There’s something that’s off in the trailer for Rob Letterman‘s (Monsters vs Aliens) new Jack Black comedy Gulliver’s Travels. Maybe it’s the unbelievable storyline: Black plays a mailroom clerk who gets demoted by some kid, and then plagiarizes his way into a travel writing assignment that sends him to the Bermuda Triangle. Maybe it’s the weird romantic plot: Amanda Peet + Jack Black does not compute. Maybe it’s the fact that Hollywood has taken Jonathan Swift’s hidden island of Lilliput and turned it into a full on bro-fest, complete with fist bumps and Foosball tables. (In fact, if he saw this, he’d probably want to eat Letterman and turn his skin into ladies gloves.) Maybe it’s our frustration that the fantastic Emily Blunt doesn’t event get to speak! Or maybe we’re just bitter because this is yet another movie that’s coming out in 3D, and that’s $20 we weren’t looking to spend.
Actually, we’re pretty sure it’s this: We love Jack Black. But there is good Jack Black (Orange County, School of Rock, High Fidelity) and there is bad Jack Black (Nacho Libre, King Kong, Year One, The Holiday). While we’d really like this to be a case of the former, we fear that it’s actually an incident of the latter — at least from what we’ve seen so far. Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think.
Gulliver’s Travels hit theaters December 22, 2010.