Today’s Prayer Focus

MOVIE REVIEW

Land of the Lost

also known as “A Terra Perdida,” “I hameni ipeiro”

MPA Rating: PG-13-Rating (MPA)

for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference.

Reviewed by: Thaisha Geiger
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:	Very Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:	Teens Adults
Genre:	Sci-Fi Adventure Comedy
Length:	1 hr. 33 min.
Year of Release:	2009
USA Release:	June 5, 2009 (wide—3,300 theaters) DVD: October 13, 2009

Relevant Issues

Was there a “Big Bang”? Answer

Frequently asked questions about astronomy and the Bible—Go

CAVEMEN—Do they fit with the Bible? Answer

DINOSAUR ORIGIN—Where did the dinosaurs come from? Answer

Are dinosaurs mentioned in the BIBLE? Answer

WHY did God create dinosaurs? Answer

LIVING WITH DINOSAURS—What would it have been like to live with dinosaurs? Answer

FEROCIOUS DINOSAURS—Were the dinosaurs ever really as ferocious as they are shown in books and films? Answer

EXTINCTION—Why did dinosaurs become extinct? Answer

NOAH’S ARK—Did Noah take dinosaurs on the Ark? Answer

DINOSAURS AFTER THE FLOOD—Following the Flood, what happened to dinosaurs? Answer

Visit our dinosaur-size Web site where you’ll discover a mountain of knowledge and amazing discoveries. How do dinosaurs fit into the Bible? You’ll find the answer to this and many more of your questions. Play games, browse and learn. Includes many helps for teachers and parents.

GAY—What’s wrong with being gay? Answer
Homosexual behavior versus the Bible: Are people born gay? Does homosexuality harm anyone? Is it anyone’s business? Are homosexual and heterosexual relationships equally valid?

What about gays needs to change? Answer
It may not be what you think.

Featuring	Will Ferrell Anna Friel Danny McBride Leonard Nimoy Jorma Taccone, John Boylan, Matt Lauer, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Sierra McCormick, Shannon Lemke, Steven Wash Jr., Brian Huskey, Kevin Buitrago, Noah Crawford, Jon Kent Ethridge, Logan Manus, Ben Best, Scott Dorel, Sean Michael Guess, Dennis McNicholas, Chris Henchy, Kurt Carley, Travis Samuel Clark, Daniel George, Todd Christian Hunter, Marti Matulis, Tim Soergel, Douglas Tait, Patrick Wedge, Ana Alexander, Moran Atias, Jesse Golden, Eve Mauro, Pollyanna McIntosh, Ania Spiering, Paul Adelstein, Adam Behr, Daamen J. Krall
Director	Brad Silberling — “Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “City of Angels,” “Casper”
Producer	Mosaic Media Group, Relativity Media, Marty Krofft, Sid Krofft, Jimmy Miller, Joshua Church, Jessica Elbaum, Daniel Lupi, John Swallow, Julie Wixson Darmody
Distributor	Universal Pictures

“Space-time vortexes suck.”

Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) became the laughing stock of the science community after losing his cool with Matt Lauer. His theory of parallel dimensions was classified as nonsense by all except for one Cambridge scientist named Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel). Holly encourages Rick to build his invention that would transport them to another dimension and finally restore his name. Transporting to the other dimension is easy, but finding the transporting device and trying to defeat T-Rex prove to be the tricky parts.

“Land of the Lost” aims to be a screwball comedy, and it succeeds. The scenery is so far-fetched and exaggerated, and the acting not even realistically in the realm of truth. However, it works. The beef between Dr. Marshall and T-Rex was very original and comedic, especially how T-Rex apparently understands English. With that in mind, this film had the massive potential to be an utterly charming, hilarious movie. What’s the catch? While “Land of the Lost” is appropriately hysterical in a few scenes, the majority of it is highly and pervasively crude.

Offensive Content

So much offense is in this movie that to list everything would take too much space. In short, there are over 50 uses of profanity, and God’s name is profaned over 30 times. Ferrell whispers “f__k you” to the Cha-Ka; the sexually derogative “p__y” and “d__k” are used as well. However, that isn’t the end of it.

The sexual crudeness in the film is also constantly present throughout. From an implied masturbation to women-breast coffee cups for sale, the sexual crudeness is deeply saturated from almost start to finish. Most of the crudeness is aimed at Holly. She’s suggested to sit on top of a vibrating crystal, warned that the tour might make her wet, and has her breasts groped repeatedly. Near the end of the film, almost-naked women are shown whose privates are barely covered by very short grass skirts and long hair. The camera zooms in on their body parts, leaving very little to the imagination.

