At the Movies with Fatwayne

First of all, Will Ferrell is Will Ferrell and you get what you pay for! By that I mean that all of his characters are portrayed in an identical fashion by this one dimensional actor. I am not saying that he isn’t funny. Quite the contrary, he does have his moments. It’s just that you could take his characters from any of his other movies and put them in this one and the result would be exactly the same.

This time out he is Dr Rick Marshall who is a brilliant scientist but his research has led him to the outer limits of respectable science. His studies are in the field of time warps and tapping unlimited transdimensional energy that is just waiting for us to come and get it! As he is appearing on the Today show he is asked by Matt “You spent $50 million of your own money studying time warps!?” to which Dr. Marshall replies “Ha, that’s adorable! No, ugh, taxpayers money – I don’t have $50 million”!

Just as Dr Marshall is losing confidence in himself along comes one of his students and admirers, Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel) who restarts his creative powers. Together they set out on and expedition to discover a powerful source of tykiyon radiation which is the key to opening portals for time travel. Marshall’s new research assistant, Holly, takes him to the place where she discovered a crystal containing this type of radiation. Wouldn’t you just know that the source is inside a cave where tours are conducted by a wacky survivalist named Will Stanton (Danny McBride). Will takes Rick and Holly on a boat ride into the cave. Rick has his homemade (but ingenious) takiyon detector/enhancing device with him. While on the tour Rick hears a tremendous noise and asks Will if there is a waterfall in the cave. Will responds “Hell no dude! This isn’t a real stream, it’s industrial runoff from the soap factory down the street”!

Well there actually is a humongous waterfall thanks to the “largest earthquake ever” and between all three forces (Rick’s gadget, powerful water and the takiyon radiation) our trio is dumped into the land of the lost!

I suppose that this could happen (yeah, in my dreams!). Now they are in a type of time vortex where things tend to accumulate. Things such as T-Rex, lizard men, monkey men, motels, sailing ships, etc.

There are several problems that must be overcome by our trio not the least of which is how to get home. A more pressing problem is the dwindling food supply. They meet a young “monkey man”, Cha-Ka,  whose life they save and take him into their company. Dr Marshall sees this as a solution to the food problem and proclaims  ”I have made the determination that if need be, if faced with starvation, we will cook and eat Cha-Ka…if you slow roast the little guy I’m sure that Cha-Ka meat would just fall off the bone”!

Their far out adventures continue to develop into one improbable scenario after another, all of them funny but fantastic. You will have to see the movie if you want to know if Dr Marshall, Holly and Will make it back to their world.

The beginning and ending segments featuring Matt Lauer are very good and seems to be poetic justice in that he can dish it out but can he take it? Look, this is a funny movie but it is also a corny one. If you just want to spend a breezy hour and a half then, go ahead and treat yourself.

I have put up some wacky quotes for you. Please go to the following link - http://www.tvmoviequotes.com/landofthelost.htm

Rating – PG13 -

Fatwayne’s rating  –  -