Tom Long reviews 'Shrek Forever After': The series is losing steam, and may be too scary for little children
Tired and tiresome.
That would be a concise description of "Shrek Forever After," the fourth (and hopefully final) installment in the green guy franchise that began so well and then drifted ever downward.
Gone are the double entendres that whizzed through the early scripts, the witty pop-culture references that peppered the films for adult audiences, the startling new characters (Puss in Boots!) who popped right off the screen.
Instead, "Shrek Forever After" is a 3-D frenzy of confusion, a mash-up of "Wizard of Oz," "It's a Wonderful Life" and the last season of "Lost," which throws our hero into an "alternate" reality. You half expect Hurley to come walking through the film.
It might have helped. As it is, "Shrek Forever After" will likely be too scary and confusing for small tykes and too dull and confusing for older folk.
Wit is exemplified in this film by an ogre named Cookie (Craig Robinson) who shoots chimichangas at his enemies. That would have been the weakest joke in the first movie; in this movie it is probably the best.
Shrek (Mike Myers) is now a settled-down married father to three rambunctious kids, starting to feel seriously penned in and weighed down by his circumstances.
So he makes a deal with the disreputable Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), hoping to put some oomph back in his life. And wham, suddenly he's in a different land of Far, Far Away -- one in which Rumpelstiltskin is king, witches hunt down ogres and Shrek and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) have never met.
Even worse, Shrek only has one day to live in this topsy-turvy world (don't ask why; none of this even pretends to make sense). Then, he will die.
His only way out is to reintroduce himself to Fiona, make her fall in love with him and then score a kiss. This will be difficult since Fiona is now a warrior princess leading rebellious ogres in a war against Rumpelstiltskin.
The set-up allows director Mike Mitchell ("Sky High") to work with lots of new ogres. Unfortunately, none of them are all that funny or distinctive (the incredible Jane Lynch is completely wasted as an ogre named Gretched who has maybe two lines in the film, neither notable). On the other hand, the new bland ogres may make for ancillary profits through action figures.
Although Lynch is nearly shut out, the film does revel in the sort of celebrity stunt-casting that often marks a franchise in its death throes, with Larry King, Meredith Veira, Ryan Seacrest and Regis Philbin all lending unneeded vocal assistance to minor characters.
Who is supposed to be excited by this? What child would care? What adult would care?
The only excuse for "Shrek Forever After" is a young audience that may be (understandably) freaked out a bit by the downright scary (if effectively drawn) witches and will near certainly find itself thrown by the "different reality" setup.
It's hard to hate the big, lovable green lug. But, as "Shrek Forever After" proves, it's easy to make him something of a bore.
tlong@detnews.com">tlong@detnews.com (313) 222-8879
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Princess Fiona, now a warrior princess, is voiced by Cameron Diaz.
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