I liked part 1, loved part 2, but Shrek The Third was TERRIBLE. I mean, THE EX and Georgia Rule were more entertaining than this movie. Anything even remotely funny was in the trailer, the good characters (puss, donkey, gingerbread man) were underused. Shrek was pretty bad but mostly the lameo plot with Charming and the terrible Merlin bits just sunk this movie...and while I thought the other movies relied a bit too heavily on pop culture ref's, this one has hardly any...it relies on poo and fart jokes that miss the mark everytime...I was dying for some good pop culture jokes... just boring from start to finish - it felt like a DIRECT TO VIDEO movie - it was that bad...

I agree with Chmiel - Open Season was even better than this.

"relies"???

I counted one sequence. Two if you throw in baby puke.

Do a lot of people forget that it's more or less pointed more towards children than adults, and in that respect I think kids will enjoy it, I've see so many reviews bashing this film, they all expect it to win an Oscar....

You know a film is shit when people would rather see The Ex, Georgia Rule, Vacancy, Next, or The Hills Have Eyes 2 again.

However, Shrek and Shrek 2 had a lot of material pointed in the way towards adults -- from the Disney bashing to the drug references. While this outing still has some form of that material, the rest of the film is geared towards very young children. The plot is very cookie cutter and the pop culture/adult jokes are very sparse.

Shrek was always geared toward an older audience that could enjoy it as well, and perhaps more so. Same with Antz. Antz always seemed to appeal to an older crowd over Bug's Life.

Maybe if they are starting to make Shrek appeal to kids more that's why it's losing quality?

Well, I for one enjoyed the first one, thought 2 was significantly better and am prepared to be disappointed for 3, but am wondering if it's really as bad as people are saying. Spider Man 3 got ripped a few new ones by many of the posters on this board and I found it to be much more enjoyable than a lot of people here.

As for the pop culture references and such...I don't have a problem with that either. Many of the early WB cartoons had pop culture references for the time period they were created in and are considered classics to this day, hardly stale. Am I comparing Shrek to early Bugs Bunny cartoons? Well, not exactly, but I am just saying that pop culture references are not always the kiss of death for a movie's longevity for future audiences.

What exactly does this mean? The first one won an Oscar. The second was nominated. Why should this be any different? If it's any good. Haven't seen it yet, but not the best argument.

I just meant that people seem to think it should be as amazing as the other 2 movies and it can be hard to have sequels be as good as the previous entries...Just felt like there was a lot of bashing on it.

I saw it tonight and I really enjoyed it. Thought it was a hell of a lot funnier than Open Season by the way (if that's what we've decided to compare it to)...

I saw it last night. It was funny, but not as good as the second movie which I liked the most of all three.

A huge letdown for me. I loved the first one, really liked the second one, and was disappointed with the third one. There are some really funny scenes, but you can count them on one hand. This franchise has definitely run out of steam.

I thought it was horrible. The first half felt like a remake of King Ralph. Only two or three scenes were really enjoyable for me and at least one of those was only because of the song.

Comparing it to Open Season, OS wins.

I guess maybe I'm viewing it with the loyal Simpsons mentality. Yeah not as good as the earlier ones, but I still get a kick out of it...

Dang. The Shrek movies have always been dependable to deliver good jabs at popular culture while still keeping the kids entertained. A shame that this one seems to be a bunch of juvenile humor jokes that fall flat. I hardly ever see comedy in the theater, as most of the time the jokes are lame, but Shrek always managed to get beyond that area, guess not anymore.

Dude, have you seen it? I thought it was quite good. And I'm not one to try and convince myself that I like something. For example, I thought Star Wars I and II I were pretty awful, but I enjoyed ROTS. Spider-Man 3? Terrible, even though I loved the first two.

