Shrek 2

By Rebecca Redshaw

What’s big and green and makes people laugh with glee? If you answered the ogre Shrek dominating the big screens in every multiplex in America, you would only be half right.

Yup, Shrek2’s hero is big and he’s definitely green but the people laughing with glee are not the boys and girls of all ages who plopped down the price of at least three, maybe four gallons of gasoline at the box office. Nope, the people laughing all the way to the bank with bags and bags of green stuff are the men and women at Dreamworks.

To illustrate the strength of almost any sequel one need only to site the scene of our leading man (Mike Myers) and his adoring wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz) blushing as they pass gas and bubbles erupt on the tub’s surface.

There are some cute moments to this feature follow-up. Antonio Banderas somehow weaves innocence and sex into a cute cuddly cat package. Eddie Murphy reprises his smart ass sidekick and makes the most of every line. Thank god most people already know how talented Julie Andrews and John Cleese are ‘cause Shrek2 doesn’t offer a clue. Adults familiar with Rodeo Drive can smirk and nod knowingly at the sly asides letting those in the rows behind know that they are way too hip for the room. (Let’s face it – if they were really too hip for the room they would have seen this flick at an exec’s house at a private screening.)

But shucks, guys, shouldn’t we be talking about a movie here? Audiences – young and old – WAKE-UP! The production has great animation value and an incredibly talented cast, but a story line so thin you could wrap it around a comb and hum Yankee Doodle Dandy. That would have been more entertaining.

If the best thing you can say about a movie is the gross then, well, that’s gross.