Black plays the title character, here reimagined as a long-time worker in the mail room of a New York newspaper whose crush on one of the paper’s writers (an appealing Amanda Peet) leads to him traveling to Bermuda where, thanks to a fancy CGI whirlpool, he ends up in the land of Lilliput, home to said pocket-sized people.

I do realize the film is meant to appeal to kids, as sophomoric gags abound, including the aforementioned robot with which Black does battle, but none more so than the sight of Black dousing a fire in the Lilliputian castle by relieving himself on it. And if Black falling on a Lilliputian soldier rear-end-first doesn’t get the little ones laughing, nothing will.

Black does little more than his standard slacker shtick as Gulliver, using phrases like “condish” and “grade-A courtage” to try and make the material seem more hip. But what seemed like very funny behavior in School of Rock just doesn’t work here. Admittedly, the film does mine a decent sight gag out of his flabbiness that involves cannonballs.

I can’t really fault director Rob Letterman for trying to impart a grow-up-and-be-responsible message, either, I suppose, but it’s a half-hearted effort at best. Black learns his lesson in the broadest way possible, so I didn’t buy it when he admits to Peet that “These little people have grown very large in my heart.” I rolled my eyes, in fact.

None of this is to say the film lacks laughs. Indeed, Chris O’Dowd is hilarious as an arrogant Lilliputian general who sees right through Black’s where-I-came-from stories (“Vice President Yoda”), while Jason Segel (I Love You, Man) earns some chuckles as a Lilliputian commoner with a crush on the kingdom’s princess (Emily Blunt, also funny) and Billy Connolly makes for a perfect king.

The only sequence I truly enjoyed (which borrows from the second story in Swift’s novel) was the one in which Black ends up on an island whose inhabitants are giants and where he’s captured by a little girl who keeps him in her dollhouse. Nothing else here made me laugh more than seeing Black being forced to wear a doll’s dress while being force fed a baby bottle. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 4/19/11

Steve Carell

Carell voices Gru, a bald, Nosferatu-looking über villain who hasn’t been very successful in his chosen profession. So he hatches a can’t-miss plan to steal the moon, which involves retrieving a shrink ray from a rival über villain, which itself involves adopting a spirited trio of little girls.

The funniest thing about the film has to be Gru’s minions– short, yellow, thimble-shaped little guys that wear goggles and speak in an amusing kind of gibberish. They’re used as guinea pigs for anti-gravity rays and fart guns, laugh at the bubbles in a water cooler and go shopping for a new toy for one of the orphans. No matter what they do, you’ll laugh.

Almost as funny is the accent Carell creates for Gru, a Dracula-sounding thing that perfectly complements the character’s pointy-nosed appearance. And the character’s all the more humorous for not really being that evil. More like mischievous on a big scale. His biggest claims to fame include stealing the Times Square jumbotron and the tiny Las Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower.

But the execution of all this is surprisingly uninspired, the attempts at cleverness a little too clever and the action a little too frantic. So the rival villain (Jason Segel) being a big-egoed schlub gets annoying fast, watching Gru’s bad-guy ship shrink in mid-air is not funny, and it’s no surprise that Gru eventually warms up to the girls, the youngest of whom is absolutely adorable.

If anything, the film is proof that not every all-CGI flick is a home run, even with the involvement of talent like Carell, Segel and Russell Brand (funny as the voice of Gru’s old-man assistant, Dr. Nefario). That doesn’t mean it’s a despicable movie. Just a slightly disappointing one. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Comedy/Family

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 12/14/10

Rudd plays a newly engaged California realtor who gets along famously with the friends of his fiancee (Rashida Jones), and women in general, but has no male friends to speak of and so no prospective best man. That is, until he hits it off with Segel. They bond over fish tacos and rock out to Rush.

To me the film didn’t seem as vulgar as Marshall, especially in how it foregoes any full-frontal nudity by Segel, and so I didn’t mind all the swearing or constant discussions about certain adult activities as much. And it all has a nice, loose-but not too loose-improvisational feel thanks to director and co-writer John Hamburg (Safe Men), who nonetheless could have cut the scene where Rudd educates Jones on said prog-rock band.

Plus it’s reliably funny, from the man-dates Rudd goes on to find a male buddy to Segel’s play-by-play of a guy who won’t fart near his girlfriend, to Rudd’s failed attempts to say “see ya later” in a cool way, to the way Rudd and Segel’s inevitable break-up involves a discussion of Chocolat. There’s also the hilarious fight Segel picks with Ferrigno that ends with Segel in a sleeper hold.

Rudd just seems to get funnier with each film, and here he elicits laughs not only from his expressions, like when a gay man-date (Thomas Lennon) lays a French kiss on him, but also from his tendency to sound Irish when trying imitate Jamaicans or Brits. Not to mention how he slaps his slick jerk of a co-worker (Rob Huebel) in telling the guy to get lost.

Segel’s easy-going man-boy slob made me laugh, too, from little things like telling Rudd not to make Ferrigno (whose house Rudd is trying to sell) mad, to bigger ones, like his string of curses after getting a golf ball to the shin. His role is also the more interesting one, in that he’s essentially a male etiquette mentor for Rudd.

Then there’s the talented supporting cast, most of which has little to do. J.K. Simmons makes a funny impression as Rudd’s dad, whose best friends are Rudd’s gay brother (Andy Samberg) and a guy named “Hank Markdukas.” Jones is fine as the typically sweet and intelligent girlfriend who has typically supportive gal pals (Jaime Pressly and Sarah Burns). Lennon (17 Again) makes the hysterical most of his all-too-brief screen time.

I can certainly see how people might tire of Rudd’s ultimate-nice-guy act, or find Segel boorish and annoying, or even be put off by the seemingly incessant profanity (though Rudd hardly swears at all). I myself could have done without Jon Favreau as Pressly’s overly-aggressive, cigar-chomping husband who constantly belittles Rudd.

But I still liked the movie, and what’s more, I could relate all too easily to the social awkwardness Rudd experiences when trying to bond with other men, be it playing cards with Favreau’s friends or not being invited on a bachelor party/camping trip by some fellow fencing fellows. That alone raisesI Love You, Man a few notches above your average cuss-filled comedy. – [DVD]

Comedy/Romance

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 8/11/09