Shrek 2

It’s stuff like that that makes me love the Shrek movies. My friends and I were laughing harder than any of the kids in the audience through the whole movie. But first, some previews.

GARFILED: THE MOVIE–The reference to Garfiled in Shrek 2 was funnier than anything in this preview. This is really frightening because I used to be a HUGE Garfield fan. I can almost see Breckin Meyer as Jon and maybe even Jennifer Love Hewitt as Liz (although I don’t think Liz was ever supposed to be THAT hot). I can even hear Bill Murray as Garfield. (And it’s appropriate since Lorenzo Music, the original voice of Garfield in the cartoons, took over for Bill as Peter Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters.)

BUT I can’t see Odie being a real dog. The one they chose looks NOTHING like Odie. In fact, there is NO dog that looks like Odie. Fucking draw him in, too! Bastards.

And the trailer just isn’t funny. That’s its biggest sin.

Oh well. Back to the ol’ drawing board.

THE TERMINAL–I’m always up for a Spielberg flick, as you all know. And with Tom Hanks in the lead role, that makes it even better. This semi-true story of a man who is stuck inside an airport terminal looks to be in the same serio-comic vein as Catch Me If You Can, so I’m sure it’ll be great. But I want to see a movie that’s actually about the real guy. His story is extremely interesting and would make a great political drama. But this will also be good in a completely different way. I’m there.

TWO BROTHERS–This is a much longer trailer than the last one I saw and it looks like it’s actually going to be a pretty good family film. Although the shot of the little boy looking the tiger in the eye saying something like, “You’re just trying to get back home, aren’t you?” is pretty ominous. The tiger actually looks like it’s looking at a really good snack instead of a little boy that it loves.

I’ll catch it on video sometime.

SLEEPOVER–Alexa Vega, what the fuck are you doing?! You could probably get any good role, but instead you took a role in a stupid little girl’s movie that’s going to do well that first weekend and then disappear like all movies like this do.

This is something about a group of friends who want to climb the social high school ladder, so they decide to go on a scavenger hunt put on by the popular girls. They’re looking for things like “the cute boy’s boxers.” And Alexa is hiding in the shower while he’s getting ready to get in so she can get them. Nice.

I’m sure the little girls will like it, but it looks totally dumb. A far cry from the smartness of the Spy Kids movies. (Well, the first two, anyway.)

But enough of that Donkey shit. Let’s get to the real movie.

So where can we go with Shrek (Mike Meyers) and Fiona’s (Cameron Diaz) story after they got together and got married? A lot of places Dreamworks Animation is hoping. They’re planning even more Shrek features. Maybe more than just a third.

But for the second one, they chose to have Shrek come home and meet the parents. And the King (John Cleese) is every bit as intimidating as Robert de Niro. When he finds out that Fiona didn’t marry Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), he is pretty pissed off. The Queen (Julie Andrews, of course) is a little more tolerant of Shrek, but she’s still a little apprehensive.

And, of course, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) is back to help and annoy Shrek. But there’s a new addition to the crew: Puss In Boots (Antonio Bandares in one of his best roles, actually). Puss is a swashbuckler at heart, but he’s trapped in an adorable kitten’s body. He knows how to use it to his advantage, though.

When Shrek and Fiona get to the castle of Far, Far Away they immediately get in a fight instigated by King. That’s when Fiona finds out that she has a Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders–they tied in an Ab Fab joke just to make the movie complete; not to mention a great version of “I Need A Hero”) who happens to be a power hungry spotlight grabber. She has her own reasons to hate Shrek.

All of this goes together to make one of the funniest movies of the year. The references fly faster than you can catch them, mainly because you’re laughing too hard to catch the next joke.

As with the first film, the voice acting is awesome. It sounds like everyone is having a great time…even if they aren’t in the same room together. (Listen for Joan Rivers as herself (of course) and Larry King, strangely not as himself.)

And then there’s the animation. Wow. It looks abso-fucking-lutely amazing. Everything looks great: the skin tones, the hair, the wet skin/fur, the scenery…I can’t say enough good about the animation. I think Dreamworks has surpassed everyone with this one.

Is Shrek 2 better than the first? Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the first one, so it’s hard to say. But I laughed a LOT at this one.

Especially the COPS parody, KNIGHTS. That was probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time.