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Turns out that there are certain places that some Will Ferrell fans just won’t go, and Land of the Lost was one of them. This will go into a few spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the film… oh, what the hell, like you’re going to want to see this.

Land of the Lost appears to be a very loose remake that’s based on the 1970s Saturday morning TV series of the same name. Now I’ll have to admit that while I had heard of the TV series, I had never seen a single episode before watching the film. Having since viewed a few videos on YouTube, I gather that it told the story of a park ranger, Rick, his two children, Holly and Will, and their adventures in another dimension as they try to find a way back home.

Universal’s $100 million movie adaptation went through a few changes. Rick is not a park ranger but a paleontologist. He has no children; however, the characters Holly and Will appear as adults that join Rick. The film is also a comedy - apparently. I guess it had to be as soon as Ferrell got involved. He claims to be a fan of the original TV series.

In the film Dr. Rick Marshall (Ferrell) is a paleontologist who has ruined his career due to his theories on time warps, and for spending $50 million worth of taxpayer’s money studying about them. He now works as a teacher. He also believes that the future of survival depends on Tachyons – subatomic particles that move incredibly fast – and that these particles can be harnessed by a Tachyon amplifier, allowing the user to time warp. British student Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel) visits Rick; claiming to have been inspired by his theories she shows him a fossil with an imprint of a cigarette lighter. It’s enough to spur him on to finish making his Tachyon amplifier. They both go and test the amplifier at the Devil’s Canyon Mystery Cave, for it has strong Tachyon readings and it’s where Holly found the fossil. As they sit in a raft, their tour guide Will Stanton (Danny McBride) leads them through the cave. Rick switches on the Tachyon amplifier, triggering an earthquake that sends the three of them to another dimension, one that has dinosaurs, Sleestak creatures and ape-men known as Pakuni, one of whom, Cha-Ka (Jorma Taccone), helps them as they try to find a way back home.

Land of the Lost opened in the US on June 5, 2009. The film was on track to open to at least $30 million. It charted at #3 with a disappointing $18.8 million opening weekend. It’s worth noting that the #1 film was a new entry, The Hangover, and at #2 (in its second week) was Pixar’s Up. It didn’t get any better, for Land of the Lost’s second week had the film down to #5 with just $8.9 million. The film earned $49.4 million at the US box office. International takings did not save the film. That hardly anyone outside of the US had heard of the TV show also reduced its chances of success overseas, for it could only muster $19.3 million. The total worldwide box office was $68.7 million. The film was a flop. So what kept people away?

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