Shrek The Third

After a buoyantly funny first half-hour, stylish animated comedy takes a breather before ramping it up again for a rambunctious, girrrl-power finale that provides a convenient springboard for further adventures to come...

This instalment has the elements we've grown to love - lots of knowing and silly jokes for young and old, animation so good we don't notice it - but with slightly less cohesion than its predecessors. Perhaps it's because New Zealand director Andrew Adamson has stepped aside to do the writing, leaving a couple of newbie "co-directors" to pull it all together...

It's just a spectacularly lazy movie that's content to trod the same well-worn ground as its predecessors...

The Shrek films have always referenced Hollywood, and in Shrek the Third there is a nod to theatrical dramatics and Monty Python-style comedy. The humour seems to be aimed more at adults, which is good news for those being dragged along by their children, and even though it's disappointing, there's still plenty to smile at...

It wasn't a credits-to-credits laugh fest, but it was a good length, and more than entertained...

Much of the bite and a good deal of the wit of the first two films are missing here. The rude send-up of beloved fairy tale conventions remains -- somewhat -- but these playful jabs no longer come as pleasing surprises. You expect them. And you expect better...

After the flawed but hugely entertaining new instalments of Pirates of the Caribbean and Spiderman, Shrek's third outing comes as something of a disappointment. Sure the animation is first-class, but the joke quota is much reduced and fails to cover the paper-thin plot. With Kiwi director Andrew Adamson, who directed the first two instalments, tied up in Narnia, rookie directors Chris Miller and Raman Hui _ a former story artist and supervising animator respectively _ struggle to give Shrek 3 the same heart and hearty humour...