Land of the Lost - Back When Stoner Comedies Cost $100 Million

Travel back to a time when mostly-forgotten IPs were turned into vehicles for SNL comedians. Will Ferrell had graduated from sketch comedy and George W. Bush impersonations to leading hits like Elf and Old School. His star had risen so high that he was cast as the lead in the upcoming Land of The Lost reboot, which would be a big-budget reimagining of the fantasy adventure series.

Unfortunately, "Land of the Lost" did to Will Ferrell's status as box-office gold as the comet did to the dinosaurs. Why did this concoction of stoner comedy and Lost World misadventures flop with audiences? How does it stack up to the comedies of today?

Episode Transcript

(00:31):
Here, we are. Here,we are. We have entered the land
of the lost in our quest tocover apparently every movie that came out in
two thousand and nine with a twopoint four rating. We move on to
our second consecutive episode of doing sucha thing as we talk about a Will
Farrell movie. I think this ishis first appearance on the show. Am

(00:53):
I wrong? Great question? Andwe have been covering more comedies, especially
recent ones that feature plenty of SNLalumni. So I can't say that with
authority, but it certainly sounds true. This is Will Ferrell and Danny McBride's
first appearance on the show as anactor, as a performer. Yes,

(01:19):
and it'll be interesting to get into. Danny McBride is a figure who I
feel like, for a while waspretty well liked, and then over time
both comedy fans and horror fans havereasons to complain about the guy. It'll
be interesting to see if we haveany of those same complaints as we talk
about this movie. But you know, here, we are, Here,

(01:41):
we are. We are not thatbad. We are deep into season two,
getting deeper and deeper with every episode. My name is Connor aka doctor
Dick. Marshall and I, ofcourse, am joined by my everyday co
host, the illustrious Gabe Tye Gabe, how are you doing on this on
this wonderful day we have today?Well, I'm about to cancel you for

(02:04):
that that Chicago Mohawks bald cap yougot on, and that'll be the black
ewe you put on your black Hawks. Sorry, are you going to cancel
me? Now? Yes? Verymuch so. Now, but I'm feeling
energized. I just watched a moviewith dinosaurs and aliens and Will Ferrell,
so I have plenty to talk about. Yeah. This film Land of the

(02:31):
Lost based on a television series fromthe nineteen seventies. Yes, famous sci
fi television series. I'd say,you know, well, when this movie
came out and I was but achild, I had no knowledge or recollection
of the original show. I thinkthat would go for most people who were

(02:53):
not alive in the nineteen seventies.Oh yeah, and now I'm curious,
going back on for our listeners,what was, if at all, your
background with this Sland of the Lostmovie. I can actually vividly remember seeing
the trailer in theaters and being reallyexcited for it. It had two of

(03:15):
my favorite things as a child.First it had dinosaurs. That's a big
thing, and this is fresh offof the King cong remake by Peter Jackson.
Yes, felt like I was gettingthis whole toy box of dinosaur movies,
a renaissance of kind of you know, lost world dinosaur movies. It

(03:38):
was. It felt magical at thetime. And then it also had Will
Ferrell, who was one of myfavorite actors, one of my favorite comedians,
and just one of my favorite peopleas a kid. Like let's go
back to the two thousands. Ifeel like Will Ferrell is a is a
really big figure in just the worldof comedy. In the odds right,

(04:02):
he gets famous on SNL, hasa lot of really beloved characters, has
an amazing impression of George W.Bush that kind of supplants the real George
W. Bush as the Bush weall really remember. So then Will Ferrell
is one of those SNL guys thatactually does break it. He breaks into

(04:26):
the mainstream, He breaks into moviesin a big way. Step Brothers comes
a little later, But what Iprimarily loved him for was a little movie
called Elf, which I would argueis the last great Christmas movie, the
last great original Christmas movie for anew generation. And then Will Ferrell also

(04:49):
starts proving his dramatic talents with movieslike Stranger than Fiction. So to me
as a kid, he was actuallythe kind of primary example of a comedian
with serious talent, with like deeptalent. He is a guy for a
long time that I really look upto, and I always look forward to

(05:13):
seeing his new movies, provided thatI'm old enough to see them, right,
because I'm still a young and andnot all of his movies are family
friendly. So I'm really excited tosee the Land of the Lost when it
comes out. And then I askmy dad to take me and he says
no. I say why, Dad, He says, because the reviews are

(05:33):
terrible, so we didn't see it, and it just never really crossed my
mind since I saw the previews intwo thousand and nine. Wow, and
all this time later, your firsttime watching it is due to a show
that talks about movies that are allpretty much poor. Not unlike doctor Rick

(05:55):
Marshall, I am kind of tredginginto a a land between space and time.
I'm traveling to another realm where Landof the Lost is still the big
summer movie event or one of thebig summer releases on the horizon feels as

(06:16):
forgotten as dinosaurs themselves at that point, Like it feels like an ancient relic
to me already, even though it'sjust from two thousand and nine. There's
something really interesting about this movie andmy hist like I grew up on this
film. I would say grew up, I mean by you know then I
was I believe eleven when this moviecame out, so you know, I

(06:39):
probably have seen it over a dozentimes. That's not it's not overstating anything.
My family loves this movie. Theshout out to one of our listeners,
Julie, who brought this movie tome. I've had this on my
list since the beginning of the show. But much like the movie in the

(07:00):
Minds of the Masses just kind ofkept slipping through the cracks. You know,
there were more interesting things to talkabout, more things coming up.
You know, our show, especially, we like to kind of follow some
trends sometimes, you know, ifit's spooky season, we'll cover some spooky
movies and things of that nature.So things get in the way and we
never got a chance to cover this. But as I sort of alluded,

(07:21):
to the masses also have sort offorgotten about this movie because it was one
of those films that, like hekind of saw it everywhere before it came
out, posters in the theater,trailer every time your favorite show cuts to
commercials. I mean, this wasone of those movies that just kind of
was showing up everywhere, as alot of Will Farrell vehicles were for quite

(07:42):
a few years. I don't feellike that's much the case now, but
like the two thousands, late twothousands, early twenty tens, like every
show you watched, you'd go toa commercial and there'd be some Will Farrell
movie coming. He was running thingslike he was on top of his game.
He owned the two thousands as faras you know, and the two

(08:05):
thousands people say that was the lastgreat era of comedy movies, of comedy
as a genre really kind of owningthe moment culturally. And Will Ferrell,
I think is basically if he's notthe face of comedy from that period,
he is a part of that newrat pack that was going on with him
and all the other Adam McKay regulars. But this, you know, I

(08:31):
mean not to cut you off,but you know there's something very important about
the narrative here where Land of theLoss fits in. I think this kind
of kills Will Ferrell the leading man. This movie's flopping, combined with the
fatigue people were getting from some ofhis more subpar releases that were coming out

(08:52):
around this time, like what Bladesof Glory. I think that's a few
years before this. Blades of Glorycame out a couple of years before this
in two thousand and seven. SemiPro didn't do very well, And that
was the first Will Ferrell movie thatI remember not liking. That's one of
the first comedies I remember consciously notliking see. But he This is what's

(09:16):
weird about Will around this time islike usually when you see that in an
actor's career, like that's once theystarted downslope, it usually takes them a
while to kind of spike back up, and they usually don't have a lot
of like big jolts in success oror at least on a critical matter.
But he did. I mean,like Blades of Glory didn't do very well.

