This Week's PCR Movie Review

	"Shrek Forever After" Movie review by: Michael A. Smith Movies are rated 0 to 4 stars

MOVIE REVIEW "Shrek Forever After"  by Mike Smith
RETRORAMA DVD Review: "Greydon Clark Drive-In Double Feature: Hi-Riders & The Bad Bunch"  by ED Tucker
THE ASIAN APERTURE Samurai Princess  by Jason Fetters
MIKE'S RANT My Dinner With Carl (with Apologies To Wallace Shawn) .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Mike's Record Shelf  by Mike Smith

PCR Movie Reviews True Grit TRON: Legacy The Tourist Holiday Movie Preview Tangled 127 Hours H. Potter/Deathly Hallows Fair Game Unstoppable Megamind Due Date Conviction Hereafter RED Life As We Know It The Social Network Let Me In The Owls of Ga'Hoole The Town The American Machete Piranha 3D The Switch Eat Pray Love The Other Guys The Kids Are All Right Salt Inception Predators Twilight Saga: Eclipse Knight and Day The Karate Kid The A-Team Splice Sex and the City 2 Shrek Forever After Robin Hood Iron Man 2 Nightmare on Elm Street The Back-Up Plan Death at a Funeral Date Night Clash of the Titans H/T Train Your Dragon The Bounty Hunter Green Zone Alice in Wonderland Cop Out Shutter Island The Wolfman Dear John Edge of Darkness Crazy Heart The Lovely Bones Doctor Parnassus Nine

Dreamworks     
Starring: The Voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy
Directed by: Mike Mitchell
Rated: PG
Running Time: 1 hour 33 mins

I have to be honest…I was secretly hoping that I would hate “Shrek Forever After” because I wanted to write “the movie is a S-wreck!” Thank you…I’ll be here all week.

With the exception of “Star Trek IV,” it’s very rare for the fourth film in a series to be as good as the previous three. Look at the fourth films in the “Lethal Weapon,” “Police Academy” and the various horror franchises. And don’t even get me started on “Jaws the Revenge!” While not as bad as that stinker, “Shrek Forever After” does pale in comparison to the previous three films.

The setting is the swamp, home to Shrek (Myers), his Ogre-bride Fiona (Diaz) and their three children (Ogerettes?) Life is good for the family. Or should I say the family except for Shrek. Life for him is a series of repeated events. And he is getting tired of the tour buses that keep stopping by when he’s trying to take a mud bath. He longs for the day when the people on the buses used to fear him. Even his ferocious Ogre roar is now reduced to a parlor trick. When he meets a quaint little character named Rumplestiltskin (Walt Dohrn, also an artist on the film) he makes a deal to be the Ogre he once was for one day. But what he loses will effect not only Shrek but everyone he loves.

Like Jack and Jill the creators of “Shrek” have gone to the well one too many times. Yes, all of the familiar characters are here but they really don’t have a lot to do. Think of the story as a cross between “Gladiator” and “It’s A Wonderful Life,” without all of the violence. Besides the introduction of Rumplestiltskin, that is really the plot of the film. The rest of the characters spend the majority of the film in an almost undentured servitude to the little guy but again, none of them really have anything to say. Here Rumplestiltskin is the most fleshed out character, resembling a demonic version of Fred Astaire when he voiced the holiday special “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

So fear not, “Shrek Forever After” is not a S-wreck. But unfortunately it’s not S-great, either. Hey, I tried.

On a scale of zero to four stars I give “Shrek Forever After”