Fridae

Jack Black is an oddball of a comic actor. His gimmick these days seems to be playing characters who are aware that they are in a comedy film or that what they do is actually funny, as opposed to the old school concept of comedy acting typified by Leslie Nielsen, who play deadpan characters who would never realise how funny they came across. That might lead to really funny comedies like Tropic Thunder or School of Rock or really annoying, not-so-funny comedies like Nacho Libre or Year One.

And then we have Gulliver’s Travels. We all remember Gulliver got caught by very tiny people and very huge people, but how many of us remember that Jonathan Swift’s novel was actually a spare-no-prisoners satire on social mores and political ideologies?

It may seem inevitable that this aspect of the original novel would be completely lost in an adaptation starring Jack Black. Just like how his stranded character remakes the land of Lilliput in his own image, the comedian almost threatens to get away with making the film another Jack Black movie instead of an adaptation of some existing work. I’m talking about Mr Black’s penchant here for inserting as many pop culture and rock music references he can make from the 1970s to the late 1990s (the period of his long adolescence, perhaps?) as the comedy gimmick of the entire film.

Surprisingly enough, Mr Black’s comedy routine does work in that it is genuinely funny. Through his frantic ad-libbing, Jack Black manages to produce a demented mash-up of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and Gulliver’s Travels. The satire on political ideology and social mores is very much watered down in this adaptation, being displaced onto the portrayal of Lilliputian society.

If you do like Jack Black’s brand of comedy, Gulliver’s Travels won’t disappoint.