(09:39):
People didn't like it very much.And around that same time he did
Semi Pro two didn't do too well. People didn't like it too much definitely
got Some Love a little later.But Step Brothers came out a year before
this in two thousand and eight.That's true, That's so true. Stepbrothers
is one of the most beloved comediesI can remember. And next year after

(10:01):
this, after Lamb of the Lost, in twenty ten, the Other Guys
comes out with Mark Wahlberg, whichis another movie that did fairly well.
But notice a trend here. Okay, Step Brothers and The Other Guys,
these are considered by he's got abuddy. It's no longer Will Ferrell stars.
It's Will Ferrell and Blank, It'sWill Ferrell and johncey Riley, Will

(10:24):
Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Not totake these these movies away from Will.
I mean, people still fondly rememberthese movies, and they remember him very
fondly from them, and probably someof his most cherished gags come from his
buddy comedy era. But it's stillquite different from Will Ferrell, the man

(10:50):
who made Elf or made Stranger thanFiction, Like he was the marquee name
almost unto himself. He was,I mean, he he kind of became.
He kind of stepped into a rolethat I think some people in the
at least in the comedy world,would have expected Adam Sandler to be in.

(11:11):
I mean not that Adam Sandler didn'tcontinue to have success after he started,
you know, after critics really kindof caught up to him and started
thinking the same way he thinks abouthimself, which is that, you know,
he he doesn't have any talent.I don't think that I love Adam
Sandler, but Will Ferrell sort oflike was the It was almost like the
torch was passed and he started hismovie started doing well, and the critics

(11:33):
seemed to really like them, andthe audiences seem to really like them.
And there there's always been the WillFerrell naysayers. You know, there's always
been the people who say he's notfunny, who say that he plays the
same character in every movie, whosay that he's humorous, childish. Around
this time too, in two thousandand nine, maybe exactly, he star

(11:54):
He guest stars in season seven ofthe Office, where he plays Dange the
Vickers, the man who will supposedlyreplace Steve Carell's Michael Scott, who of
course was famously leaving the show inthat season, and fans rejected this enmassed
they did like This was I thinkthe most public rejection of Will Ferrell up

(12:20):
to that point, because it's notjust that Will Ferrell has a vehicle or
he's goving off with his buddies andmaybe that you know that doesn't work for
some people. He is coming intosupposedly replace one of the most popular television

(12:41):
characters of the two thousands, right, And this is probably not really that
big of an episode in Will Ferrell'swhole career, but public perception wise,
it's easy to again to kind ofstart tracking those diminishing returns. And then
you get to Land of the Lostand I wonder, having watched it for

(13:03):
the first time in twenty twenty four, far away from you know, Will
Ferrell mania, I wonder, wasthis movie bombing a result of people just
getting tired of Will Ferrell. Ithink that might be an interesting thing to
look at throughout the episode. ButI mean I can say this like,

(13:26):
I mean, even the next hehad two hits. The next year,
I mean the next year, oneyear later he had two big hits in
the other guys in Mega Mind,which Mega Mind he's not. I mean,
his voice is pretty prominent, He'snot one of those guys. Will
Ferrell movie. Okay, you rememberthe trailers for this movie. I mean
it was a Will Ferrell product.Yeah right, he was as synonymous with

(13:54):
this movie as Steve Jobs is withApple Product two thousand and nine. Certainly
you're correct. Yes, So thereason I ask this is because, and
I guess this is spoiling my finalthoughts later, but this is like the
definition of a not that bad experience, like knowing people hated this, Knowing

(14:16):
this kind of stole the momentum forits star, and just I remember the
reaction being scathing, like what isWill Ferrell doing? He's embarrassing himself,
He's wasting our time. People weremad. And the interesting thing about comedy
is that you can actually measure,like numerically, how well the movie's working

(14:39):
for you, by the number oflaughs it gets from you. I laughed
so much more at this forgotten twothousand and nine flop than I do at
some of the more acclaimed comedy filmsthat come out today. What that says
is probably something quite depressing. Itmight just be a testament to the staying

(15:01):
power of Will Ferrell, who Istill do cherish as one of those great
comic minds of my generation. Right, So I'm gonna throw it back to
you. Your the person who grewup at this movie. You saw it,
however many times over a dozen Iguess, yeah, a lot.
How has your relationship with this moviechanged? Have you always liked it as

(15:24):
much as you have? Has itfluctuated for you? The what's the journey
there? So I went through aphase, and it definitely was a phase,
and I knew in the time thatit was going to be one.
But so I watched this movie.All of the times that I watched it
up until this point in time wasbetween the years of two thousand and nine

(15:48):
to two thousand and thirteen ish,so like it had been about ten years
since I had seen this and Iand the reason for that is because as
I started to get more into movies, I think if you get into movies
the way that I did and theway that I was looking at them,

(16:10):
you reach a point where you becomeone of the snobs. And I think
a lot of people have been there, if you're movie people. But I
did that for a while, andso Will Ferrell was a dumb comedy guy,
and I don't want I don't likedumb comedies anymore. At that point,
and then once I got back intoit, I just wanted to focus

(16:33):
my energy on the ones that Iconsistently remembered or that I hadn't seen yet.
So Land of the Loss was onethat even though I had watched it
so much, and like again,big in my household still quote the movie
to this day. I was actuallygonna have a surgery and because of this
movie. While I was getting readyto go in for the surgery, my
father said to the people who werehelping me, let me play his favorite

(16:56):
song, and played Chaer, doyou believe in life after love? Because
of this movie? That that's whythat's a part of our family, you
know, canon or whatever. Sothis movie was it was a big part
of it. But I took along break from this and from most Will
Ferrell stuff. I'd say I probablypaid attention to the stuff that everybody else

(17:17):
did, you know. I'd goback and revisit The step Brothers, and
I go back and revisit Anchorman,and I saw Anchorman too. When the
Anchorman, How could I forget Anchorman? Oh, I mean, it's one
of my favorite comedies of all time, is Anchorman. That's like, that's
a movie that's not only a classic, it's a coronation. Here you go,
Will Ferrell, you are the nextbig thing. All about down to

(17:40):
you keeep. Celebrities will be rushingto cameo in your movies, uh,
to get some of that goodwill.Uh. And you get some of that
here because the movie opens up withWill Ferrell and the now disgraced Matt Lower.
Yes, how well this movie hasa that the instant premise of the

(18:03):
movie is that Matt Lower is arat. Is it is a dick bag?
Dick bag you've proven wrong. Themof this movie is Matt Lower can
suck it? That the movie isMatt Lower can suck it? I think
we should just get into the movie. Man, I need to get into

(18:25):
them. I'm so excited. Soso, okay, we already established it.
This is an established property, youknow, as we get into the
movie. I'm curious now twenty twentyfour, Gabe, obviously you then know
knowledge of or maybe slight remote knowledgeof the original Land of the Loss.
No knowledge going into this movie atall this time around, while you're actually

(18:47):
watching it for the first time ofthe original show. Yeah, any knowledge,
feelings about it, anything like that, any connection that you were kind
of comparing it against No, No, No, the Well, what I'm
comparing this movie to again is thisbeloved genre of Lost World dinosaur monster movies.
I mean, what a cherished genreof film, just giving us hits

(19:11):
after hits after hits, whether itbe the original Silent the Lost World,
whether it be the nineteen sixty tworemake where instead of stop motion dinosaurs,
the producers, the cheap ass producers, got get gos, put them against
the green screen and had them fightone another. And I am not exaggerating

(19:33):
that one iota. Please look thisup. But then, of course you've
got the King Kong's, You've gotthe Jurassic Parks. I want dinosaurs.
I want dinosaurs. I want weirdmystical creatures. I want a good guy
monsters and bad guy monsters. AndI want a team of ragtag explorers that

(19:56):
nobody takes seriously, nobody believes them. I want them to be stuck in
this world and have to navigate it. And there is definitely a set of
expectations and hopes that I have goinginto this film just as a tribute or
a parody of that entire type ofmovie. Okay, And I'm curious here

