A scientist named Dr. Rick Marshall is being interviewed on the Today Show about a book he is writing. However, after violating the non-smoking policy, Marshall ends up getting into a fight with the host.

Three years later, Marshall is teaching science to some school kids. The children start asking strange questions until the class is dismissed.

Shortly after, a Cambridge alumnus called Holly Cantrell, meets Marshall. She shares how his bizarre theories have heavily inspired her. She even shares some items of hers related to that.

Sometime later, Marshall and Holly go to a cave park, located in the middle of nowhere. A guy who works there named Will offers them items in the store. Then he takes them through the cave on a boat.

For some reason, Marshall’s boom box got tagged along. It is playing songs from A Chorus Line, which displeases Will.

But the water becomes aggressive, and everyone is getting nervous. And before they can predict anything, they fall over a waterfall.

The three discover that there was a time warp, and that they are now on a peculiar land with mixed times. Not only that, but the boom box was also an amplifier – and it is lost.

The trio notice some ancient primates trying to execute one of their kind. Horrified, Holly tries to save the victim. She, Will, and Marshall introduce themselves. They figure out that this primate’s name is Chaka, and he speaks a prehistoric language – which Holly can luckily understand.

While on the journey, the four encounter a T-rex. And when Marshall talks insensitively about it, including it having a small brain the size of a walnut, it gets even angrier, thus more aggressive. The group decides to call the dinosaur “Grumpy.”

The next day, the four come across these reptilian demons called the Sleestak. The Sleestak monsters try to attack them. But they thankfully escape.

However, they come across an imprisoned Sleestak named Enik. Enik tells them that they must retrieve the tachyon amplifier. That will prevent the invasion and eventual domination of this thing known as the Zarn.

Chaka leads everyone to this rocky wasteland containing items and entities from different times. When Will gets excited to see an ice cream truck, he finds out that the ice cream is for the dinosaurs. It’s their feeding time.

A bunch of dinosaurs grab ice cream from a frightened ice cream man. But then they sense Marshall and go after him. Marshall defeats as many dinosaurs as he can—except that his amplifier was swallowed by one of them.

Later, the main four are on the outside of a nest with pterodactyl eggs. The soundtrack from A Chorus Line is lulling the babies to sleep. Once the music stops, the eggs hatch. Marshall and Holly sing the previously played song to get the young to snooze again, despite its upbeat tempo and sound.

Will, Marshall, and Chaka take a “vacation” by a “motel” pool and have fun. But Holly separates herself from them to solve more problems and clues—only to find out that this land is in danger. Even worse, she is captured by the Sleestak.

What will this lead to next?

Aside from being classified as a science fiction tale, this film is also considered a comedy. It had lots of humor that made me laugh throughout it.

An example is when Marshall’s boom box played a number from A Chorus Line in the cave before everybody fell over the waterfall. Will reacted by saying that showtunes could not be played in the cave. I found that funny because it was so specific. If he said not to play any music to avoid disturbing any other beings, it wouldn’t have been humorous. But it would have been more believable.

Another silly moment was when the ice cream man fed the dinosaurs ice cream. It cracked me up even more that he screamed as he fed them. It added credibility, although dinosaurs eating ice cream is obviously prehistorically inaccurate. If there were no humans, there was no ice cream.

As usual, the characters were memorable and well-developed. Marshall was sometimes not very bright, but he was also smart. Holly was just as intelligent but had more common sense. And Will was silly.

Chaka was interesting since he spoke a prehistoric language, but could still help the three people, including Marshall, who claimed to be his “master.” Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of his appearance. He looked a lot like a modern-day human wearing an ape costume. I feel like that was too lazy and primitive for a speculative movie released in the 2000s.

I would have understood this choice of appearance for Chaka if this film was made in the 80s or even 90s, when CGI was still in its infancy and more limited. But for 2009, the crew could have brainstormed a more advanced and appealing design for Chaka.

Another flaw I had with this movie was that certain parts were gross. I covered up those scenes—particularly the one where Marshall kept pouring dinosaur urine over his head. It got so disgusting that I skipped over to the next scene.

Otherwise, I enjoyed Land of the Lost. I admired Will Ferrell’s acting in this movie. He did a good job portraying a funny character.

Anyway, I give this film 4 out of 5 stars.