. Thank you.
It's not that I hate him... I just think he's over-exposed right now and seems to take every script that comes his way. And each movie is a little less funny than the previous one. And each one seems a little more formulaic to all the others before it. He needs to take a break and come back with something fresh. Then I will laugh again the way I still do at Anchorman.
I like Will Ferrell. Perhaps I even love him. He was a good sport when I worked a TV show where he was a guest considering the crap we threw at him (not literally, but I'm sure that probably did cross someone's mind at the show!), so that endeared him to me.
I did see Semi-Pro (via Netflix) and thought it was amusing, but not hilarious like Anchorman or others. I don't know that I'll see "Land of the Lost" in theatres, but I'll probably Netflix it. Like Adam Sandler, there are certain movies of Ferrell's that I love and ones that I don't care about as much, but they all pretty much make me laugh. Does that make me a bad person? Stupid? Low-brow? Meh. It's funny and I think we need all the funny we can get.
Ferrell just needs someone playing against him that can steal scenes from him, like he use to do when he was playing the supporting roles. LIke the previous poster said, dude is over exposed, but that even happens within his movies, he just gets really carried away in certains scenes (I guess it's the sketch comedy background) Either way, he needs to maybe do mor writing and have a few supporting characters that are allowed to bring THEIR brand of humor to the movies. Again, like Ferrell USE to do before he got lead roles. Either way, I think his co-star, that guy...might be the right one to do that. So I'm going see it.
Speaking as someone who grew up watching the series - no, I wasn't looking for an action-adventure remake. Frankly I wasn't looking for it to be remade at all!
That way the show could live in my memory, and I could travel on in blissful ignorance of how not scary Grumpy and the Sleestacks really were.
I am a Ferrell Follower - and i'm not ashamed to admit it!!! I saw Semi Pro in the theater (literally my husband and i had the theater to ourselves) and as bad as it was (it was a really, really bad movie), i still left chuckling. The last line was pure Ferrell "It's like the Titanic, but with bears". Yeah - it didn't make sense and the movie was really bad, but it was so out there, it was hysterical.
and that's why i'll continue being a Ferrell Follower. I'm sure Land of the Lost won't be an Anchorman or Talladega Nights, but there are bound to be some laughs. and even if the movie is HORRIBLE, i'm certain there will be one moment, even at the end, which will remind me of what makes this man great. sure he's the same character in each movie. but why mess with a good thing???
Like the Titanic, but with bears....what does that even mean!?!? lol
He was a MAN he had a beard!
The whole Ferrell schtick is getting real old, maybe because like a lot of comedians he is really better suited to smaller supporting roles. Unfortunately, because he is a "star", he gets to dominate the screen and he just can't do it consistently well. Land of the Lost looks like it will totally blow as a movie, which won't keep it from have a relatively big opening weekend.
Okay, I saw it last night. I was a fan of the original show, although I was five when I watched the show and the cheesy low budget claymation TRex scared the hell out of me as a child.
So yeah, the movie was a little weird, but so was the TV show. I didn't go in with high expectations. A few scenes I felt went on too long (the bloodsucking bug and the dinosaur urine scene especially. ) However, it had some laughs. I was really in the mood for a stupid/funny movie last night, and this one fit the bill.
Okay, I saw it last night. I was a fan of the original show, although I was five when I watched the show and the cheesy low budget claymation TRex scared the hell out of me as a child.
So yeah, the movie was a little weird, but so was the TV show. I didn't go in with high expectations. A few scenes I felt went on too long (the bloodsucking bug and the dinosaur urine scene especially. ) However, it had some laughs. I was really in the mood for a stupid/funny movie last night, and this one fit the bill.
Will Ferrell is AWESOME. He is one of the funniest men of his generation, and people who don't like him are certainly entitled to that, but I don't understand this business where people who hate Will Ferrell pay to see Will Ferrell movies and then come out and complain some more about how much they hate Will Ferrell. This is why I say "no thanks" when people ask me to go see a Cameron Diaz flick - because the logic centres in my brain are operational.
Haven't seen the movie yet, but but can't wait - thanks for the review Zach! :)
This is the worst movie of the year, so far. Notice how the movie ad doesn't have a single quote, not even from Roger Ebert??
I saw the movie last night and really enjoyed it. My memories of the TV show were hazy, (although by some extraordinary memory savant trick I can still remember the words to the opening titles) and I think that will be the case for most of the target audience - the other reviewers seem to only have vague childhood memories of the show. So I thought it was very well done that the movie built on the few things that stick out from the show - the T-rex, the sleestaks (man, they creeped me out) and, again, the opening song with the banjo accompaniment. As for Will Ferrell, my opinion of him has been troughing and cresting the waves these last few years but after the genius of Stepbrothers, I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and he did not disappoint - his final confrontation with Matt Lauer had me giggling like a loon.
I don't actualy care much about this movie at all I can't stand will period I was more ticked off that he ruined bewitched the rest of the cast was perfect and he distroyed that movie
How about we all agree that that some people like it and some people don't? Is there a mandate that everybody has to like 100% of any given movie? The Land of the Lost movie was clearly intended to be a contemporary comedy rather than a remake of the TV series. A remake (IMHO) should take the same story and use modern technology to provide the 'real' look that was unattainable before. Sure, there should be some new material, but why bother calling it a remake if the only thing kept is a name? (Josie and the Pussycats, GI Joe).
I would rather have seen a serious sci-fi approach that explored the mystery of the pylons. The addition of a tour guide would have been fine, but leave the kids as kids. Family relationships provide opportunity for multi-layered drama.
I do not enjoy the type of comedy that Will Ferrell employs, but I understand that others do, and that's fine. I don't have a problem with a comedy remake of an old TV series. But I am disappointed that I won't get to see the Land of the Lost that I had hoped for.
Hmmm -- I wonder what would happen if two versions of a remake were made - a serious one and a funny one? (Guess I gotta find a job that'll make me a multi-millionaire so I can do that.)