Rating: 
Summary: One of the funniest movies ever
Review: If there were ever a movie to see and to own, Shrek was it. Okay, maybe it's not the only one, but it's definitely worth having. The movie has got to be one of the funniest, smartest satyres to be produced in the last 100 years. With Shrek, you get to take everything you thought you knew about fairy tales and see them from the other side. The movie puts fairy tale living in a new light and challenges the viewer to see things through childlike eyes. It's like being a kid all over again. One of the best things about this movie is that it's great for kids and adults. Kids will love the general story and the animation. Adults will love the underlying messages and humor as well as the animation. And, you've got to see the extras on DVD...Trust me.
Rating:
Summary: A Fairy Tale within a Fairy Tale
Review: What a beautiful, invenitve, intelligent, funny and heart-warming movie. That about says it all. Mike Myers is amazing as Shrek. Princess Fiona is rendered beautifully by the computer animators and Cameron Diaz. Eddie Murphy reprises his "Mushu" character from "Mulan" in his portrayal of Donkey. This is and is not a predictable story. You will know what I mean when you see it. It takes clever shots at Disney throughout the story-especially funny is Fiona's duet with the bluebird. I'm not sure why they made the prince so short-statured. The short jokes fell flat with me, and I am a tall person. This picture shows that computer animation continues to make huge strides and that without the high costs of actors, more time and money can be spent on a good story. This is an excellent choice for young viewers! (and adults!)
Rating: 
Summary: Dreamworks has a lot to learn
Review: SHREK is visually impressive and very commercial (commercial is not bad because movies need to make money), which makes it a typical Dreamworks effort. The same things may be said about GLADIATOR and AMERICAN BEAUTY. But like those two Oscar(tm) winners, SHREK is also very limited. The storyline is weak. Trash-talkin' Disney (like the grafting of teenage heads on the nude bodies of adult women in BEAUTY) may be bold and innovative, but it will not make for an all-time classic film. The use of brash contemporary music was a staple of animation even in the 1930s, nothing new about that, but Disney always seems to come up with original and Oscar winning songs for their features. Dreamworks takes the easy way out, though I did like the Hallelujah song. As far as the SHREK'S DANCE PARTY animation, even in 1940 with FANTASIA, Disney showed that by putting dancing animated characters slightly out of step with each other the effect is more realistic. Dreamworks goes with the lockstep mechanical look. SHREK is "close, but not Cewpie doll!"And what I really hate most about this film is that the Donkey very closely resembles my dearly departed dog (Jack Russell terrier) in shape, manner, and attitude. Props to Dreamworks on the realism there, but it's kinda painful for me to watch.
Rating: 
Summary: Pop Culture Drivel at it's worst . . .
Review: (Reviewer is 25 y.o.) I didn't get a chance to see this in the theatres, so I breathlessly awaited the DVD release... What a lot of wasted anticipation! The animation is the only thing this film has going for it. Some scenes are absolutely gorgeous...The sunflowers are real enough to touch...The dragon is too cute...The castle is awesome... But the animation is where my enchantment began and ended with this film. I will admit, sometimes my sense of humour tends towards the obscure, the esoteric, the high brow...But I'm not totally stuffy...I do think there is a time and a place for some good old fashioned pub type humour...I even laugh at the Drew Carey show from time to time...and how much more low brow could you get? ... But this movie was neither the time nor the place for such humour... It was painfully self-aware, forced, crass, rude, and just flat out tasteless. The scenes I found the most tasteless and disturbing are: The princess goes out early one morning to find food. As she walks along, she begins to hum a lovely little melody...In Disney fashion a sweet little blue bird begins to warble along with her...the shot pans back and forth between the Princess and the bird a couple of times, and then focuses on the Princess as she hits a high note...a high note she can't sustain and that goes all wrong...you hear this gruesome exploding sound and no more singing bird...the shot then focuses back on the branch where the bird was...only now, there are two little burnt legs clutching the branch and a rising plume of smoke... Please! That is just disturbed... The other scene that upset me involves the Princess and Shrek using a live toad and a snake to make balloon animals...I know a lot of people will think I am uptight, so be it...but stuff like this just flat out warps kids. No matter how harmless they think it is... Don't even get me started on the music! Anyway, suffice to say, this movie was a total waste of money and time. If your an animation afficianado, then do see the movie..but if you are looking for some healthy, happy, and fun entertainment for yourself or your kids, pass this one up completely... (The one thing besides the animation that this DVD has going for it, is the preview of the upcoming Dreamworks animated feature _Stallion, Cinmarron Spirit of the West_.... the animation is unbelieavably gorgeous and the story looks flat out awesome...)...
Rating: 
Summary: Everyone likes Parfait
Review: SHREK plays best as a kids film for adults. It is filled with amazing technology, raising the bar again for CGI filmmaking. And although kids will love the adult humor (flatuence, belching and sexual references), it might not be what Doctor Mom ordered. the storyline, an hour and a half slap across the Disney feature films, and the orgainzation for that matter. Ironically, it is also one of the few drawbacks as the film makes fun of Disney marketing and turns around and becomes a major product of its own with Disneylike Synergy throughout. the film sports video games, and at least 2 movie soundtracks to date... Eddie Murphy and John Litgow put in great vocal performances and must be acknowledged. Funny man Michael Myers takes a big risk, making his Ogre have an Irish Brogue that only succeeds on certain levels. Still, it is fun for the adults, especially those who've had to sit through other family films in the past twenty years.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie!
