Starring: Jack Black, Amanda Peet, Jason Segel, Chris O' Dowd, Emily Blunt and Billy Connolly. Directed by Rob Letterman. Approximately 85 minutes. Playing at major theaters.
In the year 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote a novel called Gulliver's Travels. It told the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a man who goes on these weird adventures. One of his most famous adventures is to the Land Of Lilliput, a place with many tiny people. 284 years later, director Rob Letterman releases the movie Gulliver's Travels, starring Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver.
Gulliver is a guy who is stuck in the mailroom at this office building. He doesn't have the best life because he can't ask his crush Darcy (Amanda Peet) out on a date and the new guy at the mailroom is now his boss.
When Gulliver attempts to ask Darcy out, he chickens out and lies to her about being a travel writer. She asks him for a travel writing excerpt and when he tries to write something, he can't get anything. So, he does a little thing called plagiarism. He copies travel writing articles from the Internet and some travel books. He hands them in to Darcy and she sends him off to find out more about the Bermuda Triangle.
When Gulliver gets to Bermuda, he is given a boat and pretty soon, he is thrust into a large whirlpool. When he wakes up, he finds himself tied down by these little people led by an annoying general named Edward Edwardian (Chris O' Dowd). These little people are called Lilliputians. Some other people of this kind are a princess (Emily Blunt), a prisoner named Horatio (Jason Segel) and a king (Billy Connolly).
Gulliver is referred to as The Beast, but then he saves the kingdom from a fire and attack from other tiny people. He puts out the fire by peeing on it. Gross, I know, but believe it or not, he becomes very well respected. Sooner or later, Gulliver is telling more lies, such as saying he is President the Awesome back in Manhattan and that Darcy is his lover.
Gulliver also makes the Lilliputians build him a luxurious and he also tries helping Horatio win the heart of the princess. Sounds nice, huh? Yeah, well, that doesn't last very long.
See, Edward Edwardian decides to turn the Lilliputians against Gulliver.
This movie has some pretty funny scenes. For example, Gulliver says to the princess that he wants to stay at her kingdom. She says, ``But what about the White House and your special lady, Darcy?'' He replies by saying, ``Um, I don't know. I think Vice President Yoda can take care of things.''
However, there are some weak moments. For example, the film gets real sappy when the romance kicks in. Also, at the end, there is a terrible musical number to the song War. Oh good Lord, it is terrible.
But other than that, the movie has some good moments. Jack Black is entertaining in this movie. He usually is, but he is still not a perfect movie star. He has made the not so good movies like Year One and Nacho Libre. I think that kids will probably enjoy it. I don't know if adults will like it as much as the kids, but if they don't, it doesn't really matter. The movie is made for kids to enjoy. So, I think that this is a film for kids to check out. Don't see it in 3D. It's not very effective.
