It takes
1 minute and 39 seconds of the
2.25 trailer, roughly about 76% (jesus, I've haven't done maths in a long time) before 20th Century Fox, a little embarrassingly, lift the lid on the fact you are actually watching an ad for a contemporary comedy version of
Gulliver's Travels in 3-D! A movie that feels like one of those fake trailers that was attached to
Tropic Thunder two years ago; i.e. - a movie with a concept so absurd that it's funny. We get a pretty tedious setup for a boring
Jack Black rom-com that EVENTUALLY becomes a modern day
Gulliver's Travels with an unconvincing lead actor,
Evan Almighty-esque horrendous CGI, and
Emily Blunt and
Jason Segel as part of the Lilliput people who really should know better. Well I suppose in Blunt's case she did know better (she originally
wanted to star as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 but was forced to star in this
via a contract clause with Fox from The Devil Wears Prada), she just needs to read her future contracts more closely. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhoktf7X0aQ It pretty much doesn't get any worse than this, I don't recall any trailer taking so long to setup it's premise. Or maybe this is just going to be the first in a long series of trailers as
the movie ain't out till December, amazingly. Maybe they are going for the slow burn tease.
Dear Lord. To even call the movie
Gulliver's Travels is an insult to
Jonathan Swift, when all they have done is steal the basic idea (big man in a world of small people), with table-top soccer replacing
Gulliver actually going on adventures. Here's that
Tropic Thunder esque poster;
Gulliver's Travels, which is oddly littered with British t.v. comedy obscurities (at least they are on film) -
Billy Connolly, James Corden, Chris O'Dowd and
Catherine Tate alongside familiar U.S. faces of
Amanda Peet, T.J. Miller and
Romany Malco.
Rob Letterman (
Monsters vs. Aliens, Shark Tale) directs from a screenplay written by
Nicholas Stoller (
Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek) and
Joe Stillman (
Shrek, Planet 51). It may also turn out to be the worst film of the year - just so you know.