Review: This was a very cute movie by Disney!
Not as good as the classics of course..But still worth it!
I sat with children and adults during this movie showing and It seemed as though more adults were interested in the movie than the kids were.. It did have adult humor,yes.But still kids would enjoy the Digital/Graphic effects *as in the characters,and cute voices* throughout the movie! It's a great movie overall & a MUST SEE!
Rating: 
Summary: not all it's cracked up to be...
Review: When a blockbuster movie is a huge box office hit AND gets good reviews you'd expect it to be a pretty decent piece of work but Shrek was a real disappointment - hardly terrible but no better than a midly entertaining hour and a half. The script is amusing in places but there are very few laugh out loud moments. Comapre this script to Toy Story 2 and you have no competition. The decision to let Mike Myers loose on a Scots accent was a very bad one. It smells of a vanity decision. 'Let me do an accent because I can do one. My family are Scottish.' Mike, my family are Scottish too and you do no more than a passable imitation. I am not sure how big this film was in Scotland but I am pretty sure it would have been laughed out of many theatres for all the wrong reasons. The background animation is superb, crisp and wonderfully detailed. However the character animation was clunky and dated. It may have been a stylistic decision but another bad one if you ask me. The choice of music was bizarre and simply didn't work. I love The Eels but the song didn't feel right and presumably was only there because they are Dreamworks artists. And Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah??!! What was going on??!! Not a complete waste of time but nowhere near as good as it was purported to be. What does it say of the competition when this film blew everything else away upon release. Pleasantly average.
Rating:
Summary: So close to being a classic
Review: Do the short jokes short circuit the story? First of all, let me say this. This film is brilliant in many many ways. The casting of the characters, the small details. Cameron Diaz was outstanding as Fiona, Eddie murphy's voice and personality perfect for the donkey. Even Mike Myers was OK. Lithgow's snarl was spot on for the prince. Heck, the funniest scene dead to rights is the first one in which you see Farquad as he interrogates the gingerbread man. The absolutely spot-on spoofs of many Disney and fairy tale standards. The scene with robin hood simultaneously taking a swipe at Robin hood, Crouching Tiger, Jackie Chan, and the Matrix.... lord I fell over on that one. Or the wedding scene's little pokes at the Princess Bride.. I loved it. I've bought it. I still love it. In comparison to Monsters Inc. This is Calvin and hobbes to The Far Side. Both wonderfully skewed takes on accepted reality, with the far side specializing in applying the mundane to the absolutely wierd, and C&H taking the mundane and transforming oit through a very childlike vivid sense of fantasy. But.... First of all, for some this is not really a kids movie. A teen movie, yes, one I've evenlet my nine year old see, yes, but not really for kids. The innuendo doesn't bug me, but the opening which went out of it's way to be disgusting in a garbage-pail kids way, and the ear-wax candle were just a bit much.
While we're on the opening, I know that this is a spoof of fairy tales, but did we have to have the cheesball pop music? No, nothing against pop (actually I thought having smashmouth cover I'm believer was brilliant and fit wonderfully into the film) but c'mon, can't ya find something more fitting than All Star? on a minor gripe, I think they shoulda used the original Lenoard Cohen track instead of the cover when Fona was getting ready for the wedding. his voice fits better. Some people have complained about the short jokes. OK..... this may or may not contravene the ipoint of the film, but what people are missing is that both Fiona and Farquad were looking for a way to overcome their physical "handicaps." Fiona had her head no less full of (...) over that than Farquad at the beginning of the movie. And most of the jokes about Farquad, especially the compensation one, were brought upon himself by his own BEHAVIOR rather than his lack of stature. Nevertheless, just because Farquad was a jerk doesn't entirely excuse it. What ticked me off more was that Fiona "Ugly" wasn't. A little overweight? Yes. Obese? No. Ugly? No, actually rather cute. She should have looked more ogre-like, not just chubby and green. The only other thing that got me was the spell unwinding. i can buy that they had to make it more obvious than the transformation sequences, but it smacked so much of "lookit the kool things we can do" rather than a logical progression of the other shown spell effects. My two cents.
Rating:
Summary: A family movie at it's best
Review: I think I enjoyed this movie more then my kids. Funny, cleverly written with puns all though it. I was even surprised at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Animated, But Not Just For Kiddies
Review: Despite the fact that Shrek is a CGI cartoon, it is a film that can be enjoyed by adults too. There is humor and there are various innuendos that will go way over the heads of children, but will make adults laugh like crazy. It also teaches a lesson which thousands of movies have exploted before in hopes of getting nominated by Hollywood eggheads for an Oscar, but actually utilizes a fresh method of getting the point across. Good stuff, I'd say.
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