There are two statements about which I felt need to comment. During one of his battles with T-Rex, Dr. Marshall lights dynamite and asked for it to explode, just as the Big Bang theory exploded. Awesomely, it did not explode. I found this humorous and a factual statement. God and science are perfectly in sync; I encourage anyone to look up the scientific facts in the Bible; an excellent start would be the film “Expelled” and the links provided in this review. God Himself created us, not some random explosion.

Secondly, Dr. Marshall told Cha-Ka that he had more love for him than Jesus did for all the billions He died on the cross for. While I imagine this statement might offend some, I found it to be highly absurd. In Matthew 27, Matthew wrote that after Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, the guards stripped Jesus naked and gave him a thorn crown and scarlet robe, mocking him as a king. The guards then spat on Jesus and kept beating him over his head. All the while, Jesus kept silent and endured the pain, agony, and humiliation for all mankind. Jesus knew he always had an out. During his actual arrest, Peter understandably took his sword out and attempted to defend the Christ. However, Jesus commanded Peter to put his sword away. In Matthew 26:53-54, Jesus said:

“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

In short, Jesus knew this death on the cross as a sacrifice for all was the only way. Whenever I read this Scripture, I wonder if I could have silently endured the torture, knowing how so many people nowadays misuse the name of Christ or make jokes at His expense. It is at those times, I realize, that we can all make His sacrifice worthy by our actions, living for Him, and completely obeying His commandments.

While there were some clean laugh-out-loud moments, they didn’t feel safe. Barely did they finish when crudeness was thrown in yet again, making me wonder if I laughed at anything potentially sinful. I recommend avoiding this film like the plague. King Solomon wisely wrote in Proverbs 4:23, “above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” It’s so easy to let down one’s guard for the sake of a laugh. Would wise guards voluntarily stand in front of an impending, yet completely avoidable battle? No! Likewise, we should wisely stay away and not fight unnecessary battles of sin.

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

Positive
Negative
Young people
Non-viewer comments

Positive

Positive—Well, I’ll admit, I expected this movie to be WAY worse than it was. “Land of the Lost” is one of the cleaner Will Ferrel movies to come out in the last couple of years, and I found it both hilarious and relatively tame compared to other PG-13 flicks. There are a couple of “GDs” (which I find highly offensive) but they were both within the first couple of minutes, and I don’t recall much swearing after that. The sexual content was moderate, but more goofy and quirky as opposed to downright perverted. (I’ve seen PG films with more disturbing sexual content than this.) The sexual coffee mugs were a little gross (but they were just an over-the-top, silly, cartoon, rendering of breasts… you could easily just avert your eyes and avoid the whole issue.) Sure, don’t take your little kids to see this, but I would say 13 and up would be totally fine with this film (just explain the stuff they don’t understand!)
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 4

Jared, age 18 (USA)

Negative

Negative—This film would have been silly and funny without all the expletives and sexual stuff. My husband and I watched this film because it was part of a double feature, glad we didn’t have to pay for it! We did find certain parts funny, but this is not a film for our teen… or anyone else’s.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3½

Cathy T, age 37 (USA)

Negative—I have never written a review before, however, this movie was such a huge let down for me that I really wanted to keep anyone from spending any of God’s money that we are to be good stewards of on!

I was a big fan of the TV show and this movie doesn’t even remotely follow that, but the worst thing about it was that it was so extremely offensive! I saw more people walk out of this movie than I have ever seen. Please, Please, Please trust the reviewers here and do not go see this trashy, foul-mouthed movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3

Laura M Boggs, age 47 (USA)

Negative—This film is not worth spending your money on. We found it boring, and, also, several scenes were offensive.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1½

Bonnie, age 57 (USA)

Negative—This movie was beyond vulgar for a pg-13 movie. When Anna Friel met Chaka (the primate), she introduced herself and touched her chest to imitate “me, my name is Holly.” So in the next 3 scenes, when Chaka was speaking to her, he purposefully grabbed her breast when speaking to her…and held onto it for a few seconds, grinning from ear to ear. Chaka also grabbed Will Ferrell’s crotch while grinning. In another scene Will was “dared” to “french kiss” Chaka the primate after they had all drank fruit juice that was obviously narcotic. My teenage son said it was a vulgar movie, about 15 minutes into the movie. The movie was filled with sexual innuendo and is not what it appears in the movie trailer. A movie in poor taste.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5

Bd Hoo, age 40 (USA)

Negative—It is not necessary to have sexual inferences throughout the movie, there is also a comment about the big bang theory, a character in the main role of a “primate” the Gd and F y words are used there are references to men french kissing with men etc. The mention that a character loves the other guys more than Jesus loved on the cross is just not possible (see John 15:13). I pray the people involved with this movie would know the God of love Jesus Christ of Nazareth then they too would have more respect for themselves and others. References to Jesus and Buddha all in the name of comedy it is simply not necessary It would be so nice to be able to go to the movies and see a great comedy minus the smut. Due to these offenses I can’t recommend this movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½

Maureen, age 48 (USA)

Negative—I went and saw this movie earlier, and it was so bad me and my worker eventually got up and left before it ended, even though I knew that God wanted me out of that theater for many scenes.

