by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid - SGN A&E Writer

Land of the Lost
Now Playing

It's hard to imagine the same person who was making jokes about dinosaur urine and making me laugh as he harasses a monkey-like creature was the same one who was sitting, all gussied up in the audience, waiting to find out if his depiction of George Bush would win a Tony. In fact, until a clip was showed with the performance, I thought they were kidding that former Saturday Night Live alum Will Ferrell had been nominated for a Tony award, one of the most prestigious awards given to actors on the legitimate stage. He didn't win it, unfortunately, but heck, there's always next year, I guess, and in the meantime he's turned out a pretty believable, funny as hell performance as a down at the heels, over the top professor who tries to convince Matt Lauer on a talk show that time travel is the answer to the world's energy problems. And, yes, it's the real Matt Lauer (though being someone who sleeps late, I've never seen his show). Ferrell, joined by another scientist/intern who lost her internship and credibility for supporting his wacky theories, attempt to prove his theory by building a slapdash time machine.

They travel to a place in the middle of the New Mexico desert after she shows him what she thinks to be an artifact that proves someone traveled back in time thousands of years. Intrigued as much by her lanky legs and pouty English voice, our professor follows her advice and with a quirky and questionable guide in tow, enters an abandoned cave said to possibly have a time travel wormhole, or something like that. And before you can say "morlocks," the machine is flipped on and something indeed does happen as all three are whooshed and whirled away and dumped in the same place in the desert, but thousands of years ago! Know ahead of time, that this is not the cartoon version of Land of the Lost, or the B-movie I believe was made from said cartoon, but a hilarious send-up of jokes about lizard creature sex, Neanderthal bonding rituals and almost too many crazy dealings with a "smart dinosaur." Best to set aside your inner critic and take a sense of humor and expect nothing to be all scientific, hoity-toity sensible in this film, and then, believe me, Land of the Lost is just what a summer movie should be: hella fun, and an experience that'll leave you laughing a bit even after you leave the theater. Worth it, I'd say.

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