"Land of the Lost" Movie Review

With Pixar's Up practically guaranteed to hold on to the number one spot for a second week in a row, Will Ferrell's family-friendly Land of the Lost will battle the raunchy comedy

Toward the end of the comedy remake of Sid and Marty Krofft's '70s lunchbox leftover, "Land of the Lost," Will Ferrell is eaten by a T. rex and then excreted out the creature's back end. Fans know to interpret this as a personal artistic statement from the actor. It's a metaphor for most of his movies now, and what happens to audiences who go in hoping for another "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and come out smelling of "Step Brothers" and "Semi-Pro."

But before you despair that science isn't getting the respect it deserves, spunky beautiful researcher Holly (Anna Friel) slips into the classroom to encourage Dr. Rick to finish his mythic Tachyon particle accelerator. Huh? You know, the time-travel gizmo he abandoned after a really humiliating Matt Lauer grilling on "Today." But Holly has faith -- not even the legacy of the Lauer YouTube clip shakes it.

What else then would any true man of science do but dig out the machine and head to a souvenir hut in the desert run by a wisecracking redneck named Will (Danny McBride)? As fate would have it, Will also doubles as a tour guide willing to paddle them down the polluted stream that disappears into Devil's Canyon Mystery Cave, which happens to be next door.

Sure the cave looks like a papier-mâché science project, but the Tachyon readings are really high (and forgive me if I don't get all the science right). A flip of the Tachyon Meter switch and whoosh -- that stream is a rumbling river tossing them through a portal and into another world. Let the games begin.

Still, some of us would like to know how many more moldered reruns from the Me Decade are left to pillage? The original "Land of the Lost" aired from 1974 to 1976 (and was briefly revived in 1991), so it makes sense that Ferrell, who was 7 when it first ran, can lay some Gen-X claim to the decision to fall into this one. But isn't it time to plunder someone else's childhood fodder?

This is my plea to you good-for-nothin' millennials, before someone greenlights "H.R. Pufnstuf": Get busy, unseat Will Ferrell and his ilk, and bring us the "Full House" movie we so richly deserve! Or "Saved by the Bell"? Carmen Sandiego? Anything but this old poop.

Land of the Lost (93 minutes, at area theaters) is rated PG-13 for crude humor and some cheap gore.

LAND OF THE LOST HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE