QuoteReplyTopic: Jonathan Swift...Meet Moe Howard! Posted: December 25 2010 at 6:26am
Probably the most "loyal to the source" (and best overall version) of this material was a mini-series that starred Ted Danson a few years ago. This Jack Black version just looks shameful...not that I am surprised.
Allow me to take this opportunity to share with all of you a wish for peace on Earth, and wherever we may journey. Merry Christmas!
Nine times out of ten, in art as in life, there is no truth to be discovered, only an error to be exposed.--H.L. Menken
The last good adaptation of "Gulliver's Travels" was the one on TV starring Ted Danson. This movie does nothing to dethrone that TV movie of that title. Swift must be doing backflips in his grave right now.
The Four Horsemen of the Moviepocalypse: uncalled for sequels/remakes/reboots, 3-D surcharges, untalented "celebrities", and anything with Michael Bay's name attached to it.
I only recall a couple of versions of Gulliver's Travels that paid attention to the "s" after the word "Travel". Those versions visited all four worlds. All the others, including this one, involved themselves strictly with the first travel, to Lilliput. So, really, very few of them were ever truly faithful to the source material.
I am not willing to believe that this is the worst novel-to-screen adaptation since the 1995 version of the Scarlet Letter. (which I am now morbidly interested in seeing).
I seem to remember a Jackie Chan-vehicle that physically abused a Jules Verne classic back in 2004. (To be honest, when I first heard of this film, I immediately thought of Around The World in Eighty Days)...
RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: Doofy though the result may have been, at least the basic plot of Verne's novel was preserved in the 2004 remake of 80 DAYS (LINK). In the 2010 GULLIVER, only the idea that the central character seems to be a giant compared to the tiny people of Lilliput remains. And early reviews suggest that this film's makers have taken what was intended as a socio-political satire and turned it into a knees-to-the-groin, potty-humor-laden 3 Stooges style slapstick farce.
So, yes, I still think one would have to harken back to the halcyon days just prior to Demi's demise (LINK) to find as awful a remake of a classic novel as this one...
Just to clarify, the award for "Worst Remake" goes to the worst movie overall, or the one that has the least in common with its source material? Some remakes this year have had worse reviews than this movie, but this one doesn't seem to try to respect the book.
HOLLYWOOD'S ASTOUNDING ABILITY to REDUCE ANY CONCEPT to DOO DOO HUMOR for the MASSES MAY HAVE REACHED NEW HIGHS (OR IS THAT LOWS?) WITH the 2010 REMAKE of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.
ALTHOUGH SEVERAL PREVIOUS VERSIONS of THIS SAME MATERIAL (IMDb LINK) ALSO FAILED to CAPTURE the SATIRICAL WIT of JONATHAN SWIFT'S ORIGINAL NOVEL, THIS ONE DOESN'T EVEN TRY. WITH the SOMETIMES ENDEARINGLY DOOFY JACK BLACK MERCILESSLY MUGGING LIKE MOE HOWARD in the TITLE ROLE (and EARNING a WORST ACTOR NOMINATION in the PROCESS) SWIFT's BRILLIANT PREMISE IS NOW a MERE EXCUSE for POORLY EXECUTED VISUAL FX (SEE IMAGE BELOW) and ENDLESS, OBVIOUS JOKES ABOUT "SIZE" (GET IT??). THE RESULTING TONE HAS MORE in COMMON with GILLIGAN'S ISLAND THAN with ANYTHING in the HIGHLY REGARDED BOOK. IN FACT, ONE WOULD HAVE to GO ALL the WAY BACK to DEMI MOORE'S HILARIOUS RAZZIE® "WINNING" 1995 REMAKE of SCARLET LETTER(with ITS DIM-WITTED/TACKED-ON "HAPPY ENDING") to FIND a MORE DISRESPECTFUL ADAPTATION of a CLASSIC NOVEL.
AND MAKING THIS ONE of the LAST RELEASES of LAST YEAR ALMOST GAVE the IMPRESSION THAT TINSEL TOWN IS NOW in the BUSINESS of CREATING "RAZZIE®-BAITERS" (MOVIES MADE for the SOLE PURPOSE of PROCURING OUR NOMINATIONS).
HERE'S to OUR VOTING MEMBERS for TAKING the BAIT, and GIVING THIS ONE a "SWIFT" KICK in the BALLS...
AS YOU CAN SEE, THIS FILM'S MAKERS EXPENDED NO SPARES in
CREATING THEIR "SPECIAL" EFFECTS...PHOTO SHOP, ANYONE??
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Topic: Jonathan Swift...Meet Moe Howard!
