"Not a children's movie, but a movie for people with childlike minds, 'Land of the Lost' combines the kind of juvenile humor that might amuse a 14-year-old with a shoddy plot that wouldn't satisfy a 5-year-old. Worse, it wastes its two comedic stars, Will Ferrell and Danny McBride. You know something is amiss when Matt Lauer, playing himself, steals the show.

Lauer opens the film by interviewing Rick Marshall (Ferrell), a crackpot scientist who believes time-travel can solve the world's fossil-fuel shortage. As Ferrell goes through his usual boorish shtick, the 'Today' host convincingly loses his cool.

'Land of the Lost' then hastily establishes itself as a lovably hokey update of the television series produced in the 1970s by Sid and Marty Krofft (who also produced the movie). Marshall is no longer the father of Will and Holly, now sketchily redrawn as a redneck misfit (McBride) and a pretty scientist (Anna Friel). Their journey to the Jurassic era and their battles with the lizardlike Sleestak remain essentially the same. The ugly, cheapo sets also may date back to 1974.

It's hardly worth explaining the story, since Chris Henchy ('Entourage') and Dennis McNicholas ('Saturday Night Live') hardly wrote one. Instead, we get dinosaur-poop jokes, stale pop-culture references ('A Chorus Line' provides a running gag) and Jorma Taccone as the ape-man Chaka, who exists mainly to grope Holly. Director Brad Silberling embraces all things obvious: A scene involving a primitive hallucinogen is accompanied by Jimi Hendrix's 'All Along the Watchtower.'

(...) BOTTOM LINE Listen carefully for the voice of Leonard Nimoy - it's the only amusement you'll find in this unimaginative comedy."

How did you get Leonard Nimoy as the voice of The Zarn?

BRAD: It was a real simple idea. We knew The Zarn would only have two scenes. In the original series he had this great voice, so I thought we should get someone great, so if you don't know who it is it will have an impact but if you do it will be great because it fits into the science fiction thing. He was great. The first day I brought him into record. He was not tremendously familiar with the original show and you begin to sit and explain these science fiction explanations of The Zarn and then you think, "Oh my god. How ridiculous! Look who I'm talking to?" Probably every week on Star Trek they had these synopses that were the weirdest things.