filmland / By Charlie Myers

Land of the Dudes

After a night of drinking and inadvertent drug ingestion, the three wake up the following morning remembering nothing, but discovering a chicken, a leopard and a baby in their suite and no Doug. Of necessity, the rest of the film consists of looking for Doug, making phone calls back to the other half of the wedding party, and trying to ferret out exactly what happened during the night, activity that gradually peters out in terms of comic creativity.

The Hangover is certainly not the worst example of the genre but, as usual, it attempts nothing new. Rather than challenging the genre elements, it simply embodies them so the viewer is left to appreciate (or not) how well the stereotypes are fulfilled. The most interesting character is Phil, who projects an anti-marriage attitude but who is discovered to be a different and more complex person underneath. The least interesting part of the film is the appearance of Mike Tyson, who attempts to both fulfill his public image and undermine it but lacks the acting skills to pull it off.

The usual justification for films in this genre is that they cause you laugh and then belatedly analyze why you thought they were funny. That might have worked for me here had I been laughing more.

The reader is certainly welcome to surmise that my reaction here is due to my advanced age, but that conclusion doesn’t take into account my still immature mental age and the fact that, no doubt unfortunately, I probably wouldn’t have laughed any more at age 25. I didn’t have any friends then either. Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material. 100m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Minor and Fortuna.

LAND OF THE LOST: Clearly the Internet site IMDB reads the Journal, because Will Ferrell has now been added to the cast list. It’s good to know that I can make a difference as a reviewer, even here in Humboldt County.

Indeed, Land of the Lost is nothing but another Will Ferrell vehicle and the viewer’s reaction to the film may well rest on that fact alone. So, in that context, I am not a Ferrell fan. Some might want to skip the rest of the review.

Clearly the film is meant to parody some standard Hollywood film genres, along with the original TV series. In this regard, the film is intermittently successful, although quoting the famous line from the 1956 film Tea and Sympathy (“Years from now when you talk about this — and you will — be kind”) would not seem to resonate with the target audience. It must have been a sop for us geezers.

Ferrell is Dr. Rick Marshall, a disgraced scientist who finds himself ridiculed on a talk show for his supposed discoveries from the past. But he has one fan: a comely young British scientist named Holly (played by Anna Friel with a charming British accent). Holly urges Rick to complete his invention, a device that opens a portal into an alternate universe.

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE >SHARE