Keeping the blogosphere posted on the goings on of the world of submarines since late 2004... and mocking and belittling general foolishness wherever it may be found. Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me; don't call me at home.)

Friday, May 18, 2007

Movie Review: Shrek The Third

Much the same as with the Spiderman franchise, I admit I'm not the biggest fan of the Shrek movies. Sure, the first two had some pretty funny parts, but I never really found the Donkey character amusing as much as just plain annoying, and I've always had a real problem enjoying any movie featuring the "talents" of Antonio Banderas.

Still, I had high hope for the third of what will probably be an endless series of Shrek movies, Shrek the Third. The previews had some funny scenes, and I figured they'd continue, or even improve, on the cultural references that make the movies worthwhile for adults. They also brought Eric Idle on board, and I figured he'd probably be pretty funny.

I went to the 6 o'clock showing at my neighborhood cineplex; the theater was about 2/3 full. First, the good -- the computer-generated animation was incredible; I sometimes forgot I was watching CGI. Now, the bad. The movie is billed as a comedy, but at the end I realized that I hadn't laughed once. It turns out that essentially all the funny parts were in the trailers, so I didn't see anything that surprised me in a humorous way. The target audience (8 year old kids) seemed quite amused, but even my teenage sons didn't really see any real humor in the story. The new characters (Merlin and Arthur) were incredibly badly written, and actively detracted from any enjoyment I had watching the film.

This is a movie to watch in the theater if you're a really big Mike Myers or Eddie Murphy fan, or if you have pre-teen kids who like Shrek. Overall, the only thing that keeps me from giving this movie "the finger" is the incredible animation; because of that, it gets two unfunny ogres out of five.

2 Comments:

Blogger Reel Fanatic said...

Thanks for the warning .. I generally like Shrek for an endless barrage of jokes that go over the heads of younguns, but it sounds like this barely even manages to deliver that .. I'll be finding out for myself later today

5/19/2007 4:25 AM

 
Blogger Rick "Doc" MacDonald said...

You should be kinder to Mr. Antonio Bandaras. He proved that he sucks as much as anyone else in "Interview With The Vampire". :-)

Thanks for the review. I'm taking two of my grandsons to see it tomorrow. I think I'll choose the theater, "Chunky's", an hour away to go to. They actually serve beer and burgers while you sit in old limo recliners and watch the movies. I'm just wondering if the 12 year old is too young to drive home. :-)

5/19/2007 9:01 PM

 

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