Everyone loves dinosaurs, everyone loves Will Ferrell, and the original series was a hit in the ’70s and ‘80s, so a Land of the Lost remake should have been a slam dunk. Instead, the 2009 film was a catastrophic failure that made the wrong type of history.
Now that Land of the Lost is available on HBO Max, could it finally find an audience that will appreciate its bizarre mix of a children’s show parody, a family-friendly plot, and stuffed to the brim with adult humor? The answer is no, absolutely not, this is one of the worst films ever made, and that’s the only reason anyone is streaming it in 2025.
Why Land of The Lost Failed
Will Ferrell was coming off a historic run with Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers when he played the role of quantum paleontologist Rick. Anne Friel was starring on Pushing Daisies, a critical comedy darling, and Danny McBride was about to redefine comedy for HBO with Eastbound and Down.
Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, and Danny McBride in Land of the Lost (2009).
The trio should have been the ideal comedic core for yet another remake, but instead of leaning into the camp potential of the Saturday Morning original, Land of the Lost plays out like a series of Saturday Night Live sketches they’d air after 12:30. There’s no other way to describe why “I Hope I Get It,” the opening number from A Chorus Line, is integral to the plot.
Will Ferrell as Rick in Land of the Lost (2009).
Land of the Lost jettisons the family of the original but includes the time portal that sends the trio to an alternate dimension filled with dinosaurs, prehistoric tribes, and Sleestacks, a race of lizard people used as a weapon for interdimensional conquest. Not even Leonard Nimoy, slumming it towards the end of his acting career, could elevate the plot and bring together all the disparate elements into anything slightly resembling a cohesive movie. Will Ferrell does ride a T. rex, so he can cross that off his bucket list, but the quest to regain a tachyon accelerator and prevent an interdimensional invasion never gets out of first gear.
An Epic, Box Office Disaster For Will Ferrell Thanks To The Hangover
At the box office, Land of the Lost ran headfirst into the record-setting R-rated comedy, The Hangover, which was a case of unfortunate timing for the adult-oriented parody. The $19 million opening fell far below Universal Pictures’ expectations, and the total haul of $69 million meant the studio lost $80 million. For a tentpole event film designed to be a Summer blockbuster, it was considered one of the worst flops in history and led to the firing of Universal Chairman Marc Shmuger only a few months later.
Rick and a Sleestack in the Land of the Lost remake.
Today, Land of the Lost is not a cult classic; it’s still a dud, but thanks to streaming, it’s also a great movie to fire up on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Movies that are “so bad they’re good” have become their own genre and given how most bad movies of the last decade have been more boring then ironically funny (outside of Sony’s superhero movies, because it’s going to be years before Morbius is dethroned as the best of the worst), it’s only a matter of time before Will Ferrel’s flop is revaluated. Until then, it remains a black mark on the career of the man who brought us Blades of Glory and Holmes & Watson.
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