THE EPIC FILM JOURNAL - DAY TWENTY ONE

Today was interesting, I decided to watch two of last year’s very high profile comedies which both received horrible reviews and box office returns.

Film Number 24 – The Land Of The Lost.

I have never seen the original series from 1974 but I understand that last year’s remake starring Will Ferrell serves as a parody. The film bombed HARD; a budget of 100 million which does include its extensive marketing budget, it finished with a worldwide gross of about 68 million dollars. As far as recent Will Ferrell comedies go this is pretty poor, Old School, Anchorman, Elf, Talledega nights, Blades of Glory, Step Brothers those are some of the most successful comedies of the decade. Ferrell seems to really have the cornerstone on the comedy genre, my experience with a lot of his films is that they take a while to appreciate. The first time I saw Talledega Nights I was underwhelmed, it wasn’t till my second viewing that I finally got it. I realized why the jokes worked, how smart some of it was, what it was trying to say, what it was lampooning, essentially why the fucking thing was funny. Another film of Ferrell’s which received poor reviews was 2008’s Step Brothers, an incredibly underrated movie, made a nice amount of money though.

So back to land of the lost, based on the cult sci fi comedy show, it stars Will Ferrell as a master scientist, who is trying to get funding for his project to look into time warps; a field of study he christens Quantum Paleontology. He asks for 50 million dollars to build his Tachyon Amplifier which is what will allow him to jump parallel universes. Laughed out and dismissed by his entire scientific field, Ferrell is left to teaching elementary school kids, instead of teaching them the basic science, he continues to try and his explain his amplifier to them. He continues his depression going to Arby’s, Popeye’s, Del Taco, and finishing off with Subway; the moments of depression bring out classic Ferrell moments, hysterical and tragic he pulls them off perfectly. He continues his bout of comfort eating with a donut stuffed with M&M’S; the reasoning is that once he has finished the donut he doesn’t have to eat M&M’s. It’s these scenes which establish a great silly comedic tone to the film, where nothing is meant to be very serious and we are to suspend disbelief to the nth degree.

Anna Friel shows up playing his biggest fan, she convinces Ferrell to go with her and test the Amplifier. They drive into the middle of the desert and meet a tour guide (Danny Mcbride), the amplifier miraculously works and transports them across dimensions to the Land of the Lost. A vast landscape full of bizarre landmarks, monuments and buildings; the Golden Gate Bridge, a London phone box, broken store fronts, and hummer limos. Also there are a range of nasty predators; giant sand crabs and vicious dinosaurs. Along the way they encounter a race of evil aliens called the Sleestack who have ambitions of traveling to Earth and conquering. It is up to Ferrell and his gang to save the day with the aid of a half evolved primate called Chaka.

The humor that runs throughout the film is completely unexpected, we’ve seen Ferrell do children’s roles before ELF, Kicking and Screaming but this is not a kids film, even though it was pretty much advertised as one. The film is full with drugs and sexual humor, Danny Mcbride provides most of it and is very crass and likable. One moment he calls a T-Rex “a pussy,” now I know this seems pretty low brow and it is, but it works so well in this film that I can’t help appreciating the audaciousness of it all, It’s adult humor in its most childish form. As I continued watching I couldn’t believe that this script was actually approved, who were they trying to aim this film at? Why would you try and make this film a PG-13? It makes no sense to me, obviously Will Ferrell holds a lot of clout and the film didn’t cost 100 million for no reason but you have to wonder if anyone thought that this would actually make money. Back in the 80’s high concept comedies were appreciated and could be full of adult humor or situations, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Big, Fright Night, Weird Science, all of these films were widely seen by children and teens and it was ok. In the present I would expect a film like Land of the Lost to go for a PG and try to grab the kind of Men In Black audience, and remember I’m not criticizing the movie here I actually think it’s very funny and entertaining, I’m just in awe that it was made.

The moments that work the least are when the film becomes too reliant on the CGI, it kind of ruins the quirky and culty atmosphere that is being cultivated, especially when the Sleestack’s costumes are so Kitschy and 70’s. The acting is enjoyable and engaging, Ferrell is as entertaining as ever, Anna Friel is a lot of fun and actually has a role rather than just being a damsel in distress and Danny Mcbride nails his angry freebird-esque character. The film is a pretty ridiculous farce, but it’s very watchable.

5 and a half out of 10.


Film Number 25 – Year One

Now not as big of a box office disappointment as the previous film but then again it’s not as if it raked in a ton of money. This Harold Ramis directed comedy see’s Jack Black and Micheal Cera wonder through different biblical stories and settings on the way to save the women that they love. It’s very much what you would expect; Jack Black is the charismatic smart talking confident oafish hunter paired with Cera as the straight, rather morose gather. Both lead actors are really doing the same shtick that they have done in nearly every role that they have had; whilst I actually like most of what these two churn out I know there are a lot of people who can’t stand it. If you are one of those this film will entertain you about as much as Spiderman 3 on repeat.

So moving on it also becomes very apparent that this film is abundant with cameo’s to name a few of the special one’s, Bill Hadar as Shaman wearing black face, it’s a short scene but extremely memorable. Oliver Platt plays a strange transvestite priest who looks like an ancient ancestor of Devine, he takes a liking to Cera and makes him rub hot oil into his hefty amount of body hair, a moment of disgusting hilarity. Topping the list is probably one of the greatest voice actors of all time, Moe Syszlac himself I’m talking of course about the extremely talented Hank Azaria. Azaria plays Abraham and we meet him trying to sacrifice his son Issac (Superbad’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse) he stops and then begins his mission to circumcise the village. I honestly can’t understand why Azaria isn’t headlining films; he is such a talented character actor and always makes every one of his small roles memorable.

The problem at the epicenter of the giant amalgamation of religious parody is the simple lack of plot. It is not good enough to make a simple sketch movie in this day and age, especially a 60 million dollar one. The plot is thread bare and what is ironic is that the subject matter is full of stories to pick from. Rather than try and thread a basic narrative together with these religious figures the film instead just tries to get very basic appearances and cameos. I’m normally such a big fan of everything that Ramis does but this is just such a mess, there is some great stuff as well David Cross playing Cain is a continuous highlight but is lost with this plot that kind of lingers and festers.

Even with all these problems I found myself unable to absolutely hate it there is some very funny moments and at least it doesn’t stay too long.

4.5 out of 10