Entertainment
01 July 2010
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| SHREK FOREVER AFTER |
SOME years back, DreamWorks film studio, lagging behind its more accomplished rival Pixar, had a huge hit with Shrek. Audiences and critics marvelled at the grown-up humour and swipes at modern culture.
Two sequels later and the franchise is widely derided as lacklustre, formulaic and lazy film-making. So is money the only reason to drag it out for a fourth and, we are promised, final outing?
On the evidence of Shrek Forever After, the answer is a pleasant no. Shrek the ogre (Mike Myers) finds himself stuck in a rut. He has a lovely wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz), three children he loves and a talking donkey best friend (Eddie Murphy) but something is missing.
He longs for the days before wedded bliss when pitchfork-carrying locals were terrified of him and he lived alone. A chance meeting with the magical Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) leads to an offer to Shrek to live one day without the family and return to the life he had before.
It soon transpires that the green one has been tricked and is now stuck in an alternate reality where Rumpelstiltskin is King, Fiona an outlaw and nobody knows who Shrek is.
Fans of the first three films, and there are a few despite the appalling third instalment, will not be the only ones to enjoy a return to form for DreamWorks. True the main thrust of the story is once again a pop culture rip-off of sorts, think It's A Wonderful Life, but whereas before we were
SHREK FOREVER AFTER (PG)
Director: Mike Mitchell
Starring: Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy * 93 min
RATING: 3/5