2010 marks the year that 20th Century Fox hits rock bottom. With thismovie, if you can even call this a movie, Fox has become a degeneratestudio catering to drooling imbeciles with any lack of taste for filmsin general.

Before I review this film in proper, let me list down Fox's'achievements' for 2010: 1. John Davis. Enough said. This so-called'uber-producer' who produces schlock for 20th Century Fox and itsincumbent incompetent chairman, Tom Rothman, is no Jerry Bruckheimer orBrian Grazer. Look at his list of crap-fest. Garfield? Dr Dolittle?Marmaduke? Norbit? Daddy Day Camp? And now this? He must be the king oftalking animal flicks and that includes Jack Black. Can someone pleasestop him from producing anymore nonsensical rubbish? 2. Tom Rothman.The man responsible for micromanaging and mismanaging every single Foxmisfire this year. Stipulating all films to run under 2 hours? PrinceCaspian was a masterpiece at 140 minutes and Dawn Treader sunk underits light weight at 110 minutes. Same goes for X3. Whatever happened tothe 131 minute of a superhero epic we got for X2? Changing the title of'Knight and Day'? And now a marketing executive takes the blame for thefilm's underwhelming box office returns? Real smooth, Tom, real smooth.Way to go for being a great helmsman in charge.

3. Every flick that 20th Century Fox put out somehow fizzled at the boxoffice. A-Team, Knight and Day, Marmaduke, Wall Street, Percy Jackson.Not a good lineup considering that the studio is celebrating its 75thanniversary. Not one classic. In comparison, look at Paramount's 1987'slineup for its 75th Anniversary. The Untouchables, Planes Trains andAutomobiles, Fatal Attraction, Beverly Hills Cop 2. Now, this is theway to go! I digress. Now back to Gulliver's Travels. The biggestproblem with this flick is that everything about it is cringe-worthy.'Gavatar'? 'Homages' to practically all successful Fox movies? This ispure shameless self-promotion and self-aggrandizement I have ever seen.If this is a contemporary update of Swift's classic novel, it hasfailed utterly and miserably.

Jack Black's ego is the problem here. He's still acting as agood-for-nothing slacker who plays rock music all day long. Basically,he's a momma's boy who has yet to grow up. Trying to play off his'School of Rock' persona, I guess he wants to cater to the young. Imean, the breakout into the rock number at the end of the film, servesas an embarrassing reminder that Black needs to find an exit fast.

Emily Blunt is being reduced to nothing more than a pea-brainedprincess whose intelligence rivals that of Hugh Laurie's 'Princemini-brain' in the Blackadder series. What a disappointing turn from ahugely talented actress.

Jason Segal is still holding on to a job? All in all, a really awfulcinematic experience. Extremely forgettable. This film should beanalysed in film classes or even in movie executive conference rooms asto how not to make a film.

Gulliver's Travels (2010), a larger than life analysis. In the film wesee a distinct dichotomy between the little people and the big people.The film excels in the reversal of these roles pivoting upon the samecharacters. In the beginning we see Jack Black's character a 'littleperson' managing the mail room and then soon made even littler when anintern becomes his boss. We do see that Jack has the building blocks ofgreatness when he is given a chance to work on a travel assignment, butends up even smaller as he is stranded on an island and brought tosubmission by radically physically smaller people but their power innumbers overwhelms Jack's gigantic proportions. As the story turns eventhe little people need Jack's help to save their world, and together asa group they survive the adventure but only after quite a hussle and atussle! I believe we can look at the Lilliput island as a metaphor forthe world and the cleanup of the world as the task that Jack and thelittle people must perform together. The little people are the world'scelebrities and Jack represents the rest of us who haven't yet landed amajor movie, television show or theatrical run. The point being we needboth all of us and the celebrities to work together to salvage theplanet by making quick radical change to our lifestyle and environmentto make the air, sea and land cleaner and more like the golf and polocourses as depicted on the island. With so much natural disaster, toxicwaste, crumbling military infrastructure and fixation on the dirtyaspects of life it seems to be an uphill battle, but perhaps if we canall re-imagine that pristine playground we experienced as children oreven a pleasant beach. If each of us don't start to care, We soon maycease to be.

In the latest Gulliver go round ( there have been at least a dozenvariations since 1902) we have a production of enormous precise detailvividly brought alive by state of the art special effects, grand setdesign and lavish costuming all crushed by the uninspired casting ofthe slobbering one note buffoon Jack Black in the title role. In hispudgy mitts the Swiftian satire becomes another heavy handed,predictable goof ball routine of sly eyed impishness and soft heartedsweetness applied in the same manner as in the rest of his "zany"canon.