(20:22):
you're a big fan of those andyou haven't shied away from that. And
I've always been somebody to say thatthose movies really weren't for me when I
was a kid, and I've onlycome around to those kind of movies more
recently, you know. And Ieven brought god Zella from ninety eight onto
the show, which is something thatyounger me would never have even thought to
do. So I want to askyou in that sense, you know,

(20:45):
before we get into the debate aboutthe comedy, before we get into the
debate about you know, the charactersand how they work in this world,
how did the elements of that sortof comedy, adventure, even some sci
fi thrown in there, How didthat kind of combine to that experience in
the movie for you watching this time? Well, the science fiction element,

(21:08):
just the element that you were sortof searching for in a movie, likeness
sort of that that comparison that youmake, how did how did it compare
to what your expectations were for themovie? Yeah, that is definitely the
prism in which I watched it,and the and you know, this movie
I think works on a couple ofdifferent levels. In one area where it

(21:30):
actually I have a more rocky relationshipwith the movie is is how it functions
as a parody or a send upof those original movies, because the humor
isn't really contrived from playing off ofthose tropes. It's it's contrived off of

(21:51):
the style of humor that Will Ferrelland Danny McBride have already you know,
made a formula out of you know, Will Ferrell, and this kind of
goes to what you know some peoplehave criticized him for I don't think it's
always the case, but you know, he definitely has a a style.
He has a sense of humor,and it always works for him, and

(22:15):
it always works for me. Hejust I guess because I grew up with
the guy. I have an instantaffection for his kind of like non sequiturs
and his weird delivery. I mean, he's he's a funny guy. And
Danny McBride could be the MVP ofthe movie just with his trailer trash or

(22:37):
redneck persona. He's like if RobZombie made a made a frat comedy,
he would create a character like DannyMcBride. Now that being said, almost
none of that has to do withdinosaurs or any of the stuff I just
laid out, So it's kind ofincidental in that way, that being I

(23:00):
can't tell you something that delighted meabout the movie, which was the design
of the aliens, and that felt, for a brief moment like the filmmakers
were allowed to make true an abashedlycheesy tribute to corny ass b movies from
yesteryear. So this movie succeeds moreas a Will Ferrell comedy with some you

(23:26):
know, interesting use of science fictionand fantasy. I can name a couple
of gags that playoff of those stropes, but it succeeds largely more on that
level that it does as a dinosaurmovie. Yeah, it feels like there's
so much more to this than tojust call it like, oh, hey,
look, Will Ferrell has a dinosaurmovie coming out. And I know

(23:48):
that that is sort of what themarketing played up. You know, they
very much played up the oh here'sWill Ferrell, and here's him being funny,
and here's some dinosaurs. But Ilike that that's not what this movie
is all about. I mean,and the Aliens are a perfect example of
something that just works for me.It shows me that they have maybe not

(24:10):
as much of affection for those sortof creature adventure movies, but definitely for
those those B movie sci fi vehiclesof the seventies and the sixties and things
like that, along with Obviously,the major objective of this movie is always
going to be and it was alwaysgoing to be playing to the comedy,

(24:33):
the comedic fashions of Will Ferrell andDanny McBride, and that was what it
was going to be. But Ido appreciate that there are scenes where you
can really see that there is alove for stuff that came before it,
and the aliens I think are aperfect example of that. You can see
the rubber on these things. Man, you can see it. Just you're
damn right when when they're stepping andwhen they're moving. I wouldn't have it

(24:56):
any other way. I wouldn't haveit any other way. I loved it.
It was it was see like,stuff like this make a movie so
charming and fun and not in likea demeaning way where it's like, oh,
that's so cute. You know theygot you can clearly see the you
know, the latex. It's almostlike uh, And people probably don't think
this is a fair comparison but it'slike Galaxy Quest, right. Yes,

(25:25):
the whole premise is we're doing asend up of a corny, kitchy,
nostalgic vision of science fiction, andwe are not going to shy away.
If anything, We're going to indulgein all of the the cut corners and

(25:48):
the weirdness, especially the weirdness.Uh. And that is going to be
the the the bricks of which weconstruct this, this magnificent piece of work.
This is not This is not afine, immaculate work like Galaxy Quest.
You can definitely make the case theGalaxy Quest is is, you know,

(26:10):
some kind of master work in itsown right. I know there are
definitely people who belong to that.It has an extremely devoted following, which
I do not a thing Landed Lossdoes. I'd be curious to meet somebody
who has like a Land of theLost tattoo or something good idea. But
you know, but it does.I mean, it does kind of approach

(26:30):
a charm like that. I readreviews where they were just going on and
on about what were the filmmakers thinking, who is this for? I think
the audience is pretty clear who it'sfor. And if if you think it's
silly or a waste of time.I mean, that's on you. But
I mean there's definitely an audience forthis, And you know, I was
thinking you of more movies in thisvein, like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the

(26:53):
Galaxy. Even Army of Darkness cameacross my mind a few times. Now.
You know, I don't like thismovie as much as any of those
examples, but it is following aplaybook that has been proven. It's been
proven to work. They can makeit work. I guess I can bring

(27:14):
up something that clashes with some ofthe positives I have, which is the
total eyesore that is most of thevfs in this movie, the green screen,
the uh, just the creation ofthis world. I mean, it
was way too ambitious, I thinkfor whatever the crew was qualified for or

(27:38):
what this director was qualified for.You know, they got a comedy director.
They didn't get Peter Jackson, eventhough they were trying to make a
skull Island of their own. Butman, I swear I could see the
effects rendering before my eyes at anygiven time. Like that's how choppy and
laggy and outdated it felt at times. Hmm, I'm gonna okay, I'm

(28:02):
not gonna completely disagree with you withhow they looked, but I will raise
this is the fact that this moviewas a little over ambitious, or seemingly
was a little over ambitious with whatit was trying to do. Not a
perfect tribute in its in and ofitself to those seventy sci fi movies that
were again overly ambitious and created effectsthat we only love today because of how

(28:29):
ridiculous they were. And I knowCGI doesn't have the same kind of heart,
but like that, to me,it adds to my experience while watching
this movie. I'm an extremely shallowcritic when it comes to this. I
have a pretty simple rule. Ifif you're over ambitious with your practical effects,
with your with your you know,costuming, your makeup, your said

(28:53):
dressing, give me more of thatall day, every day. I want
that injected straight into my veins.I want, honestly, if we could
have every blockbuster look like a forgottenepisode of Doctor Who, I would not
complain. But that's practical effects.If you take the same attitude and the

(29:14):
same sloppiness and the same over ambitionto Cegi, I want to stab out
my eyes. And I'm not exaggeratingthat much. It is just an eyesore
for me to look at. It'scharmless. It is, and not to
say the movie as a whole ischarmless, but gags that should land for

(29:38):
me, or even gags that Ishould be inclined to like, they rub
up against my eyes. Many myeyeballs are not pleased by the sight of
many of these visual gags just becauseof a A how much they make me
cringe on instinct. And again I'mvery transparently, transparently shallow on this.

(30:00):
Is there one that's really necessarily morevalid than the other in terms of a
viewing experience practical versus CGI? Notreally, not really, I'm not arguing
from that technical side of the argument. I'm talking subjectively what my eyes like
looking at and what they don't.And this came out at a bad time,
by the way, for for CGI, for CGI and comedies for CGI

(30:26):
in action comedies, adventure comedies.Okay, two years before this you get
Journey to the Center of the Earththree D. Talk about career killers.
People neglect to mention this when wetalk about the kind of downfall of Brendan
Fraser, but that's a big one. Well, I mean even like,

(30:47):
so I have like a soft spotin my heart for And I know I
don't believe you've seen this movie,I think in conversations, but like The
Mummy Returns has really terrible the effects, I mean, like infamously, So
there is from this example of terribleCGI. I don't think it should be.
I think like Spawn ninety seven probablyshould be. Or the more people
saw the Mummy return, right,I know that kind of CGI has this

(31:11):
I have a soft place in myheart for. But like even like going
to the next movie in that series, I mean Mummy tumb of the Dragon
Emperor. That was one of thebiggest things I hated about it was the
VFX, and so I understand itto an extent. I'll say in this
movie it definitely added to it.Like I can think of every moment that

(31:33):
I that I thought the CGI wasjust absolutely terrible, and one of which
how much it added to my enjoymentof what was happening. I mean,
the There's a scene I can thinkof for a perfect example is that Will
Ferrell shows up to help save theday writing on the back of a dinosaur,
and first it just looks terrible rightthen, but then he slides off.

