Shrek

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG Runtime: 90 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

After seeing the first fart joke before the opening credits were finished, I suspected that the Dreamworks guys might have an instant classic on their hands. But when I witnessed what appeared to be a sugary-sweet “Disney-esque” moment take a strange and suddenly vicious turn (causing the 3-year old kid behind me to cry out in anguish) I knew this was going to be a truly special movie.

Shrek

I know a lot of you dads and older brothers out there have been forced to sit through the nausea-inducing effects of your standard G-rated Disney movie. And I know that a lot of you have found yourselves evilly fantasizing about how YOU could make it a MUCH better movie. Well gentlemen, someone finally reached into our collective perverted little minds and made that movie.

“Shrek” stars the vocal talents of Mike Myers (”Wayne’s World”, “Austin Powers”) as the movie’s namesake, a solitary ogre who just wants to be left alone to live his life in the swamp he’s made his home. Fate, it seems, has other ideas and soon Shrek finds himself on a grand adventure with a donkey (voiced amazingly well by Eddie Murphy) to rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). If Shrek is successful, he is to bring the princess back to the diminutive and slimy Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) so that he may wed the princess and become King.

Along the way, however, things don’t quite go according to plan (do they ever?) and the result is some of the funniest scenes I’ve ever watched in a movie. It seems that all of the public domain Disney characters are here including Snow White, Cinderella, Pinochio, as well as many, many others and they don’t get treated too kindly.

I can’t say much more about the movie without giving away plot secrets and/or good jokes but I can say that you should go see this movie as quickly as you can get there. As for me, the only thing I have to figure out is when I’m going back to see it again.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 5 Stars, Cameron Diaz, Comedy, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow, PG, Theatrical, Voices of Mike Myers