Shrek Forever After

Voices of:

Mike Myers: Shrek
Cameron Diaz:  Princess Fiona
Eddie Murphy: Donkey
Antonio Banderas: Puss N’ Boots

Directed by Mike Mitchell

Running time 93 minutes

“An ogre is a large, cruel, monstrous and hideous humanoid monster, featured in mythology, folklore and fiction. Ogres are often depicted in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings” (Wikipedia). Since his first appearance on screen in 2001 Shrek, the popular and most loved animated character in recent film history, has turned the definition of an ogre on its head. He is very, very ugly but he is definitely not horrid or hideous. Beneath the green skin, trumpet like ears and potato nose topping the clumsiest of bodies, lies a charming character that teaches us never to judge by the package.

In the fourth and announced last edition of the Shrek series, our hero, again voiced by Mike Myers, is now a middle aged husband happilly married to princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) with whom he fathered three children. The Shreks live in a blissful environment where the head of the family now enjoys the full respect of the villagers. Of course, his old side kicks and torment, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss n’Boots (Antonio Banderas) make another welcome appearance.

Things change dramatically when poor Shrek is tricked into signing a pact with the villain of the day, Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dorn). For his error, Shrek is transported to the land of Far Far Away where the pint sized, red haired despot Rumpelstiltskin is king. There he finds Fiona leading a rebel guerilla group, Donkey has joined a coven of witches and Puss is a domesticated cat with more serious eating disorders. However, as in all good fairy tales worth of their name, a kiss breaks the spell, good overcomes evil and evrybody lives happy ever after.

The role of actors in animated films is to lend their voices to the characters and the responsibility for success or failure falls on the shoulders of the writers, artists and production designers. Although there were changes of artists working in these departments from one film to another, this announced last Shrek instalment looses nothing from the extraordinary visual appeal and the hilarity contained in its three predecessors.


KILLERS

Cast:

Spencer Aimes: Ashton Kutcher
Jen Kornfeld: Katherine Heigl
Mr Kornfeld: Tom Selleck
Mrs Kornfeld: Catherine O’Hara

Directed by Robert Luketic

Running time: 93 minutes.

The French Riviera has been Hollywood’s favourite location for romantic comedy thrillers since Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 classic To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Forty-five years on, the land and sea environment of the French cities on the luxurious South East coast, particularly Nice and Cannes still attract scores of film productions. Killers is the latest, but not the last, film to exploit, and rely heavily on the attractive atmosphere of Nice.

A tour of Nice is the first thing that Spencer Aimes (Ashton Kutcher) offers Jen Kornfeld (Katherine Heigl) when they first meet at the hotel swimming pool. Spencer is a US government agent with licence to kill posted in Nice. Jen, a computer programmer, is holidaying there with a protective father (Tom Selleck) and a more lenient mother (Catherine O’Hara) who brought her to Europe to help her get over a broken relationship. Jen accepts the tour and a dinner appointment and the inevitable follows. Defying Mr Kornfeld’s strong objections Spencer and Jen, unaware of Spencer’s real profession, get married. After three years of an uneventful married life, Spencer is called on another assignment. This leads to serious conflicts between the young couple, the in-laws and to bullet riddled encounters with men out to settle an old score with Spencer. Killers was shot against the same background as Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief mentioned earlier on. But this is where any similarity between the two films ends. Like Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl have enormous appeal and a wide fan base but this chaotic, badly constructed film does not give them any hope to ever go anywhere near their class.


Centurion

Cast:

Michael Fassbinder:  Quintus
Dominic West:  Virilus
Olga Kurylenko: Etain

Written and directed by Neil Marshall

Running time: 97 minutes.

AD 117. The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts. Quintus Dias (Fassbender), sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' (West) legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the earth and destroy their leader Gorlacon.

But when the legion is ambushed on unfamiliar ground, and Virilus taken captive, Quintus faces a desperate struggle to keep his small platoon alive behind enemy lines. Enduring the harsh terrain and evading their remorseless Pict pursuers led by revenge- hungry Pict Warrior Etain (Kurylenko), the band of soldiers race to rescue their General and to reach the safety of the Roman frontier. Written by Pathé Productions.

This film has not been reviewed.


Top Ten Films In Malta: 23 - 27 June 2010

1. PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME
2. SEX AND THE CITY 2
3. LETTERS TO JULIET
4. ROBIN HOOD
5. STREET DANCE
6. SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE
7. TOOTH FAIRY
8. DEATH AT A FUNERAL
9. FURRY VENGEANCE
10. BAD LIEUTENANT

Films released by KRS Film Distributors Ltd