(31:55):
That's when I wrote in my notesthat I can see the effects rendering
before my very eyes. Loved it. It made me laugh so much harder
because if that would have looked good, okay, that would have been like
kind of funny because they were doinga joke with it. But because it
looks so terrible, I was laughingmy ass off, it was perfect for

(32:15):
me. This is the best wayI can put it. For sure.
We're talking about the difference between thewatchability of an Edward movie versus a newve
Boll movie. Right, Oh,both of those men both. I'm gonna
make the case because I think bothof those men don't have any talent in
the traditional sense. They have nounderstanding of cinematic language. But we affectionately,

(32:42):
I think, with genuine affection stillwatch Plan nine from Outer Space.
We watch movies about Edwood. JohnnyDepp and Tim Burton decided to make a
movie about this guy because they actuallyadored his work, his his cheap quick
hack job movies well, and TimBurton's use that as an inspiration in some

(33:07):
of his films, like I believe, infamously he referenced Edwood with that scene
in Peewey's with the headlights. Youknow that he's got the headlight glasses and
he illuminates and it's all these likestuffed animals. Yeah, I mean so
yeah, Yeah, the affection forEdward was very sincere in that movie.

(33:27):
You're never gonna get that kind ofa movie for Ouve Bowl. Who gives
a shit about Ouva Bowl. Imean, he might be a fun guy
to clown on, but don't tellme you want to have an Ouve Bowl
marathon, or that you want towatch a documentary about Ouve Bowl or be
in the same room as Bowl.He might assault you. Certainly not he
will likely assault you. That isa likely thing to happen. I don't

(33:51):
want to get sued, man,He's very likely to sue. That is
That is joking. I'm joking.I'm not scared to get punched by him,
and I'm certainly scared of him suingme. I'm joking. Well see.
But here's the thing, though,is I don't know that it comes
from the same place that it wouldin an Uve Bowl movie. Like I

(34:12):
feel I almost feel them knowing theirlimitations in this movie and just deciding to
do it anyway. And for somemaybe that doesn't work, and maybe I'm
wrong. Maybe I am, Butno, I think you're making a good
case. I'm not even disagreeing withyou. It's it's like going back to
the Godzilla ninety eight debate of theeffects on that movie versus the Toho Godzilla

(34:37):
movies at their worst, and attheir worst, the Toho movies look really
bad, right, shoddy, Soto say the least, to say the
least, Yes, And you knowwe're we're in a renaissance for Godzilla now
after Godzilla Minus one. You know, that became the first Godzilla film to
ever be nominated at the Academy Awards. But for a very very long time,

(35:01):
people have the same idea about Godzillathat they do about this Land of
the Lost show that's being spoofed here. But more important than the effects or
any of that, I think isour actors here, our core trio of
actress. So I think we shouldget into that there. So obviously we
have Will Ferrell starring as doctor RickMarshall. Yes, let's go ahead and

(35:28):
just get right into the question offunny or not funny? Is he funny
in this movie? Because there's aright answer, and there's a wrong answer.
I don't know that there is aright or wrong answer with this.
There is and this is coming fromsomebody who thinks he is fucking hilarious in
this. I laugh a lot andit's not facetious at all. I think

(35:51):
he's hilarious in this. He isfucking hysterical in this movie. That is
the correct answer. Accept the ideathat he sucks or blows or isn't a
I mean, if you don't likeWill Ferrell, that's one thing, but
this is not a fall from gracehere Will Ferrell. He's doing what Will

(36:15):
Ferrell does best, and he's doingit with with dinosaurs and aliens straight out
of plastic sixties Star Trek. Thoseare perfect scene partners for him. Which,
by the way, I do wantto say it before I forget this.
They did get Leonard Nimoy to cameoin this as the voice of the
Zarn, which is very cool.I just wanted to throw that out there.

(36:37):
Definitely shows that heart they have forthat, that sort of what they're
spoofing. I guess this almost feelslike they like they wish they could have
made a parody of Star Trek.Get the rights. Yeah, so they
they bought a much cheaper ip andkind of smuggled in all of the the

(36:59):
jokes that they won't that they wouldhave used for a Star Trek movie.
Now again, I haven't seen Landof the Lost. Maybe Will Ferrell is
the biggest fan of Land of theLost. I bet he's Actually I have
a point I would love I thinkthis is the perfect time to bring it
up. Can I veer into that. Let's do it. Let's do it.
So for those who want to condemnWill Ferrell for this movie, I

(37:22):
want to bring up a counter examplethat proves how what he's doing is working
compared to a similar approach that famouslydid not work, which was Seth Rogen's
Green Hornet movie. It's a goodcomparison. I think, did you see

(37:45):
that movie? Yes? I did, yeah, once, That's all it
took. I saw more times thanI care to would admit, Oh boy,
more time. And I think that'ssuch a weird movie. That's one
of the oddest attempts at at ata superhero movie that'll probably ever happen.

(38:07):
Really, but Seth Rogan can't interactreally with any of the actual Green hornetness
of the movie, you know whatI mean? He is permanently stuck writing
for himself and writing for anything thatwould have flown in super Bad. Like

(38:30):
him and Cato, they are almostindistinguishable from Michael Sarah and Jonah Hill's relationship
and Superbad. It's like Seth Rogencouldn't escape that mind dungeon. And you
know, I know a lot ofpeople really like Seth Rogen, and he's
had a lot of successes since then, namely the the teenage mu Ninja Turtles

(38:54):
movie newtont Mayhem. That was afine film. IM not sure how much
it's really good creative involvement he had, but he produced it. But compared
to this, there's you know,it's like you're watching actors actually work with
material, you know what I mean? Like Will Ferrell is actually there playing

(39:15):
off of the material, Whereas likeDanny McBride would make a movie right after
this with future Halloween director and antichrist. I guess David Gordon Green called Your
Highness, and I never saw thefull movie, But take any gag,

(39:42):
any equip or dialogue or whatever anddo the test of imagining. Doesn't need
to be in a medieval fantasy swordand sorcery parody, No, it does
not. It could have gone inany project by Danny McBride. So I'm
gonna say something that might be considereda bold thing to say here could be

(40:08):
considered a hot take in some formsor fashions. I think this is potentially
aside from I'll say, in thein the world of film, Okay,
I believe this is the best usagewe've seen of Danny McBride. I am
a Danny McBride fan. I justwant to say that first, first,

(40:30):
and foremost, I'm not somebody whojumped on the disrespect train as soon as
the Halloween movies came out. Iactually like that trilogy, especially the final
movie in said trilogy. However,I've seen I've seen some of the Eastbound

(40:50):
and Down. I believe that that'sprobably the role he was made for.
But what I love about Danny McBridein this movie kind of place to what
you've been discussing so far, butalso I think it goes a little further
than that, because he's able toplay into this material really well. He's
sort of your fish out of watercharacter, not really prepared. You got
two scientists and then some fireworks salesmanwho want to build a casino. It's