In my opinion, this movie is to be rated R, or at least 18A. For what I’ve seen, there is not just language, and repeated use of The Lord’s Name in Vain, but repeated sexual touching, innuendo, and even a scene of nudity on certain drinking mugs which was pointed out on the mugs in a store in the movie. (When that scene came on, I heard young girls sitting near beside me all gasp) It also consisted of narcotic use, (From a strange alien plant) followed by a conversation regarding to a homosexual act, and so on. Me and my worker got up and left near the end of the movie, when these weird alien creatures were getting ready to “make out.”

I would not recommend this movie to anyone. This is also definitely not a family movie. I had bad feelings about seeing the movie, and I need to learn to trust God’s voice and my instincts more often.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3½

Veryan Erwin, age 20 (Canada)

Negative—…The cast starts out swearing and no curse word or crude language is left unturned; including a whispered F-word. I was amazed that anyone would think that this movie was okay for children under 13 years of age to watch. There were many very crude moments, one of which included a drinking cup in the form of, and painted, like a woman’s breasts being offered for sale to two of the characters with the comment that it was the perfect woman (big breasts and no head).

I took my 8 and 11 year old to see this movie because I had told them about the original show that my little sister and I used to watch every Saturday morning as children. That show was wholesome and creative and held our interest easily. This, aside from a few verbatim quotes from the original theme song, was not at all like that show. After the first 15 minutes, my husband took our children to see “Up” again and we decided I would stay so that I could give a completely informed opinion on this movie. Do NOT trust the rating on this movie—…closer to an “R” rated.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3

Mickie, age 44 (USA)

Negative—I saw this, today, on opening day, 6/5/09, at the very first showing time. As the show was a favorite of mine as a kid, I was looking forward to this movie. Sadly—it was more like a crude Adam Sandler movie, than a tribute to the kid’s show. Don’t read ahead if you don’t want any spoilers!!!

On direct “religious” references—there was “G-D” and “J-C” exclaimed during the movie. One of the most blatant and sinful references I’ve ever heard—was Will Ferrell/main character told the monkey boy at one point ( I may not have the words exact—but very close!): “I love you a billion times more than Jesus loved his people when he was on the cross.”

On the crudity subject: Both main male characters refer to (and do) about “putting their hands down their pants” frequently throughout the movie. Many times, the monkey boy and secondary male character grope the female lead’s chest. The secondary male character makes several very lewd comments/jokes (although I don’t give the remarks that much credit) about the female lead—I won’t repeat them here. Also—beware—there are more than a few scenes where they are implying male homosexual acts and behaviors. Also a scene where they dare the main character to kiss the monkey boy. As usual—Will Ferrell does appear in his underwear—which seems to be a strange habit of his.

On the violence front: There are exploding dinosaurs and one scene that could literally traumatize children—where an ice cream man, in his ice cream truck, with the cutesy ice cream truck music playing—gets ripped apart by dinosaurs—you don’t see it directly—but they do show a dinosaur with just an arm in it’s mouth.

On the nudity subject: At the end—the secondary male character stays to live with the monkey boy’s civilization and he is “rewarded” in the story line by a bevy of human (not monkeys—like the males are—that didn’t make sense—except for their sick motives as follows)—super-model-looking young women dressed in cave-man mini skirts and with no shirts on—just their long hair covering their chests. And, of course, some of them turn sideways, and you can almost see everything.

The story was ok—this had the potential to be such a great and fantastic movie—especially for the kids. It was ruined by being so pervasively crude, with the occasional graphic violence thrown in—and the insulting half-nudity at the end.

