Land Ho! Review
RYAN: I’d like to welcome Erik Grobben to the site – we met at a recent Harry Potter party (he was working the Professor Lupin look, and I, HP) and we basically talked about movies for two hours and agreed on them so I had to have you review some with me! You had seen the trailer for Land Ho!, I had not; there’s no one famous in it and that forces you to have basically no preconceived notions and not many expectations so that’s kind of refreshing. For al practical purposes, these people are these characters. Earl Lynn Nelson steals the show and it’s really his first leading role. He’s so natural, endearing and also off-putting. Impressive.
ERIK: I agree that he shined the brightest. He and his costar, Paul Eenhoorn, play off of each other really well. The initial hook, for me, was that they’re so different. One is loud, crude, funny, flirtatious, bombastic, and the other guy is quiet. They call him an artist several times. They’re very different. As the movie goes on there’s a funny dynamic between them.
RYAN: It’s certainly a comedy and while we weren’t LOLing, I was smiling at times or giggling on the inside. They really are the odd couple. It’s a chemistry that clicks. You really buy they’re old friends who’ve known each other forever. It’s a great rapport. And whenever there were supporting cast around them…
ERIK: That was good…
RYAN: Yeah it was a nice break in the energy just between the two men; but the supporting cast wasn’t was talented.
ERIK: Right. It was almost like the director just found people on the street to do those roles.
RYAN: They’re not the most experienced actresses.
ERIK: Yeah the photographer woman was sort of a non-character, unremarkable.
RYAN: What the hell was going on with the score?! It was terrible.
ERIK: Distractingly bad.
RYAN: it was never underscored, it was just used as a transitional device and totally stood out, glaringly, from the rest of the film. It made the film feel even more foreign and strange. They were in Iceland.
ERIK: One of them was American, the other Australian, but we don’t really know where they were coming from.
RYAN: It was beautiful to see Iceland. Many shots looked like big postcards. Some of the camerawork was awkward but actually worked with the film.
ERIK: In the hot springs scene, the camera was at the back of his head.
RYAN: Yeah the same in some of the car scenes. Interesting choices but also, maybe just budgetary constraints.
ERIK: It reminded me of the Paul Rudd movie Prince Avalanche because its director, David Gordon Green, is an executive producer on this film. That’s also two characters talking to each other with nature shots and dialogue and the location isn’t as important as the dynamic.
RYAN: It’s a good script and has a real joie de vivre to it which I liked; but it feels very episodic. It would have been a nice TV miniseries. If you like indie, quirky movies, it’s cute.
