2004 sequelRating: 12/20
Plot: The lovably flatulent ogre is back, fresh from his honeymoon with the fat chick. There's no time to just sit around and enjoy his swamp and his new married life though because the poor guy's got problems with his donkey, his in-laws, and an intrusive fairy godmother. And there's a cat in this one.
Dreamworks didn't really take advantage of their chance to make a half dozen or so Puss jokes, did they? I believe somebody at Dreamworks must be related to somebody in the Eels because they're in this movie and the first one. And I heard them in the third one, the Shrek movie I couldn't even finish, a few days ago. Speaking of music, here's the main question I have about this movie--the first time we meet the Captain Hook character singing at a piano in an inn, he's got Tom Waits' voice. But the second time, he's Nick Cave. What gives? I don't really like the more meandering story in this one, and the new characters, with the exception of the cat voiced by none other than Ricardo Montalban (well, he should have been), do nothing for me. The humor's flat, and I think the makers of this make a huge mistake with the kiddies when they give the characters they're used to completely different appearances for a lengthy amount of time. It was probably to sell action figures or something. Too many loud pop songs, too many pop culture references, and yes, too many fart jokes.
Yeah, you pretty well hit it for me on this one.
ReplyDeleteI do like Antonio Banderis (However the hell you spell that, I am too lazy to look it up, so someone do it for me.) I think the cat is the only consistently funny thing about this film. This is the one with Jennifer Saunders as the villain, and Julie Andrews and whats his face from Monty Python as the king and queen, right?
Its certainly not very memorable, it was not very funny, and it was surprisingly mean spirited throughout. I seem to recall laughing a couple times though, so that 12 is probably about right.
I also agree the third one was unwatchable....but the fourth one was actually kind of okay. It was nowhere near as enjoyable as number one, but it seemed to be less about the farts and more about trying to be fun.
Intrestingly enough, this movie was on TBS last night as I went to bed. I watched the first half hour, to count the number of times I either laughed or was even amused. It was one time, when Prince Charming takes off his helmet on the way to rescue the long gone Fiona....theres a pretty amusing tossing of the head while his perfect hair organizes itself.
ReplyDeleteThat was it, for the entire first thirty minutes of the movie.
Just thought I would share that...since it was such a big part of my Friday night.
Oh and Joe Paterno sucks.
I didn't realize Paterno was in this one...does he voice Pinocchio?
ReplyDeleteIf you only saw the first 30 minutes, you didn't get to hilarious part where Pinocchio lies about wearing a thong. It's the scene I'll point to when trying to explain to people just why I don't like these Shrek movies...
By the way...that beats the highlight of my Friday night, I think.
ReplyDeleteWe're just not going to see eye to eye on this. Comedy and taste in animation are subjective, so it will be a waste of time trying to convince both of you that you are dead wrong. While not as groundbreaking as the original, "Shrek 2" is just as clever/funny, has great characters and character relationships (adding Puss was brilliant), and benefits from brisk storytelling. There is nothing I disliked about the film, and the "I Need a Hero" sequence with the giant gingerbread man remains one of my favorite scenes from the series. I really don't understand why you don't like these films (except the second half of sucky "Shrek 3"), but my feeling is it's your loss. An 18.
ReplyDeleteThe first was pretty good, let's say a 16, but from then on it seemed to try to focus on the parts I didn't care about as much.
ReplyDeleteWhen the jokes for the adults, which were unexpected at first, seemed to try to hard, or almost cross the line. Is Shreck 2 the one where Puss has a bag he claims is catnip? That's a little much for me, and I don't offend easily. Let me rephrase, I was not offended, I just thought it was bad taste considering the medium and the supposed target audience.