(41:15):
pretty awesome to see him kind ofdo that fish out of water stuff and
to play into some of the scifi elements and some of the adventure elements
in the movie his own way.His relationship with with Chaka is pretty hilarious.
I'm an example of what I mean, right, he has an actual
relationship with Chaka, with a monkeythat cannot speak English. No, but

(41:40):
they understand each other because yes,because that's that's what fine writing can accomplish,
right, yes, yes, Andwhich, by the way, is
is Yourma from Lonely Island who playsWhich is so funny? Now I should
bring up that I did. Ihate Chaka and I detested him a little

(42:02):
bit. Was pretty repulsed by himright off the bat when I saw that
he wasn't going to be as presentin the movie as I had feared.
He is not a jar jar binkslevel of of like shit on your shoe.
He is just he kind of popsup now and then I think for

(42:23):
very very well timed gags. Myfavorite interaction maybe in the whole movie,
is when Day named Pride tripping onsome kind of you know, uh,
jungle rooms, the jungle narcotics isasking Chaka if he's a cop. I

(42:46):
love the scene where they first meetChaka and and Holly convinces Chaka that that
Rick Marshall is some kind of likeGod and and that he needs to be
worshiped. He's like a king.And he's like, yes, I am,
I will be your master. Iwill be fair and this and that,
and then the dinosaur shows up andthey're like we need to run,

(43:07):
Chaka lead us, and then theylook down and he's gone, like he's
like he's like hundreds of feet aheadof them and all of that stuff.
Where where Rick is trying to bethis master to Chaka, I think that
humor works perfectly. Definitely strength.Yeah, where he's yelling you know,
bad Chaka, you know, it'sit's just it's ridiculous, like what are

(43:30):
they doing? I think I thinkone of his big styles, or one
of the big archetypes that he doesso well is the bumbling authority figure.
That's why he excelled at playing GeorgeW. Bush right right, like to
see this man child try and failto convince other people of his authority,

(43:52):
which is a pretty similar premise tothe Green Hornet reboot. It just,
uh, I don't know. Ialmost to do an episode on that movie
one day, but that would bedefinitely a post mortem because I'm not in
the business of trying to to,you know, defend that movie too much.
But maybe a guest will bring it. Oh, who knows, who

(44:12):
knows, Maybe we can do afucking episode. It just it's that bad
in Green Hornet. But you know, bringing up Shaka, there is an
ugly point that we have to address, right So I wrote down in my
notes right after Shaka's introduction, Oh, to be a woman in one of
these aunts bro comedies. And ofcourse I wrote this down after the extensive,

(44:37):
the extensive gag of all the menfondling Holly's breasts as she tries to
communicate with this native. We haveone woman in the cast failing to recall
her name right now, but sheplays Holly the scientists, who actually is

(45:00):
really the protagonist in the sense thatshe's the one responsible for this expedition.
She's the one who inspires the mostchange in our characters, and she's easily
the most competent, which is howthese douchey comedies of the era kind of
deflected, like, no, we'renot misogynists the women, they're the real

(45:21):
heroes, or they're really competent,and the guys are a bunch of you
know, they're bumbling assholes, whichyou see the logic of that on paper
for sure, But then you stillhave the situation of the highly intellectual woman
still falls in love with the schlubbyloser that, in the case of this

(45:43):
movie, almost gets her killed manytimes. Hmm, Okay, I see
where you're coming from on that,but I don't necessarily see it the same
way in this movie. And Ithink the reason is I could definitely see
where somebody would go a little bitfurther and say, like, oh,
this is a guy who kind ofinspired somebody who's who's sort of in a
position higher than them, who isyou know, eventually falls in love with

(46:07):
them, and maybe that power dynamicis off. I could I could sort
of see that argument forming for somepeople. But it's clear from the beginning
that she's got a fascination with thisguy's work because he's not just the bumbling
idiot. He's he's one of truthfullythe most brilliant minds in science in according
according to this world, right,And he's somebody who gets written off and

(46:29):
and she still finds it fascinating andbelieves him in his theories and puts her
career, in her life really onthe line for this guy. So I
could see this a little bit more. By the way, her name is
Anna Friel. She's pretty much knownreally well for her television series in the
two thousands, Pushing Daisies. Itwas a pretty popular show that got canceled

(46:50):
I think prematurely, if I'm rememberingcorrectly. But yes, behind that,
behind that show, Yes, andshe she plays Holly in this movie.
I actually quite liked the character.I thought they liked her too, thought
they treated her better than a lotof movies like this would have. Well,
it's really interesting that you say that, because she gets groped many times,

(47:12):
and halfway through the movie obviously tearsoff her you know, the legs
of her pants and strips down tojust her undershirt, so that the rest
of the movie she's running around barelycovered. She's, you know, navigating
this this mysterious jungle. So Iwant to like, I'm gonna meet you

(47:32):
halfway like of course, that's howthe movie justifies her attraction to Willa Ferrell.
I just like knowing women in reallife. I just don't always see
this idea of like a professional respecttranslating to sexual chemistry, like especially like

(47:52):
in the world of academia. Likemaybe I say this because my wife is
in academia, and I hope thatwhenever she comes across, you know,
somebody else's research that she admires,she doesn't also like start having wayward thoughts
about them. Hopefully that's not howthis world operates. But I can forgive

(48:14):
the movie for for the fact thatthey get together. I mean, obviously
that's the formula. You don't,you know, fuck with the formula.
I just think it could have itcould have restrained itself from some of the
more gratuitous moments. I don't mindthe dirty humor. There's a couple of
dirty jokes with Dannybride that made melaugh. I'm not proud of it.

(48:37):
Oh, I mean, I'm veryproud of it. I'm not above this.
I've said it many times in theshow. I'm not above dumb comedy.
And I laughed at the dumbest ofparts in this movie. I mean
that part where they're where they're alltouching, or Will Ferrell and Danny McBride
are touching that big vibrating triangle andDanny McBride goes, Holly, you should
sit on this. It's hilarious.It's terrible, but it's so funny.

(48:59):
I laughed my ass off every time. You know, that comes after one
of the best moments of the movie, which is when they start singing that's
the song by Chair Oh Yes,Yes, which I love. I will
again. That's a regular piece ofof of comedy in my family now because

(49:22):
of this movie. You know,every time I hear that song, I
think of this and I laugh,and I've added it to playlists specifically because
it makes me laugh. Now,of course that's a gag that it's funny,
removed from the I think, removedfrom this era of comedy. But

(49:43):
I can see how people who werealready tired of Will Ferrell's stick would have
been tired of that gag. Ohyeah, I mean, look, I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna say thatif if Will Ferrell's style of comedy is
not for you, this movie's notfor you. No, Will Ferrell,
I'm not even talking about like foryou. I'm talking about fatigue, which

(50:08):
is a real thing. Yeah,I could get that too. I mean,
I understand definitely getting tired of aformula or getting tired of I don't.
I don't subscribe to the thing thatWill Ferrell is the exact same character
in every movie. But I dothink that there's a lot of similarities.

