Sabkush Entertainment: Review: Shrek Forever AfterReview: Shrek Forever After
All along, the Shrek series has shrewdly played to children as well as their popcorn-buying parents. For the under-10 crowd, there’s a chorus of burps and farts; and for the grown-ups, there’s arch pop culture references and a hipster-friendly soundtrack (the original film included John Cale’s gorgeous version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah). Embedded in the silly anarchy of skewered fairy tales are adult-approved morals about loyalty, commitment and beauty coming from within. So far, it’s been a win-win, blockbuster formula: plenty of gross-out gags for the kiddies, a smidge of substance for their folks. But in Shrek Forever After, the fourth and final adventure of the trumpet-eared ogre (voiced as always by Mike Myers with a Scottish brogue), franchise fatigue has set in. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the swamp where Shrek and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) have set up housekeeping with their baby triplets. Each day is the same grind of domestic chores, diaper changes and fending off throngs of tourists who want a snapshot of their hero. Even Shrek’s soothing nightly martini (garnished with an eyeball) is interrupted by the demands of family life and drop-ins by sidekicks Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas). Before long, Shrek is wallowing in a midlife funk. He’s a monster emasculated by marriage and fatherhood. But who wants to watch a flatulent ogre kvetch about lost opportunities and wonder where his passion went, like some big green Greenberg? All that monotony gets monotonous until Shrek blows his stack at his childrens’ first birthday party, smashing a cake and storming out to sulk in the forest. The fun finally starts when Shrek meets Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), a pint-sized conniver, who nearly became the king of Far Far Away when Fiona’s parents asked him to break her curse. But before that could happen, Shrek and Fiona fell in love, thwarting Rumpelstiltskin’s evil plans.
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