Ok here's a few examples:

1. Shrek getting a dude to scratch his ass
2. Shrek going on a rant about babies pooing
3. Shrek gets kicked in the crotch by Donkey
4. A Baby Pukes
5. Gingerbread Man takes a shit (however, that one was funny)
6. A Baby farts in the tub
7. A Baby lights a fart on fire

yeah the last two are part of one sequence, but outside of those jokes I'm sure there are at least a few more examples and for me they didn't work. Couple that with the other disappointing parts of the film: the weak 'heart to heart' and 'moving' dialogue about fatherly responsibility, fitting in and lots of slapstick stuff that doesn't hit either ie. Shrek getting hit with a tree branch, Artie getting knocked off his horse, hung up in the gym, the falling set piece, Fiona's mom smashing a wall with her head etc.

I thought that Shrek 2 was much better and at the time, I thought it almost went a little overboard with the pop culture references...this one didn't have nearly enough and just really felt to me like nothing more than a cash grab.

Hey, I'm all for films for the rugrats. It just pains me when mediocre films (or worse) rake in the money. Wish there were better films for kids and parents. I know when I take kids to the movies, I just sit there looking at my watch. Except for the Disney/Pixar films. And a few others here and there.

I thought the film was okay, not great. The only scene that had me nearly in tears of laughter was when Pinocchio was trying not to lie. The opinions have been very varied - the New York Times really liked it, the Washington Post - not so....

I just got back from Shrek the 3rd. Loved the first two movies. In my opinion (don't want to get accused of joining the "crowd" on movie hating) it was a big pile of dog shit. What a horrible boring movie. I don't see how kids or adults would like this movie. Totally vanilla and boring. Lots of rehash stuff that got no laughs from the crowd. The Justin Timberlake character was awful...just an awful movie. Remember this is just my opinion so please no bashing or accusations.

This movie was as bad as Return of Jafar and should have been a straight to video Disney type sequel release.

It didn't suck as much as I had braced myself for, and found myself laughing at most of the silly bits, though the plot is pretty simple and straight forward without too many twists and surprises. Donkey and Puss-n-Boots both slay me, so it good to see them doing their thang. Shrek and Fiona's story is probably played out by now, but if the box office numbers are good, there's probably one more sequel in the franchise, but it needs a stronger vision in story and direction.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

Staggeringly, it did $38 mm in business on friday according to boxofficemojo, and is currently projecting to $120-125 mm for the weekend, 3rd largest opening of all time. Probably will fade quickly, 44% r-t score, and cause they probably front loaded the box office by having it on 4100 screens, and cramming in extra screenings cause of the short run time.

I saw it on Friday, I thought the CHUD review was dead on, Katzenberg has become the new Michael Eisner, regurgitating the same stuff over and over, the movie felt tired in a lot of ways. It's not horrible, but I did like the first 2, especially the first one, and I thought this one was just kind of boring, actually.

I saw this at the AMC theater near my house, and some ass in the projection booth switched it off as soon as the final scene ended (and showed not a SINGLE BIT of the credits). I'd like to know if anything "extra" was seen during the credits that I might've missed, like the music bit at the end of "Shrek 2".
I complained to the management, and they offered me the opportunity to see the credits...but I'd have had to wait 30 minutes for the next showing to end, and I had the wife and kids w/me; I also would've had to have the 4 of us stand somewhere in the SRO theater, so, no dice there.

From what I remember,

1. "Cry and poop" dialogue.
2. Baby throwing up.
3. Gingerbread Man shitting out a button. (Only funny one)
4. Extended baby sequence with several fart jokes.

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This movie was atrocious, and this is from someone that owns the first Shrek and has been able to sit through Shark Tale. There were about a dozen very good jokes but you needed to sit through seven minutes of crap between each one.

I went because I had heard some faint praise for it but good lord, this movie has little to nothing going for it. Worst movie of 2007 that I've seen. I could see Wild Hogs seven times in a row before seeing this again.

I never saw Shrek 2 but at least this one won't date itself as quickly as the first one.

The first two were meh, and the trailer for this one is so bad, I doubt I will ever even see it on DVD. I've just never understood the popularity of this series either.