Rating:  

Davis Entertainment Company, Electric Dynamite, and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

Written by: Joe Stillman and Nicholas Stoller, adapted from the novel “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift.

“Gulliver’s Travels” is a bloated, over-thought, over-budgeted failure of a film that drudges up old resentments towards the big studio holiday family blockbuster movie. Those resentments, which I will own as entirely my own, stem from seeing a movie which feels as if it exists only as an attempt to extract money from unsuspecting families around the Christmas season. If they pay for the 3D…then even better!

This 2010 edition of “Gulliver’s Travels” serves as the umpteenth (by my official count) movie adaptation of the Jonathan Swift novel, originally published in 1726. Comparisons are pointless when analyzing the two as this “Gulliver’s Travels” walks to its own distinctive path.

Jack Black plays Lemuel Gulliver, a shift lead working in the mailroom of a major newspaper in New York City. He has a crush on Darcy (Amanda Peet), a travel writer for the paper and at the behest of a new employee he is mentoring (T.J. Miller), Gulliver summons up the courage to talk with her. Once the new hire is promoted over Gulliver on the guy’s first day, Gulliver is depressed and stumbles into a conversation with Darcy in her office. Darcy is needing someone to contribute to the travel edition of the newspaper and Gulliver lies about his extensive travels and dreams of becoming a writer. When he shows a willingness to help her out, she gives him an assignment to travel to Bermuda and investigate the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.

And so he goes and things get weird and after sailing into a dense fog and ending up in a cavernous whirlpool, Gulliver comes to – bound and secured in a strange place. Gulliver has arrived in Lilliput, a small-scale town and Gulliver has been tagged with the appearance of a beast, as he towers over every person, place, and thing in Lilliput. Naturally, Gulliver wants to break free but is kept prisoner and meets and befriends another diminutive prisoner, Horatio (Jason Segel). Soon, Gulliver finds himself embedded in a romantic conflict with a Princess (Emily Blunt) who loves Horatio, but must marry the General (Chris O’Dowd). Gulliver tries to help, becomes a favored son in Lilliput, and must eventually decide to leave behind a life of privilege and acceptance or return to the depressing life he left behind in New York City.

And there’s more of course. Lies are told, people’s trust is betrayed, fluttering romantic subplots unfold, and despite all of this happening, the movie is so inert and motionless that you cannot even muster a care. As someone who holds out optimism for every film I watch, I challenged myself to finish this. Watching this at home on DVD, I reminded myself that there was ice cream in the freezer and a new cereal I rather liked in the pantry. That is what got me through, you may not be so lucky.

With so much happening in the storyline, “Gulliver’s Travels” produces no discernible excitement or memorable moments in any way, shape, or form. One could complain that the best parts are in the trailer, but within the film, those parts are not interesting either. In this regard, the film is pretty amazing in how non-everything it truly is.

With a whole lot of money spent and only negligible returns, “Gulliver’s Travels” is a poorly conceived, big budget let down. Luckily for a talented cast, this may eventually be nothing more than a small blemish on their resume. but for anyone who sits through the film, it is a journey and adventure one should greatly avoid at all costs.

Should I See It?

Wow this is tough. Okay, Jack Black fans, Emily Blunt fans, and Jason Segel fans should watch it if they want to be completists on the films these folks make.

Save one disgusting bathroom joke and a handful of little sophomoric moments, this is perfectly fine for the kids to watch. Just don’t expect them to sit through it if you need a 90 minute break.

You love the book and must see every adaptation of the classic novel.

The movie is so boring that I can’t even justify sitting through 85 minutes of this, much less anymore. I can find countless other films that will be more entertaining for you and your family.

Even if you want to defend the visual effects and the fantasy of the film, those are particularly dreadful as well. Some of the visual effects are so poorly done that you can’t even expect to see seamless CGI here.

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