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"Shrek 2 - my review."

I almost posted a medium-sized review of Shrek 2 yesterday morning, but deleted it because it wasn't going anywhere. But now I've come to realise why I couldn't post it: I didn't actually like the film. It was annoying. Very annoying, like a swarm of Jar Jar Binks gurning for 2 hours. Shrek was annoying. Donkey was annoying. Fiona was annoying. The cat was annoying. Prince Charming was very annoying. Kingie and Queenie were annoying. Fairy Godmother was annoying. And the characters all move like they've been freshly...er...rogered with a broomhandle. It only picked up once the characters from the first film made an appearance.

Now don't get me wrong, I know it was probably aimed more at kids this time. After all, how could a sequel to a film as anarchic as the previous Shrek movie be anywhere near as cutting when they've got adverts for Disney films before the main feature? That was the first thing that bugged me, and the film hadn't even started yet! The animation is gorgeous, though. The jokes may not have moved on (plenty of fart and burp jokes, followed by gurning), but there are clearly major advancements in the graphics stakes. It looks awesome, but it's a shame that it was a case of style over substance.

Great sounds like the popularity of the first one has got to them..

Yeah, that's quite a good comparison: as shoddy as a new Simpsons episode. Well done.

I went to see this yesterday and was really disappointed. It was still a good laugh but nowhere near as good as the first one. And it was so busy trying to be a 'pastiche of modern culture' that it forgot to actually be funny. Cramming a film full of a trillion references to diets, labels, celebrities and Starbucks isn't nearly as clever as they'd like to think it is. They could have got rid of the 'ha ha, let's satirise Hollywood' bits, concentrated on the story and got some humour out of the characters instead. Watching it reminded me of the feeling I get during most new episodes of the Simpsons when for no reason whatsoever somebody pops up on screen saying "Hi, I'm a cool, hip celebrity blah blah, let's sing a comedy song" - yeah, you could do that mate, or alternatively you could f*** off and stop ruining the best TV show ever.

"Shrek 2's producers think globally and act locally. Minor voice roles in the animated feature are switched for local audiences. In the UK, the ugly sister-barkeeper is voiced by chat show host Jonathan Ross; US audiences hear Larry King."

[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3860771.stm[/URL] - item 3.

Mav wrote:
> Nice, perhaps, but evidence for it being (as Newsnight put it)
> "a pastiche of modern culture"? I think not.

I love the snobbery in newnight review.

Very_Metal wrote:
> was the Ugly sister voiced by Jonathon Ross??

My girlfriend asked that before. I didn't notice she sounded like him but checked it up on IMDB anyway. It's not him.

If modern culture is farting, burping and gurning, them I'm going to have to freeze myself for 1000 years.

It's by far one of the most obvious social comments you can make, though.

Nice, perhaps, but evidence for it being (as Newsnight put it) "a pastiche of modern culture"? I think not.

well i hadn't seen it before and thought it was funny....
doesn't stop it being a nice observation of the world.

Very_Metal wrote:
> there's a WONDERFUL little social comment in
> the section where some townspeople come fleeing out of a starbucks,
> across the road into.... another starbucks. genius! :)

And we've never seen that before...