Rating: 2 Shurikens
Jack Black, the voice of Kung Fu Panda, and star of some rather good movies like School of Rock and King Kong, plays the classic traveler who finds himself shipwrecked in a land where the inhabitants are all mouse-sized. He starts out as a mailroom worker for a big-city newspaper who lies his way into a gig as atravel writer. His first assignment is to visit Bermuda to learn the secret of the Bermuda Triangle. He is, of course, shipwrecked, and wakes up to find himself tied to the ground by a tiny army.
So far, so good. He becomes the patron of the Liliputians and helps them by fending off the rival kingdom which is trying to conquer them. Unfortunately, there is the pompous general, played by Chris O'Dowd, running the Liliputian army. The General is courting the Princess, played most convincingly by Emily Blunt, who delivers the best acting in the movie. Jason Segal, of the comedy TV show How I Met Your Mother, is the commoner who befriends Gulliver, and at the same time, enlists Gulliver's help in courting the fair Princess.
The basic premise of the movie is a stretch already, but is a classic that has been enjoyed in many forms through the years. My own first reading of the story was in the old Classics Illustrated comics of the early 1960's. But this film tries to stretch it even further, to some comedic effect. The time frame advances far too slowly for the events which take place. Other than that, the story is amusing and somewhat entertaining.
Being 3D is supposed to save this film, but really doesn't do the job. A lame storyline bolstered by special effects really isn't worth spending ten bucks on, twenty if you take a date or a friend. This is two shurikens at most.
