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Review: Gulliver's Travels

This travesty is so pitiful, it isn't even worth getting indignant over
By PETER KEOUGH  |  December 21, 2010
1.0 1.0 Stars

 

Jonathan Swift's epitaph reads, "Where savage indignation can no longer lacerate his breast." Rob Letterman's adaptation of the great man's satire might nonetheless have him spinning in his grave. In a world where Swift appears never to have existed, Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) is a mailroom clerk for "The New York Tribune." He'd be happy to be one of the "little people," except that he has a crush on Darcy (Amanda Peet), the travel editor. To impress her, he submits some — appropriately — plagiarized writing samples and gets assigned to the Bermuda Triangle. There, he ends up in Lilliput, the land of little people, where he becomes a big shot, transforming the kingdom into a Times Square where every neon sign bears his leering image. Hubris, in other words. Then he learns his lesson: be yourself, or something. A side trip to Brobdingnag offers a Swiftian kick, but this travesty is so pitiful, it isn't even worth being indignant.

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  Topics: Reviews , Jonathan Swift, Jack Black, movie,  More more >
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