painfully disappointing and bad

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2007)

'Shrek the Third' is the classic case of a movie being made just to turn a profit. And making 122 million in its first weekend is definitely close to turning a profit. The charm and charisma of the first Shrek is gone, but the absolutely fabulous performances of Antonio Banderas and Eddie Murphy are not to be missed. The film is very disappointing, but it is funny. In the end, you'll leave upset at how it didn't grab you like the original.
Shrek (Mike Myers) has never been the social type, so asking him to be king is not a good idea. Fiona's (Cameron Diaz) dad has died, and he didn't have a son. So Shrek is the heir, something he doesn't want to do. His next task is to find Fiona's cousin Artie (Justin Timberlake) with the help of Donkey (Murphy) and Puss (Banderas) and install him as the king. Meanwhile, a mad Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) has decided to attempt to claim what is 'rightfully his' - the kingdom of Far Far Away.
As always, the actors are great with the jokes, which are many in number. Antonio Banderas especially is hysterical. Just the character of Puss in Boots is absolutely phenomenal. He is the best part of the movie. Myers once again shines as the impatient and sarcastic title character, while Murphy is again in top form. Diaz's Fiona isn't in the movie as much as before, nor is she as funny. It's the writer's fault. Rupert Everett is also funny, as are Eric Idle and Justin Timberlake. Idle is a wonderful spoof actor, as evidenced in the legendary Monty Python series.
The biggest problem is the direction and writing. What happened? The film is funny, but it's just not entertaining. It went by really fast, almost too fast. I couldn't comprehend anything that was happening, and none of the jokes are overly memorable, in exception to Puss. It was just really sad to watch the film fail as every joke is a fart or sex joke (I know, it's a kids movie). After falling, one character says 'I haven't had a trip like that since college'. Are you kidding me? That's not a joke for a kids movie. The movie tries to hard to be funny at times, and it has really gotten old. This is a bigger disappointment than Spider-Man 3, which at least had some memorable moments. Shrek the Third has some pretty inappropriate jokes, so I'd say children under 11 or 12 might want to hold off until they're older.
5/10 --spy