What's this? Jack Black as an underachieving ne'er-do-well slacker? Surrounded by people smaller than him, but with hearts just as big? With occasional interludes of popular soft-rock anthems from the 80s? Could it be... a sequel to the beloved School of Rock?!!
Alas, no. Seven years on from the halcyon days of Black's popster pedagogue and his once charismatic jolly loser has gained 10 lbs and is still floundering around doing nothing. This time round, Black plays Lemuel Gulliver, a long-suffering clerk in the mail room of The New York Tribune, who ends up sailing the Bermuda Triangle in an attempt to woo Amanda Peet's woman of his dreams.
Consequences and casting directors conspire to send him swiftly to Lilliput, where he encounters Tom Thumb-sized stars of the British comic circuit, game for an easy laugh and an easier pay cheque.
Obviously this was never going to be life changing stuff, and ultimately whether you like this film depends on your tolerance for Jack Black's schtick. On the whole, I didn't think this was Black at his schtickhead's worst, for that see Year One, and the whole thing passes along at a reasonably pleasant pace. Catherine Tate is underused as a bitchy queen, Emily Blunt is admirable and does well in a role that mostly involves reacting to what the male characters around her do, and Jason Segel plumbs new discursive depths as the tallest limey in Lilliput.
I wouldn't seek it out, and certainly its 3D rendering adds nothing to the spectacle. But as a no frills no brainer, it passes muster.
2.5 Likes
Alas, no. Seven years on from the halcyon days of Black's popster pedagogue and his once charismatic jolly loser has gained 10 lbs and is still floundering around doing nothing. This time round, Black plays Lemuel Gulliver, a long-suffering clerk in the mail room of The New York Tribune, who ends up sailing the Bermuda Triangle in an attempt to woo Amanda Peet's woman of his dreams.
Consequences and casting directors conspire to send him swiftly to Lilliput, where he encounters Tom Thumb-sized stars of the British comic circuit, game for an easy laugh and an easier pay cheque.
Obviously this was never going to be life changing stuff, and ultimately whether you like this film depends on your tolerance for Jack Black's schtick. On the whole, I didn't think this was Black at his schtickhead's worst, for that see Year One, and the whole thing passes along at a reasonably pleasant pace. Catherine Tate is underused as a bitchy queen, Emily Blunt is admirable and does well in a role that mostly involves reacting to what the male characters around her do, and Jason Segel plumbs new discursive depths as the tallest limey in Lilliput.
I wouldn't seek it out, and certainly its 3D rendering adds nothing to the spectacle. But as a no frills no brainer, it passes muster.
2.5 Likes
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