I don't get it

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2001)

I saw Shrek over the weekend and don't get all the rave reviews that I read before hand. I saw a movie who could not make up its mind how it wanted to be funny. First, the theater was generally filled with parents with children but all the trailers were for teenagers oriented move (must be a Dreamworks thing). Second, the children around me did not get any of the jokes except the toilet humor, the talking donkey and the last scene of the movie. Third, most teenagers are not going to get the Disney references, the references to many other movies, or the biting humor aimed at Michael Eisner. Fourth, there were long stretches of the movie when no one laughed and most of the children fidgeted. The movie tried to appeal to children, teenagers, and adults who all have very different senses of humor and thus ended up with a muddled movie.
The bottom line: Most people are saying this movie is great because they have been told that it is great. If you showed it to a group who had not heard any of the buzz or scene any of the hype, they would say that it an above average animated movie that was was funny is a few places but not on anyone's top ten list.