Snore. Is it just me, or does every trailer for a Jack Black movie now just seem like a fake trailer for a Jack Black movie in Tropic Thunder? That movie was pretty funny, and actually interesting and ambitious for a big budget Hollywood comedy, but I’m pretty sure Jack Black shot himself in the foot and/or face with it. “Don’t you get it, man, I’m playing an exaggerated version of my public persona.” Exaggerated, right. “They actually made my farts 1.5 times louder than usual for effect.” Got it. But, OK, here’s a question: WHO THE HELL IS THIS MOVIE FOR?

At first glance you would think that a Jack Black movie based on Gulliver’s Travels in which he plays a building-sized clown in a world of thimble-sized Jason Segels would be for children, and that would be fine. Children need to watch something in between crying jags. But 3/4 of this trailer is actually about how Jack Black is stuck in a dead-end job and harbors dreams of being a travel journalist in order to have sex with Amanda Peet, all of which are distinctly ADULT themes. If there is one thing that children do not give an F about it is harboring dreams of being a travel journalist. And having sex with Amanda Peet. So this movie is for grown-ups? Cool grown-ups. I would definitely like to meet those grown-ups. And take their Adult Licenses away. “You need remedial adult training.”

Based on the evidence at hand, my guess is that this movie is for no one.

OK, so this is basically The Forgotten meets The Inception trailer meets viral marketing during a basketball game for an episode of Fringe. Honestly, if a group of dudes in Mad Men costumes took me to an abandoned warehouse, showed me a crazy book with my “plan” in it, demonstrated their telekinesis, and then insisted that I stop trying to hang out with some girl I had just MET ON THE BUS that morning for the sake of both our lives, I would totally stop SEXTING her. I mean, seriously, I love free will as much as the next guy, but THERE ARE OTHER FISH IN THE BUS as they say. I’m certainly not going to disrupt an entire library over it. People might be studying for an exam!

But that’s just me. We can’t all be Mr. Cool Hat.

Even though I liked the movie, I wouldn’t recommend seeing it in theaters — it came across as a really good HBO movie that would have guaranteed John Malkovich an Emmy as Buck Howard, a washed-up yet overconfident mentalist who hires naive Colin Hanks as his tour manager. The story of the forgotten entertainer who still thinks he’s hot has been told before, but because it’s an entertaining story (the entire movie I imagined that Buck Howard was loosely based on William Shatner, but he’s actually tightly based on The Amazing Kreskin.) Anyway, this is your money-saving movie recommendation of the, um, year. Check local listings for IFC In Theaters OnDemand.

(Previously: The Great Buck Howard Has A Credibility Problem.)