For his fourth outing, Shrek (voiced in his usual brogue by Mike Myers) has left the land of Far, Far Away and entered a midlife crisis by way of It’s a Wonderful Life. And if the screaming kids in the theater don’t get to you, then the not-too-jolly green ogre’s three burping, farting, and also screaming offspring will — they even drive daddy to smash their birthday cake, flee their party, and make a deal with Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn — Paul Reubens should sue).
The resulting Shrek-less reality finds Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) embracing her inner ogress — odd, given that it was Shrek who inspired her to shed her human form. As she falls in love with him all over again, an accompanying song insists, “The world had less color without you.”
You’ll agree when you observe the washed-out 3-D palette of this (let’s hope final) installment, which is limply directed by Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo’s Mike Mitchell.