(50:29):
You know, if you built,if you built a graph, you know
there would be some overlap there.But it's hard to think that a Will
Ferrell movie would work as well withoutthose things like that's what makes his movies

(50:49):
work so well. And and notto say that he's he he can,
you know, do movies that don'thave that. I mean, he absolutely
has shown that he can do that. But the reason that those movies are
special I think, at least,you know, based on what I think,
you know, a movie like Strangerthan Fiction is because it's an outlier.
You know, that's not what hedoes in every film. And I

(51:14):
don't know. I guess the questionthat I would have for you is,
at this time two thousand and nine, if you saw this, do you
think it would have played into anyfatigue for Will Ferrell? Do you think
that you're just one of those peoplewho can kind of take as much as
he can give? And now Iwill say ask about me, is going
to see this as a child intwo thousand and nine. Yeah, I

(51:36):
mean yeah, I mean, likeeven children can have fatigue from things.
I mean, you know, wewere probably probably both eleven years old when
this came out, I think,yeah, so yes, eleven years old
in two thousand and nine, andby that point I would have started discriminating.
I wouldn't have just laughed at anything. But I feel pretty sure that
I would have enjoyed this. I'msure my dad wouldn't have because I think

(52:00):
this has This definitely has like allof the things that people didn't like about
Will Ferrell, and I don't knowhow much of it of it has the
uh, the things that want himpraise in the first place. I think
it has some of that, butit definitely there's a lot of broad elements
at work. I think those arecountered by some really weird out there,

(52:24):
like truly eccentric ideas. In away, it feels miraculous that they were
able to get these into a majorstudio release, right like those Aliens.
Oh yeah, perfect example, perfectexample. So now I think there's a

(52:45):
lot of different elements of play herethat are balancing each other out pretty well.
And Will Ferrell is not is noton an island by himself. He
has really good chemistry with all ofhis co stars, all to of them.
Yeah, I mean, but Imean that's the thing, though,

(53:06):
is that even smaller characters in thismovie I think play really well with our
main cast. I mean we have, of course, you know, we
talked about Shaka. We have othercharacters in the movie though that even though
they're sort of playing a smaller part. I mean, Matt Lower is an
example. I think that Will Ferrelland Matt Lower even play off each other,
which is pretty they do. MattMatt Matt Lower is there was this

(53:31):
moment when reporters and television news anchorsdecided they were going to shoot their shot
for stardom. So right, Yeah, guys like Matt Lawer participated in and
in movies like this, and youknow, I mean, hey, Matt

(53:51):
Lower skeazy guy, but he clearlywas a good sport for his role in
this movie, and it truly waslike kind of a perfect bookending to the
film. I agree. But likeeven playing off of some of the other
things, I mean, like Enich, the character of Enich, who is

(54:13):
the disgraced alien lizard man who iswho is trying to take over, the
take over every dimension, who suspiciouslywears a tunic. I have always loved
that part of that scene where DannyMcBride the guy who. And that's kind
of what I like about movies likethis is that the idiot character is always

(54:35):
kind of the one that makes themost sense, but not the right way.
It's like when the teacher tells youto show your work and you do
it and they tell you that it'swrong somehow, it's like, oh,
I got the right answer, butno, that's the thing he is.
He's right for the right reasons becausehe recognized the tunic as a as a
sign of the seat, as asymbol of the seat, which is exactly

(54:55):
what that society meant that tunic four. So that shows you a couple of
things. Yes, this is thisis where like big brain screenwriter, yes
happens. This is where the bigbrain juices start flowing. So in one
joke, they have foreshadowed the truenature of this character of Enich, and

(55:16):
they've also foreshadowed how attuned Danny McBrideis to this society. Yes, and
you know what, like it's whatmakes the ending work so much for me.
But I want to say before Italk about that ending, because I
think it has to do a lotwith his character and how likable that character
becomes throughout the movie, and Iwant to get more into Danny McBride.

(55:37):
I guess in just the moment here, but I like that not only does
it come back that he's just anevil guy. Later they literally bring up
the fact that they gave him atunic as a sign of his of his
treachery, that that's why these likeelder aliens put him in a tunic,
And then Danny McBride's character is likesman tunic. The fact that it comes

(56:00):
back as a joke when it couldjust be some throwaway trailer moment is very
funny. But that again, thisis gonna speak to Danny McBride in this
movie. And you said something earlierwhere you said he could very well be
the MVP of this movie. I'mgonna argue that he is, because here
is a character that could have easilybeen the butt of every joke in a
movie like this, who could havebeen NonStop slapstick getting hit by stuff,

(56:23):
not understanding anything, dumb idiot characterwho just like happens to be right.
That's a trope that we get,but he's more than that. Man,
Like, you start to really likethis guy pretty much right away. I
mean when he's in the cave andhe's you know, Will Ferrell's like,
say what you will, but theman's a showman. And then he's like,
man, I'm doing all this coolshit for you guys. You guys

(56:44):
are giving me nothing. Like youcan see his eccentric nature, but it's
like endearing and every bit of humorthat's around this character, I'm laughing.
And some of the humor doesn't landin this movie, don't get me wrong,
but like if it involves this character, more than likely I'm laughing at
it. And by the end ofthe movie you kind of buy that this

(57:09):
guy is like yeah, I mean, like think of where he was when
we met him at the beginning ofthis movie. I mean, this was
the guy who was trying to swindleour two main characters out of thirty dollars
so that he could go from owningthis remote fireworks shop slash slash and he

(57:29):
co owns with a silence with amouth breezer with a silent ed helms and
just just he's trying to turn thatinto a hotel and casino enterprise where he
lives in the tip of it.There's two tips, and if his wife
makes him angry, he banishes herto the other tip to be a slave

(57:51):
for the rest of her life.This guy is insane, and then he
goes into this world of just absurdity, and he seems to be the only
one who's not getting caught up inbs the whole time. I mean,
he's having the most fun. He'sthriving in this world. And so when
he stays in the end, that'skind of like a weird trope in movies

(58:12):
like this, you know, whereone of the characters gets left behind or
stays behind because they want to bea hero or because there's no place for
me in the real world. Butyou buy it with this guy. Is
he is going to be a kingin this realm. He's already got like
six or seven women in his haremby the end of the movie, so
he's gonna be just fine. Yes, And you have to question the patriarchal

(58:36):
values that are being enforced at thelet's not even think about that. I
instruct all of you to turn yourbrain off at exactly that moment at the
end of the film. You'll bebetter off for it. No, I
mean again, he is the MVPof the movie. He unlike what the
trailers might have made me wary of, he never grated on my nerves.

(59:00):
If anything, he was something thatalways kept kept the movie alive, kept
it animated, kept things moving,kept the chemistry going. And he's also
the source of I think the real, uh, the real distinct appeal of
this movie, like every gag thatI think I will remember this movie distinctly,

(59:21):
for like Land of the Loss,that movie where Dandy McBride and Will
Ferrell trip out on on mystical uhjungle shrooms and you know, are almost
they're almost chased down by a crabmonster and then oh my god, Will
Ferrell makes out with you know,a missing link fucking he gets close to

(59:43):
it and then starts going, Idon't want to do it. I don't
want to do it. It's sofunny, man, And like that's That's
one of those things that could haveeasily been like, oh, this has
gone on too long, or like, oh they overstayed there this bit overstate,
it's welcome, but they kept findingways to make it funny. Like
the first thing you see is DannyMcBride fucking gigantic rings around his eyes,

(01:00:05):
looking dead into the camera. Yougotta be honest with me, you a
cop? And then Chaka just saysChaka. He goes, it's not an
answer, Chaka, that's your name, and it just it works so well.
And then and then it keeps going. And the crab thing is so
funny because they're all dead silent thewhole time. It's the whole scene,
they're completely silent. But it's likeeven the way the crab moves is funny

(01:00:29):
somehow. Man, It's just thatwhole sequence is is how I feel kind
of about this movie. It couldhave easily overstayed its welcome and been a
bit that went on too long,or bits that went on too long,
but they there are some bits thatgo on a little long, A little
a little long, I'll say,I think, uh, I think even

(01:00:50):
the ones that are still funny cango on long, and even if they're
not. Like the Bug one isa good example of you where Will Ferrell
is getting bit by the bug andI felt like by the time he kind
of came to and was like whathappened, I was like, Okay,
I could see this time around,especially like this went out but then Danny
McBride saved it for me. Seethere was a bug. But that's the
curse of the new millennium comedy.The editing has been lost. Go back

(01:01:15):
to classic comedies, kind of likescrewball comedies, maybe Airplane or one of
those throw it at the kitchen walland sees what sticks approach. The reason
those movies work is because the editingwas tight. There is hours and hours
of unused footage, and it's unusedfor a reason because actors kept riffing and

(01:01:36):
riffing, and then they picked thebest gags and stuck them together. So
even though it appears like, oh, they're throwing all the ideas out there,
no no, no, they're filteringout all of those ideas to the
best ideas. And I think theloss of that filtering process is probably the

(01:01:57):
thing that is most sorely missing frommodern comedies. Of at least film,
I think television has to be moretightly edited. So it seems to escape
that problem because they have specific timeslotsthat they need to film. But what's
the difference between an hour and ahalf movie and now we're in a thirty
five minute movie and now we're ina forty minute movie. Well you've actually

(01:02:19):
kind of dragged out some jokes thatcould have been like instant classics in my
head, Cannon, and now it'sjust a little diluted. Yeah, And
that kind of plays into why Isee more of the Will Ferrell fatigue nowadays,
and why I understand it more more, way, more than I understood.

