Land Of The Lost has now been considered a major 2009 summer bomb from Universal Studios.
People seemed to have thought this was a send up of the old Saturday morning TV series but they missed the point. The is actually a spoof/tribute of the Irwin Allen type of science fiction adventure shows that were popular in the 1960's.
Everything is in this great tribute to the "Master of Disaster", Irwin Allen. Cheesy sets that look like they were made out of paper
mache, special effects that barely get by, ridiculous monster costumes, an absurd plot which while on the surface makes absolutely no sense still has a strange logic, over the top acting and ridiculous action sequences.
Will Ferrell and Jim McBride spoof the typical Irwin Allen heroes. Ferrell is sending up the Professor Challenger character from Allen's film,
The Lost World. McBride plays the part usually played by David
Hedison except he plays it as a redneck goofball. The only disappointing casting is the English actress Anna
Friel who has the part usually played by Jill St John, only she doesn't have Jill St John's body. The part of "the girl" in an Irwin Allen production was always some B-level actress like Jill St John, Barbara Eden or Lynda Day George.
Spoofing old science fiction movies has a built in danger to it because the filmmakers take the risk of not letting the audience in on the joke, that appeared to be the problem here.
Irwin Allen was a great producer and director, he always scrimped and recycled actors and sets. He would literally reuse, scenes from his TV shows and movies in his other productions hoping the audience wouldn't notice and usually they didn't notice. He was a real cheapskate.
What the people who made
Land Of The Lost didn't understand when they put this movie into production was that Irwin Allen never spent 100 million dollars on all of his movies and TV shows combined. Allen had a clear idea of the value of what he was putting out for product.
Universal really shouldn't have spent 100 million dollars on
Land Of The Lost.
Will Ferrell and Jim McBride spoof the typical Irwin Allen heroes. Ferrell is sending up the Professor Challenger character from Allen's film, The Lost World. McBride plays the part usually played by David Hedison except he plays it as a redneck goofball. The only disappointing casting is the English actress Anna Friel who has the part usually played by Jill St John, only she doesn't have Jill St John's body. The part of "the girl" in an Irwin Allen production was always some B-level actress like Jill St John, Barbara Eden or Lynda Day George.
Irwin Allen was a great producer and director, he always scrimped and recycled actors and sets. He would literally reuse, scenes from his TV shows and movies in his other productions hoping the audience wouldn't notice and usually they didn't notice. He was a real cheapskate.
Universal really shouldn't have spent 100 million dollars on Land Of The Lost.
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