Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Lost in Translation

There is nothing worse then having a cherished childhood memory trampled upon by Hollywood. Such is the case with the upcoming feature film adaptation of Land of the Lost, the cheesy Saturday morning sci fi show from the cheese-meisters extraordinaire Sid and Marty Croft.

The live action series, which ran on NBC from 1974 to 1977, followed the adventures of a park ranger and his two children who have been transported to a prehistoric land via a subterranean waterfall. Befriended by a primitive ape boy named Cha-Ka, they must fight to survive hungry rubber dinosaurs and a lizard-like tribe of creatures called "Sleestaks" (by the looks of them, maybe a better descriptive term would be "phallic"). The show also had a bizarrely bluegrass, plot exposition-heavy theme song which instantly burns its way into your brain, never to escape.

As I said, pure cheese, but it was our cheese. Everyone I know who watched this when they were kids recall it fondly. Thus, imagine my dismay upon hearing that they are not only turning it into a movie, but into a comedy (an intentional one this time) starring ... Will Ferrell.

Why-oh-why is this one-note comedian so popular, and why does he continue to ruin beloved TV shows by turning them into crappy movies? You would think he would have learned with that bomb known as Bewitched. There is one bright spot though in this impending desecration: considering that the movie will likely be aimed at the younger set, at least we won't be subjected to Ferrell gettin' naked yet again. Or, at least I hope so.

Click here to purchase the original Land of the Loston DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via HollywoodReporter.com, Imdb.com, Albany.net, YouTube.com and Cinematical.com.

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