I haven’t yet seen Land of the Lost. I’m too busy hangin’ with my grandma in Arizona and trying out D-Box Motion Code seats (Grandma didn’t accompany me for that experience, unfortunately). But the truth is, I wasn’t planning on seeing it, despite my regular appreciation for Will Ferrell vehicles. After today, however, I’ve changed my mind, and I plan to check out the TV adaptation as soon as I return to NYC.
Why should I bother, given the abysmal 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the sad score of 32 at Metacritic? Because I trust the few positive reviews and defenses I’ve read on the movie blogs this afternoon. And to let the positive spin possibly influence you, I’ve quoted and linked some of these recommendations after the jump:
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If Tyler Perry gets an Oscar nomination for his acting in Madea Goes to Jail, can a washed-up actress scold him for taking away female roles? Actually, could it just be Cuba Gooding Jr. in drag, a la Boat Trip?
Seriously, though, Madea won’t be up for any Academy Awards next year, but damn is Perry’s character popular. Enough that the sassy matriarch has now evolved from a supporting character into the star of her own vehicle (which gave the filmmaker his biggest opening yet this past weekend). Yes, it’s true that Madea is a central figure in most of Perry’s films and has previously been the main protagonist in his plays (including the one Madea Goes to Jail is based on), but in the movie world she was introduced as a secondary role in Diary of a Mad Black Woman. So, now she belongs in that small club of supporting characters who’ve earned their own film(s); other members of which include Jay and Silent Bob, Bruce and Lloyd, Cousin Eddie, Marshal Samuel Gerard, the Scorpion King and Wolverine.
And Madea is one of the very few female characters to belong to the club, which is another good reason for an actress to scold Perry. But the problem also lies with the people who write woman characters, apparently, since in coming up with ten other supporting characters who deserve their own spin off, we managed to only include two females on our list. Perhaps if we’d permitted classic film characters there’d be more to choose from — though even then we might be more likely to include a Peter Lorre or a William Demarest role than a Thelma Ritter or Eve Arden.
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We got a quick, edgier look at Quarantine before an uneventful visit from the cast of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. And then the real entertainment began, as Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Amber Heard and Evan Goldberg took the stage for inane questions yet plenty of laughs.
Highlights:
- Though Kate Beckinsale is not in the new Underworld prequel, star Rhona Mitra says her skimpy outfit in the movie should keep fans satisfied.
- David Gordon Green apparently directs his actors with commands like, “do it like you’re taking a shit.”
- Coming soon: an episode of The Simpsons written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
- Rogen continues his career playing druggies and drunks with The Green Hornet.
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It’s bad enough that Hollywood has to remake all of my childhood memories (yes, I admit my childhood memories are mostly TV shows and movies from the ’70s and ’80s). But when they go and use CGI rather than actors and completely alter the way I remember things (man, that sucked how the Who’s the Boss movie featured a computer generated Mona), I just get so upset I could rant on a blog. So, imagine my relief when I saw this official photo from the set of Universal’s Land of the Lost in today’s USA Today.
Yes, those Sleestak look just as you remember. Only darker, more detailed, and a little (just a little) less like a costume with a human inside. But as much as I’d like to salute director Brad Silberling both for respecting my childhood and for shitting on CGI (which is still just too lazy a tool these days), the choice seems mostly to do with retaining the show’s cheesiness. Anthony Breznican writes for USA Today:
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