Shrek 2

Not nearly as fun as the first time out, this one gets by on its still pretty visuals and the occasional gag that works (there are just a few). Shrek (voice of Mike Meyers) has married Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz), who remains cursed and Ogre-like. They receive an invitation to attend a wedding ball thrown by Fiona’s parents (voices of John Cleese and Julie Andrews), so they travel to Far Away with their trusty Donkey (a now obnoxious Eddie Murphy) in tow. The jokes are mostly groaners, the spirit isn’t nearly as mischievous as the original’s, and the plot is sometimes tedious. Antonio Banderas voicing the funny feline assassin Puss In Boots steals the show. The animation looks good, but the filmmakers have had obvious problems matching voices with lip movements, so everything appears out of synch. While the film isn’t all bad, it’s a big comedown from the original, so that makes it a failure in some respects. Shrek 3 is in the works, so let’s hope for a comeback because this is pretty sub-par stuff. (CPL, CR, CS,