Shrek 2 Review

by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)
June 16th, 2004

Shrek 2

Rental

Fe Fi Ho Hum. As with all visceral disappointments, Shrek 2 stymied my ability to write for well over a week (or two- gulp). Long(ish) time readers may recall that I found the first Shrek to be funny, but hardly an enduring classic like Pixar's Monster's Inc of the same year. It should be noted, too, that Pixar lost the first-ever Animated Feature Oscar to Shrek despite Monsters Inc. having all those qualities that are truly Oscar worthy. I would put at the top of this list (much the same list that qualifies a Classic) is a lack of reliance on pop culture ephemera to make a weak joke that does not drive the plot. But Shrek the first, for all its easy jokes, pop culture anachronisms, and hit singles, was, at least, funny. Shrek 2: Not So Much.

Yes, yes, yes, Antonio Banderas voicing Puss in Boots is funny for the scant 10 minutes of screen time he gets. But when the best humor is from his line delivery and not the lines itself, you have to wonderŠ Another two examples of better casting than writing: Rupert Everett and Jennifer Saunders in the roles of Prince Charming and Fairy Godmother. And John Cleese with the King, to be sure. Divine casting, but given little to do. Even our leads seem like they didn't do much - the movie is all little asides and visual product placement gags, it feels like nothing happened at all. The animation is, I must admit, superb. But my word, the spaces between even the easy laughs were unbearable. When I did find mirth, I felt almost as if I had betrayed the spirit of the film.

Shrek 2 returns us to Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey only moments after we left them, newly wedded and going to meet her parents. The Hollywood references for the princess' homeland (Far Far Away) are all too easy, too obvious. Genuinely good ideas get glimpsed and shunted off in favor of another Starbucks dig. Abundant product placement jokes, would could have been punny fun, fell flat and sour. You see the too-familiar corporate logos out of focus, but you recognize the logo because of its irritating ubiquitousness anyway, but what you can't see, because it is out of focus, is that it is a joke product, such as Tower of London Records. So, the joke is blurred, and your mind only registers "Tower Records" and "Starbucks," even though they want to make a funny. Devious. Ditto Burger King, Subway, more - they were so fast and/or blurry that we couldn't even mine them for the cheap laughs they could have been. The list of sponsors is as embarrassingly long as the product tie ins for (gulp) Cat in the Hat. To be fair, I will admit that Starbucks (I forget the joke name for it, Farbucks?) provided one of the biggest laughs for meŠthink Stay-Puft Gingerbread Man.

Come to think of it, Mike Myers' love for product placement humor goes all the way back to 1992's Wayne's World. When will he let it go? Sure, we can say it's the filmmakers or the studio, the animators or the writers. But Myers is a brand unto himself, and no one can possibly be left who is so naďve as to think these things aren't interrelated.

The marketing push has been a huge turnof. Selling Shrek as this long lost beloved character who kids have been writing Santa to resuscitate has lent the whole enterprise a flavor of ick that the film itself just couldn't shake. Not that Shrek 1 wasn't funny. But come on. And on top of that, my pet peeve: the best moments were all ruined by the previews.

Shrek 2 feels less like a comedy and even more like a shilling hootenanny than before. The clever jokes (there are some) and the aforementioned great comic vocal performances save the movie from being a total bore, but god help you if you pay more than Rental price. People I know and even respect enjoyed it, but maybe they just don't see enough good movies to know what should have been. How arrogant of me. But I was so, so very disappointed.

I didn't expect a classic, but I did hope to come out reasonably glad I went in.

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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource

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