Whenever I saw the previews for this movie I usually enjoyed it until it got to the “Guilliver and the tiny people” part. To a less extreme degree that’s how I felt about the movie overall. I really enjoyed the opening and closing sections with Jack Black, Amanda Peet and T.J. Miller just riffing and being casually funny. The bulk of the story deals with Gulliver in Lilliput and while I still would have liked more of the workplace humor, it ended up being a lot better than I’d expected.
Normally Jack Black’s schtick is the “hey look at me I’m crazy and in my underwear. Also, I’m chunky” kind of thing. That’s funny enough, but gets old quickly. He also has a lesser seen subtle brand of humor which I really like. (I thought he was great in Be Kind, Rewind. Check it out if haven’t seen it. It’s very good.) Luckily Gulliver’s Travels had a decent blend of both. Even though most of the humor came from the size difference between him and the Lilliputians, he had a lot of nice moments where he demonstrated his more reserved kind of humor. He and Amanda Peet were pretty good together. I love the bit early on with the two of them in the elevator. Also, it was fun to see Emily Blunt pop up as Princess Mary. Another stand out moment was when Gulliver had the Lilliputians act out popular films like Star Wars or Titanic and claimed they were his life story.
Overall I’d say this was a pretty decent movie. (Heck, it was Citizen Kane compared to Skyline!) There weren’t a lot of laugh out loud moments, but it was funny, light and pleasant. It was perfect for a lazy Saturday night.
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