You shouldn’t go into Gulliver’s Travels with high expectations. It’s a Jack Black movie. It’s geared towards the youngsters in the audience who delight in fart jokes. It’s a Jack Black movie. It’s got pretty much nothing in common with its source material other than sharing the same name as Jonathan Swift’s 18th century novel. It’s a Jack Black movie.
I’ve got to say that Black’s shtick is getting a little old. It’s about time he realized that the man-boy act isn’t going to work much longer, and it certainly doesn’t generate many laughs in Guilliver’s Travels.
Our intrepid hero Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) is 30 going on 13, the sad and slightly pathetic middle-aged guy who just doesn’t want to grow up. Gulliver enjoys acting out Star Wars scenes with his Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker action figures and occupies his time with rounds of Guitar Hero during work hours at his dead-end mailroom job.
Feeling like he needs to man up, Gulliver talks to journalist Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet), whom he has a crush on, with the intention of asking her out. Instead, he accidentally agrees to apply for a travel journalist position. Obviously the dude can’t write, so he plagiarizes and fakes a sample piece to show Darcy. She is of course, impressed and sends him out on his first assignment: to find out the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.
Here is where the lack of hilarity ensues. After being sucked into a giant whirlpool, Gulliver is spat out on the shores of Lilliput, a kingdom inhabited by one-foot-tall people. It is also here where the first of a long string of immature butt/pee/Jack Black-in-a-dress jokes begin, with Gulliver crushing a Lulliputian with his oversized bottom. Let me tell you, it is not exactly a sight you want to see.
The rest of the story is predictably mundane. Gulliver becomes Lilliput’s newest savior, lives out his fantasy of finally being the big man (no pun intended), deceives his way into the hearts of the population and ultimately has to redeem himself when his lies are exposed. Does this sound familiar? Perhaps that’s because it’s the plot of every Jack Black film, ever.
I know that Gulliver’s Travels is trying to go for the “big lesson” at the end, something along the lines of “it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, but how you make the most of your life that counts.” This is all well and good, but a lesson learned doesn’t justify the overuse of lines such as “I may be a giant but I have feelings” and “These little people have grown very large in my heart.” Instead of generating a warm fuzzy feeling, the inane dialogue, penned by screenwriters Joe Stillman and Nicholas Stoller leaves you wondering who the hell actually says this stuff.
The film’s parting scene is perhaps the most cringe-worthy. I won’t spoil it for you, but not only is it incredibly stupid, it is totally unnecessary, unsatisfying and actually makes very little sense. I felt embarrassed for the actors on screen, and they looked just as awkward and uncomfortable as the audience felt watching them.
The only thing the film had going for it is that it had the potential to entertain you. But it didn’t. You’ll probably get a few chuckles out of it but that’s really the extent of the entertainment. Not even the usually very funny Jason Segel could save this film, and the hilarious British talent Catherine Tate was unjustly underused. The special effects were certainly nothing to write home about, and the numerous pop culture references got old real fast. It was as if Stillman and Stoller thought that burying the bad dialogue under a mountain of Star Wars references was going to make the script more interesting. Instead, it just makes the film look like it’s trying way too hard to be cool.
Just when I thought the film couldn’t get any worse, the credits finally rolled to put me out of my misery. But then I saw one of the actors credited as “Butt-Crack Man.” I was wrong. It could get worse.
Don’t go into Gulliver’s Travels with anything but low expectations or you’ll be disappointed, unless you enjoy immature jokes and tacky dialogue. Note, this review is of the 2D version of the film… not that 3D would make this movie any better: D
