Gulliver's Travels

In the latest Gulliver go round ( there have been at least a dozen variations since 1902) we have a production of enormous precise detail vividly brought alive by state of the art special effects, grand set design and lavish costuming all crushed by the uninspired casting of the slobbering one note buffoon Jack Black in the title role. In his pudgy mitts the Swiftian satire becomes another heavy handed, predictable goof ball routine of sly eyed impishness and soft hearted sweetness applied in the same manner as in the rest of his "zany" canon.

Lemuel Gulliver sets out for the Bermuda Triangle to prove himself as a journalist and to win the heart of the girl of his dreams. Blown off course by a raging tropical storm he finds himself on the the tiny island of the tiny people, Liliput. Gaining their trust he is soon the rage of the land improving infrastructure and counseling the lovelorn. All goes well until he is challenged by General Edward and is humiliated before all who look up to him. Can Gulliver redeem himself? What's more important is that the filmmakers have enough story to fill the second half with fun pyrotechnics.

Black's cuddly bear, man child grows more tiresome with each performance and in Gulliver it's lights out early with the same boorish routine the ubiquitous media gadfly projects whether playing a role or doing an interview. Director Rob Letterman's film does have a precious look and he does inject some nice Python humor here and there but it is all obscured by Black's beached whale of a Gulliver. For lazy parents looking for a baby sitter, the film might serve as that crazy and funny uncle that can occupy the kiddies for two hours. Make sure though you send them with an older sibling. Unlike this loser of a film it will be a win, win for you to abstain.

Saw this one in 3D. First thing you should know: there's no reason to pay the extra money for the 3D version as pretty much the coolest 3D stuff I saw that day (saw it last Saturday afternoon) was on the trailer of the new Transformers movie. Second thing you should know: I'm not familiar at all with the book or with any of the other movies. Maybe that's why I'm one of the few ones here in IMDb who gave more than 4 stars to this movie.

Anyway, there's really nothing amazing going on here. The story is as predictable as you can imagine and well, Jack Black is yet again playing Jack Black. We all knew this, and frankly I don't think there's a person who can't tell how is this movie going to be like before seeing it.

I knew, and went to see it anyways as it was pretty much *the* movie of 2010's Christmas. I mean, I'm a sucker for Jack Black movies and even though the trailer never really convinced me, I had to check it out. Maybe The School of Rock and the Tenacious D movie (big fan of both) were more than enough for the punk rock Jack Black but it seems is inevitable to have him "rocking". So here some references to Guitar Hero and KISS are present. Jack Black is put as a sucker for rock music and movies, Star Wars especially. That simple thing delivers the best moments of the movie: Gulliver making the Lilliputians act Stars Wars and Titanic and perform as KISS. It ain't pop culture references heaven but definitely delivers the goods (also some Avatar references were funny).

Gulliver's Travels may not be Jack Black's funniest movie, but in the end it was just what I expected: a decent family entertainment that will be soon forgotten but that is enjoyable to watch.

There is something brilliant about this project, something absolutely brilliant. You will find it hard to locate in the storm of distracting bad decisions elsewhere.

The bad? Well, you can read about that elsewhere. A cheap film factory and story meets the three Jack Black jokes.

The clever idea is this: Black plays a character who is a repressed nobody. In his own apartment, he acts out dramas from films with his collection of action figures. He goes to sleep, and dreams — maybe not because the fantasy doesn't need an explanation. He ends up in a land full of people the size of his action figures.

Once there, he tells them stories about himself drawn from all those movies, with him as the hero. They believe him of course. This is somewhat interesting. The brilliant part is how he inverts the inversion, by having the little people on stage reproducing scenes from the films with him as the hero. Later, they build him a replica of his real world as filtered through this lens.

The idea is pretty cool, and would have been worthy of something like "Synecdoche" and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

How this could have been spliced to Swift's original vision is too delicious. Swift was vulgar, offensive and unsettling in his truths. There is none of Swift here. I actually would have preferred seeing Travolta's Scientology disaster again rater than this. Cool idea though.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

It's the holiday season, and everyone around you in a festive mood – or are they?

Well, you may want to count this Scrooge of a reviewer out, because he isn't a firm believer that tis' the season of giving. So when a movie as shamelessly commercial as this comes along, you can bet he is not going to be very kind in his review.

Based on the 18th century novel of the same name, this update sees a slacker mailroom clerk being transported to the land of Lilliput (yes, this is the original name of the mythical land in the novel) after messing up a travel assignment to the Bermuda Triangle. There, the giant (or Beast, as he is affectionately known to the locals), he becomes a hero to the little people, fighting villains and matchmaking a peasant and a princess. When a battle with a petty general goes awry, the roly poly backs out and cowers in fear.

Of course, you know this is only temporary - who would be in the mood for an un-happy ending during the festive season?

The filmmakers have aptly cast Jack Black in the role of Gulliver, given his larger than life personality. This is clearly the comedian's show, seeing how the camera focuses on his every single exaggerated facial expression and body gesture. Black has impressed us with his comedic talents in movies like the surprise hit School of Rock (2003) and the hilarious satire Tropic Thunder (2008). And who can miss his adorable persona in Kung Fu Panda (2008)? In his latest work which he also plays the executive producer role, Black effortlessly pulls of the portrayal of a lovable loser who you cannot bear to dislike.

He is joined by a capable cast including Amanda Peet (2012) who plays his love interest, Jason Segel (I Love You, Man) who plays a Lilliput resident, Emily Blunt (The Wolfman) who plays a Lilliput princess and Billy Connolly (The X Files: I Want to Believe) who plays a Lilliput king. As you have noticed by now, most of the actors play tiny people in this 88 minute movie. They all fare pretty well, but like all holiday movies, this isn't really what the audience is looking out for.

What is in place is the usual numbed down and logic deprived script which will not bother the casual viewer. What's more, since this movie is targeted at the family crowds, there is no need to sophisticate things. Hence, the filmmakers have every reason to throw in mindless pop culture references, ranging from Star Wars' Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to Titanic's Jack and Rose. Also, you get to see Gulliver inspired posters and billboards which are at most mildly amusing. Unfortunately, these litters of chuckles do not contribute much to the story.

Director Rob Letterman (Monsters vs Aliens) have made use of green screen technology, and in a move that doesn't surprise anyone anymore, 3D technique to bring this tale to the big screen. We are pretty sure that when Jonathan Swift wrote the original novel in 1726, the satire was supposed to bring out certain traits of human nature. After countless adaptations, this message has become a diluted affair with nothing refreshing to offer except a couple of pointless chuckles.

I generally don't like to review a movie according to how close it is to the book... but I noticed that many of the negative reviews are comparing it to the book; so to answer those comparisons.

1. "The movie is rude and crude and a disgrace to the classic." I assume they have either not read the book or read some sanitized abridge children version of the book. Not only does the book contain the crude parts in the movie but the books is more crude and descriptive. The movie didn't add "potty humor" but took out most toilet humor from the book.

2. "The movie only had Gulliver rather than the many islands in the book." True. But the book had years between each adventure and would have been a lot to try to put into one movie.... besides the 2nd half of the book sucked (somewhat joking somewhat serious).

Anyway... reviewing the movie. It's a good movie but not great. They did a good job changing from the 18th century to modern times. If you are looking for a fun Jack Black movie you won't be disappointed. And this movie inspired a couple of my friends to even read the book.