Gulliver's Travels (3D)
16 Jan 2011. Location: Cinema
The Orange-promo for this, that ran in cinemas for a few months up until Christmas 2010, had convinced me that this was going to be an unfunny shitfest. The full trailer, hovever, looked rather promising. As is usual for this kind of thing, the best bits ARE in the trailer, so there are no real surprises in the movie. In line with this revelation, the movie itself is fairly formulaic, with Jack Black playing... well, Jack Black. That's what he does. I'm sure he can be SO much better, but this is the kind of thing that keeps landing on his desk, and it's probably paying his bills rather nicely.
Ultimately, this is a very entertaining (if somewhat soulless) movie, largely due to the supporting cast of Brit actors (and it's always nice to see James Corden getting doused in urine). There's a lot of riffing on pop-culture, with Star Wars getting several nods, as Gulliver lands in Lilliput and convinces the inhabitants that he's the president of Manhattan. Hilarity ensues at a carefully measured, demographic-ticking pace. The 3D's completely needless, too. Well rendered, but unneccessary.
Actually, that sounds harsher than I mean it. The film IS a lot of fun, but will leave you with pretty much nothing, and the only thing you'll get out of repeated viewings is perhaps notcing more of the billboard-homages in the revamped Lilliput city. At 87 minutes, it should be a short affair, but somehow it feels much longer. I'm not sure if that's good or not. It almost goes without saying that if you don't like Jack Black, you won't enjoy the film.
And as a footnote, you've got to feel sorry for Amanda Peet. Set up early on as Gulliver's attractive, sweet-natured love-interest, she's more or less completely blown out of the water by Emily Blunt's screen-presence. But hey, c'est la vie.
(But it's only a 5 the first time you see it)
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
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