(01:02:39):
Like reading reviews and saying that peoplehad Will Farrell fatigue in two thousand
and nine is crazy to me becauseit didn't hit me until like a couple
of years ago. And now Ido have it, and I do just
want to go revisit his classics.I'm not going to go see movies like
Get Hard or Stray or anything likethat, because those aren't movies I want
to watch anymore. But you knowthese like it's sort of surprising to me,

(01:03:01):
and and but I guess not reallybecause I can't think. It kind
of plays into what you said there. I think if you have enough of
this of a similar thing, andall of it is the most of it
that you can possibly cram into anhour and thirty minutes, well it's gonna
get tired. I don't know.I think the downfall there is also attributable
to just the downfall of theatrical comedy. I can agree with that. I

(01:03:27):
mean, think of how many movieshave come out over the last few years
that are comedy films that have beenboth commercially and critically successful, or at
least just critically successful. I mean, there's not a ton and they don't
seem to be vehicles for stars theway that no that Land the Lust is
a Will Ferrell vehicle or Black Sheep, a movie we talked about previously was

(01:03:52):
a Chris Farley vehicle. Now thatsounds like a lame thing to be nostalgic
about because being a vehicle for astart, it doesn't really I don't know,
it doesn't really incline you to bea good movie. But at least
it has a foundation for something,like at least it has a mission to
do something. And comedies rarely seemlike they're on a mission these days that

(01:04:15):
it normally seems like we're gonna get, you know, the latest actor from
SNL. Maybe we're going to geta wrestler like John Cena pops up in
a couple of these, We'll getan actor who was funny twenty years ago
and uh, okay, you guyshave to stop your daughters from having sex
tonight. No, well, wellsee, but that's why I think when

(01:04:40):
a comedy does come out and itis like the comedies that we used to
know and it's not trying too hardto do that, I think that's why
they're special to people. I mean, I haven't seen this yet, but
I hear that that Jennifer Lawrence moviethat came out last year, I think
it was called Those Strings Attached?Is that what that was called? Yeah,
I heard that went over really well. It might serience. There was
a movie that came out back intwenty eight, twenty nineteen, I believe,

(01:05:03):
yeah, twenty nineteen. Two comediesthat came out in twenty nineteen that
I really enjoyed, Good Boys andBookSmart. I think book Smart was a
good vehicle for those two. BookSmartwas really funny. It was not it
wasn't reinventing anything. But you don'thave one. But no, And that's
the thing, Like, just entertainme for however long you're keeping the movie

(01:05:25):
on for, and let me walkaway from it thinking that was funny.
I'm gonna watch this again. GoodBoys and Book Smart both did that,
but that was twenty nineteen. Wewere in twenty twenty four, and I
can't I'm looking through my letterbox.I don't see a single example. And
granted I don't see a lot ofmovies. Okay, I don't have a
lot of time on my hands,so so I'm a little behind on did

(01:05:47):
you see Barbie? Look here?I did not see Barbie. No,
Barbie was I heard things about itthough. That was the comedy of last
year. Oh, and of coursethere's the uh, super funny, objectively
funny comedy by by this really greatcomedy troupe of the Daily Wire. Okay,

(01:06:08):
I knew, Okay, all right, what I mean? Who do
you want? Do you want thewoke mafia to take over Hollywood? Do
you want them to ruin comedy?Uh? Land of the Lost? No,
I do want to ask you though, seriously, you know, kind

(01:06:28):
of going back to Land of theLost. I wanted to ask you about
some of the things that people havesaid about this movie in reviews that I've
read, because there were some interestingthings in there that I think don't really
play into the fatigue as much ofan actor like Will Ferrell that more so
played to this superiority complex. AndI'm gonna call it that because when you

(01:06:53):
read these reviews, just go toletterbox. Now, if you're listening to
the show or anywhere anywhere that aggregatesreviews from audiences, right, you're gonna
ultimately see people who believe that theyare above dunk comedy. And if that's
what their thing is, you knowwhat, sure go for it. If
that's not your style of the humor. Humor's very subjective and it's very important

(01:07:15):
in my mind to laugh and toenjoy life and you know, have a
good time, and if dunk comediesaren't your way to do that, then
all powered to you. Where Istarted to get confused is like where people
still go seevs knowing it's not forthem. And I read that a lot

(01:07:38):
in reviews, where they were like, yeah, Will Farrell wasn't for me,
but I like sci fi movies,so I went and saw this Will
Pharaoh's the start of the fucking movie. Okay, very rarely is he gonna
be in something that's not gonna playto his strengths. That's why he's had
the career that he's had, evenhis movies that didn't do very well,
the clips circulate of his scenes likeGet Hard as a movie that didn't do

(01:07:58):
very well, but his scenes arculatea lot. Kanye quoted or no,
he actually took the clip of WillFerrell from Blades of Glory and yes again
in a song he's my favorite partof Blades of Glory. And and you
know, I don't know, man, I guess the question that I would

(01:08:18):
have for you is audiences I thinkpretty overwhelmingly called this movie unfunny. Right,
this is a comedy movie. Ifit does not succeed, there are
things outside factors that might play intothat. But considering the reviews for this

(01:08:39):
movie, a majority of the negativereviews are talking about the humor. A.
Do you think this movie could?Do you think there's a justification for
calling this a failure as a comedyfor that reason? And B is there
any side of you that kind ofsees where these people are coming from?

(01:09:00):
Well, as I mentioned previously,we actually do have a metric on how
to judge comedies. It's by howmuch it makes you laugh. So as
a movie that made me laugh veryconsistently, I don't know how I could
say I didn't find it funny.I can't imagine the headspace of somebody who
doesn't find it funny. The humorisn't for everybody. I don't, and

(01:09:21):
if it was for everybody, thenit'd be a broad comedy that would never
find its audience. You know,comedy, You know, it can succeed
on a broad level, but themission isn't to be all things to all
people. Right, it's a WillFerrell comedy. It's I'm not super familiar

(01:09:45):
with the creative team behind this,but I read that Adam Kay almost directed
it, and I feel like thatwas the mindset, you know, like
like pre the Big Short, youknow, Step Brother's era, Adam McKay.
You know, that's that's what they'recooking with. It's Stepbrothers with dinosaurs.
It's the other guys with aliens.Of course, you don't have to

(01:10:06):
like that. I I like someof those Will Ferrell vehicles more than others.
But obviously I found this funny,and of course you have to acknowledge
that there's gonna be people who don'tfind it funny. Absolutely. There you
know, movies I consider to be, you know, the movies that have
maybe laughed the hardest. There's athere's a huge crowd of people that that

