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Shelf Beauties |
Shrek The Third Poor Shrek. He has become the Joe Camel of the food wars with advocacy groups attacking DreamWorks and other companies for daring to have a cartoon character promoting M&M’s, McDonald’s Happy Meals and breakfast cereals. McDonald’s is even using a thinner version of Shrek in its promotion of the healthier version of Happy Meals, which is just a great way to promote positive body image with the fat kids out there by proving you can only be accepted and successful in society by getting thinner. How many anorexics will be born from this idea? Then, Shrek’s new movie makes it look like he is Shaquille O’Neal – a once great warrior who can only achieve the highest levels of achievement and performance in short bursts. Off in the land Far Far Away, Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are forced to take over the duties of the King (John Cleese) and Queen (Julie Andrews), when the King passes away (in an awkwardly funny and supposedly sad scene). However, Shrek has no intension of taking on the title and responsibilities, and still dreams of moving back to his beloved swamp where he can live a quiet life with Fiona. To avoid ascending to the crown, Shrek and his sidekicks, Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas) and Donkey (Eddie Murphy), head off to find the only other heir to the throne – teenage loner and outcaste, Cousin Arthur (Justin Timberlake). When they are away, the evil Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) decides to launch a diabolical plot to take over Far Far Away. Will Prince Charming
succeed? Will
Arthur want to be
King? Is he ready? Normally, I believe movies
should be judged on their own merits and failures, but a sequel
inherently asks
the ticket buyer (or dupes them) to see this movie because he or she
loved the
previous installments, so comparison seems in order.
Based on that, Shrek The
Third will entertain
the young ones with its slapstick antics and frequent references to
poop and
puke (kids can’t get enough poop and puke jokes. Parents, on the other
hand, may want to avoid
eating anything during the movie), but the movie falls short of
providing the
same excellent, witty dialogue and stories full of pop culture
references that Shrek
and Shrek 2
did (it feels like the producers are more interested in product
placement than the kind of pop reference placement we love). It’s not as
smart, not as soulful and not as
good, even if it is good enough to go see and enjoy.
Directors Chris Miller and
Raman Hui, and at least 5 screenwriters, don’t give us the
excitement, or comedy
we expect from a Shrek movie.
We don’t
get the cool movie and TV parodies like we did in Shrek 2
and Shrek, aside from
one hilarious sequence with Gingerbread Man and an homage to Buster
Keaton only
hard core movie geeks will get. Then, Shrek The
Third
is a
movie on a breakneck pace because it never stops to develop anything. It’s an
extremely simple plot that moves from
point A to B to C without much examination or teaching us about the
characters
involved. Most of all, Shrek The
Third
lacks heart. In the
first two movies, we
were cheering for Shrek because he was being duped by those with ill
intent,
struggled with his self-image, attempted to win the love of his life,
showed us
his heart of gold and tried to win the approval of his new
wife’s family. In Shrek The
Third,
he is being deceitful and
selfish as he tries to get Arthur to take over as king so he can escape
responsibility. That’s
just not very
admirable. Before you start to think I
hated the movie, let’s talk about what was good. Banderas is fantastic as
Puss In Boots with
his Don Juan ways and swashbuckling attitude.
Some of it will seem familiar, but Banderas is so
good, you laugh all
over again. Gingerbread
Man (a/k/a
Gingy) continues to steal every scene in which he appears with a moxy
and
toughness you don’t expect from a tiny little cookie
decorated with candy, but Conrad
Vernon (who did the voice of Gingy in the first two movies, so I assume
he has
done so here as well) adds just a slight touch of vulnerability that
wins over
the audience and makes us worry about the little guy whenever he is in
danger. Also, Amy
Poehler is perfect as a very snooty
Snow White, who would fit in well on the set of Sex and
The City or Grey’s
Anatomy. Overall, Shrek The
Third
is
a funny visit with familiar characters that will make you laugh, but we
don’t
learn much new about them, don’t have the same emotional
response and don’t
leave hoping for a fourth. 2 ½ Waffles (Out
of 4) Shrek The Third is rated PG for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action.
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