Add Shrek to the middle-aged ranks of movie heroes sucking in their guts for one more go at box-office glory.

Only three films into a franchise that its emperors hope will spawn further sequels, Broadway musicals and TV specials, the cantankerous ogre has gone noticeably soft around the centre.

Granted, Shrek the Third may be entertaining enough to recommend -- only an ogre would argue otherwise -- but it is also distinctly less inspired than its predecessors. Maybe it's that "happily ever after" just isn't terribly funny. Shrek has the girl and the keys to the kingdom, remember.

Or maybe it's that Shrek Inc. has become at least as corporate as Disney, which the 2001 original skewered with such off-kilter delight.

Whatever the reason, this third outing sadly lacks in ambition and, at times, even offers the whiff of sitcom plotting and plodding.

Not that things don't start off somewhat promisingly, as the story picks up where 2004's Shrek 2 left off.

Shrek (Mike Myers), former proud owner of his own swamp, and princess bride Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are still living royally in Far Far Away, introduced last time out as a deft satirical doppelganger to Hollywood. Meanwhile Fiona's ailing father, the Frog King (John Cleese), recovers.

For Shrek, he can't return to his swamp soon enough. He's hopelessly out of his depth dealing with the royal niceties required of a king. So when Cleese's croaker croaks -- in a scene that thankfully recalls the absurd cruelty of the first film -- Shrek, along with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas), embarks on a quest to track down the kingdom's only other heir, a picked-on teenager named Artie (Justin Timberlake).

Meantime, lurking in the shadows (performing in bad dinner theatre productions) is Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), who plots with other famed fantasy villains to wrest control of Far Far Away from Fiona and her mother, the Queen (Julie Andrews).

Things bog down in the middle, though, and never quite recover, despite the odd burst of goofball hilarity (Gingerbread Man's Six Million Dollar Man flashback is a standout).

Even Murphy's motor-mouthed Donkey seems somehow smaller now that he has got a wife and brood of his own. Puss In Boots remains content to alley-cat around. Not helping either character is a landscape that appears increasingly overcrowded, this time by the introduction of The Princesses -- Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Cinderella -- who are anything but royal. (Points, though, for having Amy Poehler's Snow White segue from lilting Disney-esque melodies to Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song.)

It spoils nothing, I'm sure, to reveal that, when all is said and done, villains are vanquished and our heroes live happily ever after.

Again.

If only they'd just leave it at that.

(This film is rated G)
More Movie Reviews