Lemuel Gulliver sets out for the Bermuda Triangle to prove himself as ajournalist and to win the heart of the girl of his dreams. Blown offcourse by a raging tropical storm he finds himself on the the tinyisland of the tiny people, Liliput. Gaining their trust he is soon therage of the land improving infrastructure and counseling the lovelorn.All goes well until he is challenged by General Edward and ishumiliated before all who look up to him. Can Gulliver redeem himself?What's more important is that the filmmakers have enough story to fillthe second half with fun pyrotechnics.

Black's cuddly bear, man child grows more tiresome with eachperformance and in Gulliver it's lights out early with the same boorishroutine the ubiquitous media gadfly projects whether playing a role ordoing an interview. Director Rob Letterman's film does have a preciouslook and he does inject some nice Python humor here and there but it isall obscured by Black's beached whale of a Gulliver. For lazy parentslooking for a baby sitter, the film might serve as that crazy and funnyuncle that can occupy the kiddies for two hours. Make sure though yousend them with an older sibling. Unlike this loser of a film it will bea win, win for you to abstain.

Don't expect the modern update of Gulliver's Travels to be true to thecenturies old tale, as the story by Joe Stillman and Nicholas Stollergoes for broke in making this one light comedic affair suitable for thewhole family. Meaning it's for the broadest common denominator to enjoyin a festive outing during this holiday season without worrying toomuch about nasty plot gymnastics, gory violence or sexual innuendos,being utterly effects laden (quality is questionable though) and in thegimmick of 3D without exploiting that medium properly.

Jack Black plays LLemuel Gulliver as a big man with big dreams butsmall on the confidence front, which spells disaster in many ways,being stuck in a mailroom job for a decade, delivering office memoswithin the New York Tribune, and lacking the courage to do anythingmore than admire his infatuation Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet), theeditor for the travel desk, from afar. Deciding to seize an opportunitybased on a whim and a lie, Darcy assigns him to the Bermudas for astory, and Gulliver ends up going through a magical water spout, endingup in the land of Lilliput where his size becomes an issue for theLilliudians who ropes him down (probably the only reference true to theoriginal story) and imprisons him as an enemy. But as things go, hesoon gains the trust of the little people, who begin to worship him asan awesome deity who can keep their enemies at bay.

And Jack Black being Jack Black, plays with relish the ultimate StarWars fanboy with plenty of references to the franchise and other popculture, especially music which has a large role in the film from beingemployed as a lyrical tool to assist Horatio (Jason Segel) in wooingthe woman of his dreams, Princess Mary (Emily Blunt), to spreading themessage of anti-war through the song War, which in any case stuck outlike a sore thumb in the way the story got developed.

Family friendliness for the young ones will mean themes like believingin yourself, never giving up, the dangers of lying and such make theirobligatory presence felt. And as if to up the comedic quotient, theLilliputians speaketh funnily, behaving strangely and dressed up as ifstuck in a time warp to the medieval ages, with kings and queens andcastles to upkeep, with their skill as fantastic builders stretchingthe imagination akin to possessing some magical qualities. Enemies andvillains also do not do much except scowl, and Chris O'Dowd's GeneralEdward overacts in his role en route to becoming Gulliver's arch rivalsuited up in a metal piece that Iron Man would be proud.

Director Rob Letterman had shown some potential with the animated flickShark Tale, before the 3D disaster of Monsters vs Aliens which promisedpotential went unfulfilled, becoming that mediocre animated film thatwasn't funny despite having a roster of comedians in lead roles. Thereisn't much to wow about with this version of Gulliver's Travels, sincethe story goes smooth sailing without tossing up any surprises, and theverdict is a plain vanilla version that could have been done without.

I saw the trailer for this film and pretty much assumed immediatelythat I would love this. Well, I did enjoy it. Not quite as much as Ithought I would, but it was quite fun.

I thought it was well-written, I liked the story, and the actors didnice, particularly Black.

However, the film wasn't really as funny as I thought it would be. Itwasn't devoid of humour, but I did get quite bored in parts. Also, Iwouldn't advise paying extra for 3D glasses, because I can tell youfirsthand that the 3D effects were non-existent. And before you ask,yes, I did pay for 3D. I know this because the trailers were in 3D(Tangled, Yogi Bear, and Gnomeo and Juliet. And they all lookedimpressive.).

As I said, it wasn't as good as I hoped, but I had fun. I went to thecinema to be entertained, and that's what I did. And that's good enoughfor me.