Pun Salad

Historical recap: after achieving sheer brilliance with the first two Shrek movies, the filmmakers stumbled badly with Shrek the Third. The good news is that they managed to recover a bit with this (apparent) last movie in the series. I chuckled most of the way through, anyway.

Our big green buddy has settled into a life of domestic bliss with the beautiful Fiona and three bouncing little ogrelets. Still… he's an ogre, after all, and a certain part of him misses the old days of adventure and misanthropy. It's a midlife crisis!

Since Shrek can't do what most of us guys do (run down to the Ford dealer and start pricing out red Mustang convertibles), he's glum, and easy pickings for the scheming Rumpelstiltskin. Before you can say "Frank Capra", we're in It's a Wonderful Life, as Shrek enters a universe where he's never been born.

Voices are great, especially Eddie Murphy. Lots of clever dialog and sight gags. The action sequences are neat (it was a 3-D movie in theaters). If I were looking to be critical: the sloppy sentimentality level is high. But that's OK.