An abject failure in my opinion, both my husband and I said we wished we wouldn’t have wasted our money. Buyer/Viewers Beware.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4

Paulette, age 44 (USA)

Negative—We viewed this movie, and beyond the vulgar language every 10 seconds, the GD (God D***) phrase was more than I could take. The sexual humor was crude, not funny. The movie lacked depth. I am a stupid/funny movie lover, yet did not love this movie. I leave grateful for one thing… it definitely gave me a new gauge for what they allow in PG13 movies. My thirteen year old was offended, and I truly felt true remorse for subjecting him to that. The preview for Nine came on before the movie, and the preview for that movie to me was rated R, I’m not sure what the content will be like.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½

Stacie, age 35 (USA)

Negative—This movie was terrible and I was embarrassed that I attended it with a group of Freshman from our school. There were so many curse words, GD, B*stard, and even an f-bomb. The sexual overtone was extreme. A character repeated grabs someone’s breast and then another’s crotch. The same character humps on others and later is nearly involved in a gay kiss. They drink a beverage that makes then drunk and many men are seen in underwear at crotch level. They drink pee, someone gets pooped out of a dinosaur, and they repeatedly sing a song that says “God, I hope I get it” (from “A Chorus Line”) near the end, there are topless women with hair over their breasts and whose bottoms you can see. I was horrified. My 15 year old called it “perverted;” I would not recommend that anyone see this. Also, there were many with much younger children in the theater, obviously the parents thought it was a kids funny movie which it isn’t. Save yourself the money—avoid this horrible movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1½

Tonnia Phelps, age 38

Negative—This could have been an above average film; it isn’t. It is sorely disappointing overall. The basic premise of the file; i.e. inter-dimensional travel offers a plethora of situations for humor and character interaction—see the latest “Star Trek.” While there are a couple of very funny scenes, most of the “humor” is puerile at the best. The dialog is generally sophomoric. The comments about Jesus and the “Big Bang Theory” were gratuitous as were the various sexual references not advancing the story. My wife and I, after discussing the film, agreed that we should have gotten up and walked out before the end. We were hoping that it would get better—It didn’t. We feel that we wasted our money.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½

David, age 67 (USA)

Negative—We walked out of this movie. I would not recommend it to anyone. It should have been rated R. I am a comedy nut, but from the moment this movie started it was just bad. It was stupid and offensive, and not funny. I left the theater feeling like the people who rated this movie, and the people who made the trailer owed me my money and the time I wasted on this film.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4

Mindy, age 30 (USA)

Negative—I must comment about Ferrell’s love compared to our Lord’s love. Making light of the greatest sacrifice of all time can not go unchallenged. Do not pay to see this movie!!!…
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3

Terry Boevers, age 54 (USA)

Negative—This movie is a prime example of commercial previews showing all the good parts. I was extremely disgusted with the movie and was embarrassed at the fact that my kids and many other kids were watching this movie in the theater. This movie opens kids minds to profanity and sexual ideas.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 2

Leila Sanchez, age 29 (USA)

Negative—Wow, I was really disappointed in this film. Unfortunately, I saw this movie without checking out the reviews first. I also had children with me. I was VERY disappointed. We did leave the move early. However, even after the film, one of the children repeated a joke they heard. This film wasn’t worth it. You will spend more time trying to explain the inappropriate behavior, then the actual length of the movie. Again, It’s not worth it.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½

Yolanda, age 30 (USA)

Negative—I took my 11 year old daughter and her friend to see this movie. They had asked me to see “Year One,” which I told them “no way.” I thought this movie would be a better choice or compromise, thinking it had a PG rating and remembering the TV show from my childhood. Well…the movie is very loosely based on the TV show and the language was terrible! Will Ferrell’s character mouths the words, F+++ Y++ fairly early in the movie. The movie went downhill from there, with repeated crude humor and sexual innuendos throughout the movie. Afterwards, I used this movie as a teachable moment, explaining to my daughter about how we must live in this world, but not be of this world. We talked about this movie, it’s offensive content, and how that’s somehow become acceptable to many people in our society. We both agreed there were a handful of genuinely funny parts, but overall the movie was unnecessarily crude and contained many inappropriate words. We will be more careful about the movies we pick in the future and more careful about checking the ratings as well. In my opinion, it should have had an “R” rating.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 2

Leslie, age 46 (USA)

Negative—My brother and I have birthdays only 4 days apart. On a Sunday, after church, we traveled from Greensburg, IN, to Columbus (Indiana) to see this movie. My dad thought it would be like the TV series. I thought it would be like “Jurassic Park.” I can tolerate some language, but this was worse than most R-rated movies. The movie was extremely vulgar, sacrilegious, and blasphemous. My family walked out without finishing the movie. Even the “Terminator” movies are better than this. Anybody who had any part in creating this movie should repent. A word of advice: Never insult the cross that Jesus Christ died on! If it wasn’t for him, there would be no hope for today.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3

