After the very disappointing 3rd Shrek it only could get better nowcouldn't it? Maybe there was a slight chance it would continuedownhill, but fortunately they actually did manage to come up with agood story. A story one can only hope that puts the Shrek Saga to rest.What else should there come after this? It's OK to do a spin-off withAntonio Banderas character, but please not another Shrek (because Ivery much fear it would be along the lines of the very bad Shrek 3).

So while they didn't invent anything new (or did they?), the basic ideato make it about Shrek finding himself was strong enough to fill themovie. Not that many subplots and almost no distraction help the moviesignificantly! Not Pixar territory, but a good movie nevertheless.

Dreamworks have smartly ended this series before it continued itsdecline. The first two films were excellent and while these last twohave still had a lot of charm and humour they have lacked that vitalpunch that separates a good family film from being a great family film.

This film may be a slight improvement on the last one but there arestill a lot of weaker jokes and already dated pop culture referencesthat miss the mark. All the beloved characters return but by now theformat is looking slightly tired. It is a nice final chapter for thefans but it feels right that this is Shreks last outing.

Overall the Shrek saga has been an enjoyable one with lots of nicelines and characters. You could quite happily buy the whole box-set andfind good moments in all four films, the problem is that these momentsgot a little far and few between in the last two films.

In a nutshell, better than the second and third movies, but not as goodas the first.

It wasn't nearly as funny as I expected. At first I figured this wasdue to a fairly empty auditorium (you know how infectious laughter canbe). Then I began wondering if perhaps I was just becoming too old andlong in the tooth for that particular brand of humour. Finally itdawned on me that much of my own amusement was diluted by the fact thatI'd seen most of the funny bits already... on the movie trailers.

Shrek 4 is yet another victim of the trailer curse, which definitelyseems to ruin comedies more than any other movie type. As per usual,the two trailers I'd seen before finally catching the movie, seemeddetermined to show all of the laugh-out-loud moments.

Have you ever noticed that comedies such as Knocked Up and The Hangoverare so much more successful and talked about simply because thetrailers show far less (in Knocked Up's case, they used just onescene).

Anyway, Shrek 4 was entertaining enough despite the afore mentionedissue. I did laugh out loud a couple of times as did most others in thecinema. The story is fun and quite clever. The voice acting is topnotch as always and the animation is as fantastic as you'd expect.

So if by some miracle you can avoid the movie trailers then I expectyou'll enjoy this movie more than I did. Otherwise, watching this funbit of animation isn't a bad way to spend an afternoon :)

To cash on the popularity of newly discovered animated movies and therising popularity of Shrek is viewed as a cash cow. What a con game!!!With regards to the story, it simply fails to connect with thechildren. A simple linear story could have been identifiable with kids,but the story starts off on a wrong note. Even my son felt disenchantedwithin 30-minutes. As for me, the movie seemed to be a rehash of LionKing.

Well, the secret which has been unveiled now throws quite some surpriseas it is revealed that the animation film Shrek is neither an Indianproduct nor has it been made in collaboration with an Internationalanimation house. Instead, Percept Picture Company has claimed therights of a US film that goes by the name of Shrek.

Meanwhile, the buzz is that Akshay Kumit will be dancing to the latesttunes with supermodel Naomi Campbell for the shooting of a promotionalvideo for Shrek. Joining them will be his wife Twinkle and Bollywoodstarlet Lara Dutta. The actor has already worked with a lot ofHollywood biggies like Sylvester Stallone, Preston Routh and Snoop Doggfor his other movies.

It's not a HUGE spoiler, but I'll check the box just to be safe.

So anyways, Shrek 4 movie had all the visuals of a great movie.Outstanding animation, great digital cinematography, an entire worldcreated by the animators, great directing, etc. Heck, I'll even go sofar as to say the story line was pretty good-it had its twists andturns, almost like the original two Shrek films!

If the writers of Shrek 4 see this review, they'll definitely slapthemselves silly on how they missed such a HUGE plot hole caused byShrek 2. In Shrek 2, Fiona's parents arranged her marriage with theFairy Godmother's son, Prince Charming. So, if Shrek hadn't come torescue Fiona from the tower, Prince Charming would soon enough. Shewouldn't escape by herself.

Besides that infuriating plot hole, the writers lacked the magic of theoriginal two Shrek films. It may be that kids movies writers nowadayswould be afraid to have a line saying "I can get you a prince with asexy tush!" but part of the magic of the original two Shrek movies werethe original, if sometimes on the dirty side, gags which Shrek 4 almosttotally lacked.

