MOVIE REVIEW: 'Shrek the Third'


Slightly longer version of a review in today's Oregonian:




The perfectly adequate sequel "Shrek the Third" finds everyone's favorite ogre/corporate shill happily married and powerfully bored.

Shrek (voiced again by Mike Myers) is the acting king of Far Far Away. But as disastrous ship-christenings, costume-fittings and knightings pile up, the settled-down ogre yearns for the slimy comforts of his swampland home.

So when his dying father-in-law (John Cleese) tells him a second heir exists -- a drippy high-schooler named Arthur (Justin Timberlake) -- Shrek grabs Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) and sets out to drag the kid to the throne by any means necessary.

But that's the least of Shrek's problems. His queen, Fiona (Cameron Diaz), is pregnant, saddling Shrek with nightmare visions of fatherhood that wouldn't be out of place in "It's Alive."

Meanwhile, the disgraced Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) -- reduced to humiliating performances on the dinner-theater circuit -- rallies dozens of storybook villains to help him take Far Far Away by force, and….

You know, frankly, it's tough to get too exercised about any of this. (And it's not just me. I took my 10-year-old nephew to the "Shrek the Third" preview screening, and he dutifully took notes. They read, in their entirety, "ages 6-13" and "it's funny even for parents.") Whatever their merits, the wildly successful "Shrek" films are ultimately just the tip of a large Dreamworks "tentpole franchise" merchandising iceberg. The films are designed to sell tickets, toys, coloring books and Happy Meals. They're crassly funny in the most inoffensive way possible, and they're the best-made embodiment of what's wrong with corporate Hollywood animation: voice-casting based on celebrity rather than talent, pop-culture references in lieu of actual jokes, bland affirmations in lieu of driving ideas, and forgettable pop songs featuring whichever band Dreamworks Records signed before being absorbed by Universal Music Group in 2003.

All that said, I am capable of being entertained by the stuff. I found the first "Shrek" diverting enough, but was let down by "Shrek 2"'s unfocused "meet the parents"/shape-shifting shenanigans. So what a pleasant surprise that "Shrek the Third" mostly connects with a fairly tight story -- even if it feels less like a movie and more like a really good episode of a "Shrek" TV series.

There are fewer pop-culture jokes this time around (and no more "Matrix" references, thank heaven) -- though you could also argue there are slightly fewer jokes overall. Not everything works: Eric Idle, for example, offers a surprisingly dull take on Merlin, who is the "Shrek" universe is Arthur's disgraced, nervous-breakdown-suffering former high-school teacher. Also, this installment brings a number of human background characters to the fore, and they're rendered as stiffly as they've always been rendered in the "Shrek" series.

But the script is roughly ten times more focused and less audience-insulting than, say, "Spider-Man 3." And when it's funny, it's really funny. Arthur's medieval high school is a great rip on Hogwarts. Shrek's baby nightmares feature one astounding vomit gag. The fairy princesses have a terrific riot-grrrl scene when they finally empower themselves. Pinocchio's attempt to tell a lie without making his nose grow is a nice feat of grammatical contortion. And this movie contains one of the funniest moments in the entire "Shrek" series -- a 10-second stretch of insane animation genius in which the Gingerbread Man's entire life flashes before his eyes, and much of that life seems to be based on "The Six Million Dollar Man."

So. "Ages 6-13." "Funny even for parents." Yeah, that sounds about right.
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B; 93 minutes; rated PG for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action.

'Shrek the Third' (The Oregonian, May 18, 2007)

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Posted: Fri - May 18, 2007 at 11:56 AM        

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