Fans of Will Ferrell’s random comedy, prepare for Land of the Lost, a comedic journey through space and time to a land of dinosaurs, aliens, and a primitive tribe of prehistoric monkey-men, amongst a whole host of other objects and beings. The entire film is in Ferrell’s classic comedic style of random, bumbling, stupid humor that, despite being not nearly as laugh-out-loud funny as many of his other films, remains an amusing and mildly entertaining take on the 1970s television series of the same name.
Ferrell plays Dr. Rick Marshall, a scientist who, after writing a book suggesting the possibility of time travel and subsequently broadcasting his ideas on The Today Show with Matt Lauer, becomes a laughingstock of the scientific community. He then takes up the career of a science teacher, virtually giving up on any dreams of becoming anything other than the brunt of his young student’s jokes. It is in this place of defeat and self-pity that Holly Cantrell, a bright young student from Cambridge University, finds Dr. Marshall and urges him to continue on with what is, in her opinion, his revolutionary research.
After a small amount of convincing, Dr. Marshall decides to continue on with his time travel project, completing the object of his many years of a research: a tachyon amplifier with the ability to create wormholes, allowing the passage of human beings as well as other objects into a another period in time. Ecstatic with the completion of the device, Holly encourages Dr. Marshall to accompany her on a field test to see whether or not his efforts were successful. They head to a cave with an unusually high concentration of tachyons. Unfortunately, the cave is owned and operated by Danny and Ernie, a pair of rednecks who insist on taking Dr. Marshall and Holly on their own tour through the cave. This proves disastrous for Danny, as the tachyon amplifier is started up and immediately successful in launching Dr. Marshall and Holly along with Danny into the past.
Once in this land of the lost, they encounter no small number of obstacles involving, among other things, a grumpy Tyrannosaurus Rex, a confused and timid monkey-man named Cha-Ka, and an army of hungry aliens serving a master interested in taking over the universe. Their chief concern, though, remains finding the tachyon amplifier that went missing during their time leap and figuring out how to use to it to return home.
It is obvious from the very beginning that this is not a team cut out for facing any obstacles at all, much less accomplishing something as complex as returning home from an accidental leap through time. They are a team of misfits and rejects. From Dr. Marshall, a man written off as a lunatic by the scientific community, to Holly, the lone student in all of Cambridge who believed Dr. Marshall was credible, to Danny, a regular redneck attempting to make a living selling lame, cheesy tours through an unimpressive cavern, and Cha-Ka, a cross between man and monkey who, although he claims to be a great prince in his tribe, recently narrowly escaped instant death at the hands of his tribesmen.
They are all together at best a team of less-than -average losers who by themselves have never accomplished anything that great. It seems an appropriate twist of fate that they end up in a place called the land of the lost. Up until this point each one of them has been lost in their own ways, looking for meaning in their life’s work or even just a place to fit in. Individually none of them were going anywhere, yet when they come together things start happening. They traveled through time and started learning how to successfully navigate a world full of dangers no average person would be able to survive. It is clear that their only hope of ever finding their way back to their own place and time in the universe is if they work together, not as individuals, each seeking his or her own glory, but as a team, each watching out for one another and working towards someday making it home. They are far more effective together than they could every dream of being on their own.
Although the movie as a whole is largely plot-less and probably designed purely to create absurd situations and get laughs, it’s interesting to see how even this group of misfits come together in the end to accomplish what they set out to do. As with any situation in life we are much more effective working together with our friends and fellow believers than we ever could be on our own. Christ himself said where two or more are gathered in His name He is present. We are not meant to face this life alone. We not only need a Savior there with us, but we need people around us to help us out.
Just as Dr. Marshall, Holly, Danny, and Cha-Ka were able to accomplish so much more when they put aside their differences and worked together, we need to help one another out and work together to achieve more than we could ever dream of by ourselves. It is good to be surrounded by friends and family who have our best interests at heart, just as it’s good for us to concern ourselves with the needs of the people around us. It turns our world, which can sometimes feel like our own land of the lost, into an extraordinary place full of hope, love, and possibilities.
