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.
