Review of Gulliver's Travels (2010) by Deb S — 14 Oct 2011

"WAR! WHAT IZ IT GOOD FOR? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!".

Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) is a mailroom worker who's been stuck in the same dead end job for several years and has had a crush on journalist Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet). Gulliver finally works up the courage to talk to Darcy only to chicken out at the last minute and instead tell her that he'd like to try his hand at writing a column.

When asked to bring in an example of his writing the inexperienced Gulliver brings in plagiarized articles from the internet and is immediately put on assignment to travel to the Bermuda Triangle. He goes on his boat, falls asleep and gets sucked into the unknown island of Lilliput, where he is a giant among the miniature people who inhabit it. He unwittingly saves the war-torn civilization and becomes a worshiped hero but his true nature and lies are eventually discovered and Gulliver must of course overcome his flaws and become the true hero he pretended to be.

"Gulliver's Travels" is clearly a film for some brainless entertainment, so it should not be taken seriously. It delivers some laughs, and attempts to create some emotional tension by several romantic subplots. The princess of Lilliput (Emily Blunt) is supposed to marry General Edward (Chris O'Dowd) but she doesn't love him. Her true love (Jason Segel as Horatio) has been imprisoned for talking to her, so Gulliver has to help fix that. One hilarious moment is when he convinces Horatio to woo the princess using words from the Prince Song "Kiss.".