Land of the Lost (2009, Brad Silberling)

Published October 12, 2009

I kind of remember the "Land of the Lost" theme song, but don't remember ever watching the show. I watched the movie because of an interview Elvis Mitchell did with Silberling, but have no idea what he said in that interview to make me interested in seeing it.

Land of the Lost was a box office disaster, which makes it sort of interesting to see. The film's got some great production design, if not production value--the studio shoots are clearly shot indoors (the forest scenes and the volcano top) and it really hampers the effect. I can't figure out if those scenes are supposed to look cheap or not (wasn't a big thing of the original series how cheap it looked?). Because then there are scenes where it's this grandiose sci-fi and not cheap-looking at all. So I'm confused.

I've also become something of a Will Ferrell fan, who knowingly plays idiots well. Because his character in this one is supposed to be a scientist, it takes a while--it's not believable the guy graduated from sixth grade, much less got his doctorate (and why is a paleontologist doing work in quantum physics?).

The real draw is Anna Friel, who I don't think I've seen in anything before. She plays straight woman to Ferrell and Danny McBride's morons and turns it into this magnificent role.

The plotting is lousy--the film drags on and on and it's only occasionally funny (but then riotous), but it's not terrible.

CREDITS

Directed by Brad Silberling; screenplay by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas, based on the television series created by Sid and Marty Krofft; director of photography, Dion Beebe; edited by Peter Teschner; music by Michael Giacchino; production designer, Bo Welch; produced by Jimmy Miller, Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft; released by Universal Pictures.

Starring Will Ferrell (Dr. Rick Marshall), Danny McBride (Will Stanton), Anna Friel (Holly Cantrell), Jorma Taccone (Chaka), John Boylan (Enik), Leonard Nimoy (The Zarn) and Matt Lauer as the host of the Today Show.

Tagged: Brad Silberling·Chris Henchy·Danny McBride·Dennis McNicholas·Leonard Nimoy·Marty Krofft·Sid Krofft·Universal Pictures·Will Ferrell·★

Latest Episode

iTUNES LINK

MP3 DOWNLOAD

Horror franchises and would-be franchises evolve and devolve in the most unpredictable directions. The Piranha series is an illustrious and obscure one, as we began talking about in our look at Piranha II: The Spawning. In this episode of An Alan Smithee Podcast we complete our preparations for Piranha 3D, the biggest 3D horror event since the last one, with praise for the 1978 Roger Corman-produced original Piranha and abhorrence for the little seen 1995 Showtime channel remake also produced by Corman.

In 1978 Joe Dante got to direct his first film for Roger Corman after working for him as a trailer editor. Piranha announced to the world Dante’s expertise at monster movie nostalgia, a filmmaking role he was destined to practice throughout the special effects driven regressive childhood of the 80s. Alan Smithee has discussed his unjustly ignored monster and boyhood nostalgia throwback Matinee (1993). One of the few filmmakers taken under the wing of Steven Spielberg — that kindlier, cornier purveyor of boomer childhood and other people’s adulthoods — Dante must have known there’s no better way to get his attention than making a smarter and funnier competitor to that year’s Jaws 2.

Death Race 2000 or Rock ‘N’ Roll High School might have been the trash masterpiece that marked the peak of Corman’s second renaissance after the days of Vincent Price, but Piranha gave movie fans a warmup for Dante’s future stories of monster movie tropes intruding on the TV version of reality.

One of Piranha’s secret weapons was the first genre screenplay of Johny Sayles, who’d go on to become one of the most respected independent filmmakers in America. In 1995, Corman was selling off his assets and remaking old titles for as little money and thought as possible, including the liberal recycling of the old scripts themselves. Piranha ’95 is a photocopy of the original crumbing away on cheap, brittle paper. The piranha themselves are mostly recycled as well, footage from the original film. This movie is almost guaranteed to disappoint fans of the original even more than Piranha II: The Spawning.

Piranha 3D has the good luck charm to be the third reputable follow up to the continuing adventures of good old Project Razorteeth. The cast indicates an appreciation of the original’s b movie eclecticism: Ving Rhames, Elizabeth Shue, a long lost Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss in a Jaws spoofing cameo. Director Alex Aja knows how to pile on the grist they way they did 20 years ago. Incidentally, Dante has a 3D family friendly horror film called The Hole coming out later, so all three may now join that exclusive club inhabited by Dante and James Cameron called “What the heck do we have in common? Oh yes, piranhas and 3D.”

NEXT EPISODE: CONDUCT ZERO (2002, JO GEUN-SK) & FAR CRY (2008, UWE BOLL)

The Stop Button

film responses