(01:10:30):
you know, say it's not funny. I don't know how you can say
that something is just not funny.Like people try to make it sound like
they're an authority on the subject ofwhat's funny. Yes, right, which
that's where we have problems. Butthat's just the problem we have with with
you know, film discourse or anykind of discourse really in general, Like
people act like they're the authority ona subject even when there's like, like

(01:10:54):
there's no way you could be anauthority on a subject like that. So
I guess I want to ask you, does it surprise you that it's that
seemingly a majority of people are onthe side of more non funny than funny
for this movie, I don't know. I think I doubt many people have

(01:11:18):
given this a chance since two thousandand nine. I think it actually would
benefit from a rewatch or a peopleexperiencing it away from the fatigue of Will
Ferrell. Reading some of the reviewsthat I did, you know, it
really seemed like like Will Ferrell wasthe target there or the kind of brand

(01:11:42):
of comedy that I think he wasassociated with. Also, I think people
this is back like we didn't knowwhat we were in for. People were
tired of reboots of like old propertiesthat nobody cared about anymore, and they
just didn't realize what was coming ahead. They didn't realize that they would have
to make peace with, you know, the reboot machine. So there's something

(01:12:06):
that like people were suspicious of thismovie, of the motives of the filmmakers.
Yeah, so, I don't knowhow many people have given it a
good faith chance. I really don't. I think this movie has an audience
for sure, it for sure does. I think this could be a movie

(01:12:30):
that finds its appreciation much later,you know, where kids like me grow
up to have kids and then theyshow it to their kids, and I
think, you know, maybe oneday word of mouth from this spreads enough
to give it a solid cult following. It's not there yet, and we
are god fifteen years removed from whenthis came out at this point, which

(01:12:57):
is insane to think. But herewe are, and speaking of here we
are, was there anything else thatyou wanted to discuss about Land of the
Loss before we delivered our final verdictson it. Oh, we've covered the
basis. I think it's time todeliver the verdict. I would agree,
and I'd like to I'd like tostart with you here. I know that

(01:13:19):
you sort of described your final verdictearlier in the episode, but I'd like
to hear like your overall final thoughtson the movie and give us that actual
I don't think I know. Ihaven't given you my final verdict. I
think maybe it'll be surprised. Okay, I'll hear it. I went in
expecting or or was ready for thisto be a chore. I was ready

(01:13:44):
for this to be a reminder ofwhy comedy fizzled out and has struggled to
make a comeback in a big way. And I was ready to feel embarrassed
for the people involved, namely WillFerrell, who has been much more successful
as a producer recently than as anactor. Despite how much I love the

(01:14:06):
guy, no no, I wasthoroughly entertained. I'm not sure if this
movie is more than the sum ofits parts, but the parts are very
funny, They're very entertaining. It'sleft me like this movie has more quotable
lines in its run time than Ithink a whole stretch of era of comedy

(01:14:30):
has given for me in the pastfew years. You know, we know
that comedy has struggled in the marketplace, and I think that's unfortunately because people
rejected this weird, kind of almostpsychedelic, bizarre vehicle for who was then

(01:14:50):
the king of comedy, and peoplehave almost been scared to broach the subject
of true theatrical comedy since movies likethis failed. Well, this movie shouldn't
have fought. It should be rememberedas a cult comedy. As this movie

(01:15:13):
with a real cult audience. Ithink it will find that one day,
however slowly that happens, and ifnot, it will certainly have my respect.
And that's why I'm saying it's actuallygood nice. Okay, I'm glad
to hear that. I know youstarted this by saying this was a not

(01:15:34):
that bad experience, so I'd hearso that's not what I meant. I
meant that this was the ultimate experienceof going into a movie that had a
terrible reputation and being bewildered by whypeople had something against it. Okay,
that's what I read of that.Well, glad to hear that. And

(01:15:56):
now here we go, Here wego. I got to talk about this
movie from my childhood. Gotta delivermy final verdict here and all right,
so so Eurovision, Blades of Glory, Strays the House. These are all

(01:16:16):
movies starring Will Ferrell that have ahigher rating than Land of the Lost on
letterboxed. That's crime to me.This is a movie that I have loved
for a long time. This isa movie that I will continue to love
for a long time. I willshow this to my kids one day.
I will tell anybody who hasn't seenthis before to get out there and watch

(01:16:40):
it. This is an awesome experienceand that has not changed for me over
time, over probably over a dozentimes I've seen this now. I said
that earlier in the episode, andmy opinion has not changed at all.
I think this is an awesome movie, and that is why I am going
to give Land of the Lost fuckyou all and actually great. That's right,

(01:17:02):
Land of the Lost actually great.Happy to say it might make the
list of of my top twenty favoritecomedies to watch of all time. Maybe
not best comedies. I think thereare better ones out there. But I
can watch this any day and havea good time. Yeah, so that's
settled. Landed Lost is officially agood movie. Yes, Yeah, get

(01:17:27):
back out there and watch it.What are you guys doing? Why?
Why when I look at this movie, are there so many worst movies in
my mind rated higher than this?Why why does no particular star rating on
letterbox has double digits? It's it'sin the single thousands of ratings. We
need to boost this. This isthe definitive movie that deserves the not that

(01:17:49):
Bad bump, and the fact thatit's not there yet is insane to me.
But let's get it up there.Let's get this movie an audience,
and I hope everybody has as goodof inexperiences as either one of us had
watching this movie for the show thistime around. Well, on that note,
I think it's time to take usup. But first, we of

(01:18:11):
course need to remind you guys thatthere are a number of ways that you
can support this podcast and our missionto reevaluate sadly forgotten movies like Land to
the Lost. So, of course, you can support us on Patreon,
where you can get a number ofgoodies and rewards for for your hard earned

(01:18:32):
dollars. We offer exclusive episodes,We offer merch like a sticker that you
can slap on anybody who is askeptic of Lan to the Lost or Freddy
Got Fingered, or my Bloody Valentinethree D any of the movies that we've

(01:18:53):
been defending, Slap them across theface and stick that not that Bad logo
right on their kisser. Or ifyou're a pacifist, you can just you
know, donate. Yeah, putit on the back of your car,
on your fridge, you know,your favorite cup, on a refrigerator,
laptop, whatever you want to do. Okay, put it there. But

(01:19:15):
yeah, but that's not the onlyway that there is to support us.
Of course, we have other thingsthat you can do instead of giving us
your money, although giving us yourmoney isn't always a terrible idea. Uh.
You can support us by heading toour website, Not that Badpod dot
com, where we have a backlogof all of our previous episodes. Pretty
soon we're going to be working onjust kind of redoing the website at least

(01:19:38):
organizational wise, to make sure thateverybody can find our season breaks and everything.
So really excited to get that rollingfor everybody. You can find bios
on your two favorite hosts and howwe how this show came to be,
and of course links to all ofour social media pages where we're happy to
hear from you. This movie isa good example. Somebody who I didn't

(01:19:59):
even know listen to the show,reached out and recommended it. And it's
a movie I've been wanting to cover, and so I was happy to do
it. And we'd love to hearfrom you, guys, whether it's feedback
on episodes, episode suggestions. Maybewe'll get to it, maybe we won't.
Sorry if we don't, and you'rewelcome if we do. But we're
happy to hear from you anyways,at the very least, if you like

(01:20:19):
an episode, drop alike on YouTube, share the video, the podcast version,
whatever you can do. Spread theword of not that Bad, and
let's give these movies the not thatbad bump that they deserve. So thank
you everybody for listening. And misterTice, would you like to take us
out? Yeah, all right,guys, this is not that bad signing

(01:20:40):
out. We are leaving the realmbetween space and time, heading to the
land of the lost, and we'rereturning to our normal lives. Yes,
So I'm Gabe, I'm Connor,and this is not that bad signing out