THERE'S A SPECIAL PLACE in hell reserved for those who remake old TV shows into feature films. While there are certainly a few excellent exceptions (The Addams Family, The Fugitive, and The Brady Bunch), there are so many more that should have been smothered in their sleep (The Beverly Hillbillies, Dukes of Hazzard, Bewitched... shall I go on?). When approaching such a project, the question should be: How does one capture the tone of the original without kissing its ass? In the case of the updated Land of the Lost (starring Will Ferrell and Danny McBride), the producers correctly said, "Screw the original! We've got Will Ferrell and Danny McBride! Just let them stand around making jerk off jokes, because it's gonna be hilarious." And they were right.

Taking only the most necessary ingredients from the Saturday morning Sid and Marty Krofft show of the same name—most notably the marginally believable Styrofoam sets, ass-chomping dinosaurs, creepy lizard people, and a monkey boy sidekick named Chaka—Ferrell, McBride and Anna Friel (as the hot scientist/love interest) are transported to a dangerous parallel universe where nobody gives two craps about useless concepts such as "plot."

Yes, Ferrell's character plays a disgraced scientist trying to get his groove back, and McBride is a survivalist/gift shop owner, but as actors, these guys have one job, and one job only: To improvise hilarious lines while being chased hither and yon by CG monsters. In the end, Ferrell is just a slightly more obnoxious Will Ferrell, McBride is a slightly less obnoxious Kenny Powers (his character on HBO's Eastbound & Down), and for some remarkable reason it works like a goddamn charm, perfectly capturing the cheesy fun of the original show.

See? There's something to be said for a healthy disrespect of source material.