Daniel Budd, age 24 (USA)

Negative—I just watched the “Land of the Lost,” and I feel slimed. I cannot imagine taking a child to see that movie. This movie looked funny in the trailers, but I would have to say it was about as funny as a public bathroom. I was left feeling like, “I cant believe I saw that!” The above review left out the worst thing about this movie. Either the author missed the reference or had too much class to mention it. I choose to comment in order to alert any parent thinking of showing this movie to a child. The real offensive thing that happens during the drug scene, was the allusion to the three men having homosexual sex. Later, when they see two lizard people starting to become amorous, they make another crude comment along the same lines. Please please please do not allow your kids to see this movie. And now, if I could just shake this “slimed” feeling…
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½

Annie Blair, age 48 (USA)

Comments from young people

Negative—This is a horrible movie and I saw only 10 minutes. There was about 3 gd’s a few b words and d words in ten minutes. We (My 10 yr. old sister, 7 yr. old brother and my mom) left after a gift shop was selling a mug with female parts. I do not recommend this movie to anybody.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3

Jason, age 12 (USA)

Negative—This movie was just terrible. I could sit here and discuss how abhorrently not funny it was, but quite frankly its late and I am tired. Anyway, there is no need to sit around and waste more time thinking about this abomination. As soon as the movie started I wanted it to end. I’m so sick of the horrid excuses for comedy that I have seen recently. People like Will Ferrell and Seth Rogen (not in this movie) are part of the problem. They get popular then make these complete garbage movies and somehow manage to make money off of them. Wowwwwwwwwwwwww. The only people who would enjoy this are those who are easily impressed and immature.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3

Brandon, age 16 (USA)

Neutral—THis movie was absolutely hilarious, and I think I laughed about every minute of the movie. Me and my friend saw this movie and we both thought it was really funny. I did think that parts of this movie were profanely and sexually inappropriate to anyone under the age of 13 or someone that takes offense to these kinds of things easily.

Objectionable Content: THere are about 20-30 bad words in this movie including one time where Will Ferrell whispers F U to Chaka. OTher profanities include when they land in the land of the lost, Will Ferrell yells, Matt Lauaer can suck it! And after he comes back from the land of the lost, he writes a book and the title is Matt Lauaer can suck it! There is also a lot of sexual content in this film. When they meet Chaka, chaka grabs Holly’s boobs and then Will grabs her boobs too. There is a coffee mug with boobs on it. THere is also a firework that Will calls the Mexican Vasectomy.

In one scene, Chaka shows Will and WIll Ferrell a fruit that gets all of them drunk. During this seen, Will dares Will Ferrell to french kiss Chaka. Also in this seen, all three males wake up in a position that looks like the three of them had a sexual threesome. Overall, this movie was really hilarious, but there was some objectionable things in it too. I would recommend this movie to anyone looking for a quick and easy laugh, but not to anyone that gets easily offended by movies or anyone under the age of thirteen, one because it is not appropriate for there age, two because they wouldn’t get any of the funniest jokes in the movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 2½

J. Coleman, age 13 (USA)

Negative—This movie was not good! I left aftter 69 min.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4½

Ethan, age 11 (USA)

Comments from non-viewers

DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE! I just took my 9 year old son and walked out within the first 10 minutes and got my refund! I could not believe how much profanity there was just in the first few minutes! And then they showed a coffee cup on the shape of woman’s bare breasts, and said something along the line of that being the perfect girlfriend because it had big boobs and no head… my Lord have mercy!! Oh, before that, they’d had elementary school children asking Will Ferrell’s character questions, and 2 of the questions from the kids were: did he (Will) take Cialis and do dinosaurs have boobs. Gee whiz, at the theater we went to here in GA, even the commercials before the movie were offensive. There was a Taco Bell commercial that looked like a sexually explicit MTV video. I’m just thankful we were able to get our money back… probably because we walked out within the first 10 min.

ChristianMama, age 45 (USA)

Why do people say that I would not bring my kid to see this movie? Well, you went and seen it. If I can’t bring my kid to it then I don’t need to see it. How can anyone that says they are a christian set in watch and hear our Lord’s name taken in vain over and over and over and Paid to hear it! Not counting the 70 or 80 f-words. Just stay home with your kids and go outside and play. I just don’t understand why they even review these movies. You could not pay me enough to set through them and hear the Lord’s name taken in vain and what if the rapture was to take place and I’m setting in a theater hearing his name in vain and paid to hear it. Something is wrong with that picture.

Jerry Trexler, age 55 (USA)