If you were a fan of the original Shrek movie and you hoped from thereviews that this movie was a departure from Shrek 3, I'm sad to saythat in some ways it is (i.e. plot line), but in most ways it's not(i.e. unoriginal gags). In comparison to other recent kids movies(Monsters vs. Aliens, Bee Movie) this is quite a bit better, but stilldon't expect much. I'm in a good mood so I'll give it a 6.

The first two computer animated films were great, the third film wasfun but not as good, and this final film in the story is an improvementon the predecessor, also being the only one in 3D. Basically the filmstarts with the past where the Queen Lillian (Dame Julie Andrews) andKing Harold (John Cleese) almost signed a deal with Rumplestitlskin(Walt Dohrn) before they found out about Shrek (Mike Myers) rescuingPrincess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). Forward to the present, Shrek is gettingtired of the same repetitive life he is having with his wife and threeogre triplets, Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas)and all the fairytale friends hanging round doesn't help his stresslevel either. It is at the birthday party of the three babies that letsout his big roar of frustration, and storms off to get some peace, andthat is when he meets Rumplestiltskin. He offers Shrek the chance tobecome the former ogre he used to be for one day, feared and lonely,using a day from his past he wouldn't have any memory of, and he signsthe deal. So Shrek has some fun scaring people, but then he getscaptured by witches, working for Rumplestiltskin, and he realises thatDonkey doesn't recognise him because the day he was born hasn'thappened, and also that his life will end when the one day deal is up.So when they escape, Shrek does eventually convince Donkey to help himget back to the normal world, and they have the contract folded in acertain way to reveal how. They determine that Shrek needs to findFiona and share true love's first kiss once again, and they only findher beneath the ground, with many other ogres who have formed aresistance. Fiona, also not knowing Shrek, reveals that no-one rescuedher, she just escaped the castle herself, and she is still cursed, andthe only way she will be convinced to love Shrek once again is to charmher all over again. Hearing that Rumplestiltskin will offer any wish towhoever brings Shrek in, he hands himself in, and demands that he granthis wish to have all ogres released, of course Fiona isn't. Donkey, thefattened Puss in Boots and the ogre resistance go to the rescue, andthey thwart Rumplestiltskin's plan, and when it looks like Shrek isdisappearing from existence, Fiona, having fallen for him again, kisseshim. In the end, everything goes back to normal, Shrek realises howmuch his friends and family mean to him, and everyone does indeed livehappily ever after. Also starring Jon Hamm as Brogan, Glee's Jane Lynchas Gretched, Craig Robinson as Cookie, Larry King as Doris the UglyStepsister, Kathy Griffin as Dancing Witch and Mary Kay Place as GuardWitch. The voices are still good, although Rumplestiltskin could havebeen someone we actually know, the computer animation is still goodquality, and the It's a Wonderful Life style storyline is much betterthan the previous, all in all, a fun final animated fantasy comedyadventure. Worth watching!

What was so great about the first Shrek film was the relationshipbetween the characters and the world that was created for this film.The relationship between Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and all the othercharacters was ironclad in its design. The world created for Shrek –the fact that he is an Ogre, lives in the woods and is feared by most,but not by his friends, was just wonderful fun. I feel the ShrekFranchise made a mistake, when they went away from what theyestablished in the first film, by moving the Shrek "family ofcharacters" into a new setting, which is being King and Queen of theKingdom of Far Far Away, with the supporting cast falling in linebehind them and changing the setting from the woods to the Kingdom. Inthe second and third films I felt we lost some of what Shrek was allabout. It seemed to take on a form that had been seen time and timeagain in other films. It lost its luster and became boring. So, it wasnice to see this film (#4), try to recapture that magic by channelingelements found in the first film, by using a unique-device (I have beencalling it the J.J. Abrams approach), by having Shrek's past changed bya devious "bad guy", thus removing the King and Queen scenario andcreating a situation much like the first film. How would it do? Eventhough the second and third films had problems maintaining my interest,what they did have was laughs and great animation. Well the laughs havebeen all used up by the time we get to this film. Donkey's characteralmost was invisible. The bad guy, in this case was Rumpelstiltskin,seemed to be a carbon-copy of all the other antagonists from theprevious films and the supporting characters, including the ridiculousDragon, have run out of gas. We have an idea that starts out great, butis mired down by a tired formula, with not many laughs. I did enjoy thearmy of witches that Rumpelstiltskin had at his command. The animationdoes look fantastic and that is boosted by the witches appearances.They actually were scary. I was disappointed with this film because ofit not being funny, but the great animation, the witches and rehashingwhat made Shrek great makes it the second best film of the series.