I’ve been a fan of Danny McBride for a long time. In fact, more than one message board denizen scoffed at my early cheerleading for the hilarious actor, starting with The Foot Fist Way and my very, very early viewing of Pineapple Express (I saw it more than a year before it hit theaters). Now everybody seems to be catching up, and Eastbound and Down has only solidified my love for McBride and convinced the rest of the world that he’s the goods.
Land of the Lost – a PG-13 special effects action comedy – seems a weird fit for the guy who gave me the following phrase I use almost daily: “Gang rape. Meditate on that.” But McBride doesn’t water down who he is to play Will Stanton, a redneck fireworks and knick knack salesman who gets sucked into a weird alternate dimension filled with dinosaurs, lizard men and cavemen.
I talked to Danny backstage at Hollywood’s Palladium, a venerable music venue. We were in one of the dressing rooms and Danny was pondering just what sort of tonnage of coke had been done in that very space over the years.