REVIEW: The 'Land' of weird and funny

As a critic, it's disconcerting to exit a movie you enjoyed only to run into all your colleagues in the lobby discussing how much they loathed it.

I suppose I went into "Land of the Lost" with such staggeringly low expectations that I was pleasantly surprised when the film was not the complete train wreck that I imagined it would be.

A fellow critic said he went in with equally low expectations, every one of which was met.

About once a year, I like a film that everyone else despises, a film so admittedly and indefensibly bad that I have no justification whatsoever for having enjoyed it.

Last year it was "The Love Guru."

This year it is "Land of the Lost."

Will Ferrell plays Dr. Rick Marshall, an egomaniacal has-been quantum paleontologist (no, there is no such thing) who has been laughed out of the scientific community for his theories on interdimensional time travel.

The only person who believes in him is Holly (Anna Friel of "Pushing Daisies"), a whip-smart research assistant who convinces Marshall to try out his newest invention, which can purportedly open a portal in time.

To everyone's surprise, the device works, and suddenly Marshall, Holly and a redneck survivalist named Will (Danny McBride) all find themselves in a strange world inhabited by dinosaurs and reptilian Sleestaks.

Together with their only ally, the primate Chaka (Jorma Taccone), the trio must dodge a clever Tyrannosaurus rex and a nefarious alien plot on the way to finding a way back home.

No doubt about it, "Land of the Lost" is just plain weird and exists completely outside the bounds of common sense and logic.

Based on the classic television series created by Sid and Marty Krofft, "Land of the Lost" is a comedic version of the campy '70s show that was surprisingly effective (for kids) despite laughable effects and a proliferation of rubber suits.

The film version duplicates much of the style of the original - from painfully slow-moving lizard people to intentionally cheap-looking sets rendered in CG - giving it a funky, retro vibe.

Those ways in which the series has not stood the test of time are isolated and turned into vast winking jokes (several of which go on for way too long) for the big screen.

I assumed the entire movie would be one monolithic Ferrell improvisation. Aside from a few specific scenes, it is not, though those scenes are the poorer for the funnyman's unrestrained antics.

In fact, McBride is far funnier than the William Shatner-intoning Ferrell, who reigns himself in one moment and throws himself over the edge of a slapstick cliff the next.

To say it is the best thing Ferrell has done in a long time is kind of like saying the greatest praise I can give this film is that it was better than I thought it was going to be.

LAND OF THE LOST

Cast: Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny McBride
Director: Brad Silberling
Theaters: Hollywood, Tinseltown, Carmike, Cinemark, Chapel Hills
Rated: PG-13 (for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference)
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

GRADE: B-