1. Shrek Forever After (Paramount/Dreamworks, 4,359 Theaters, 93 Minutes, Rated PG): The Shrek franchise is one of the highest grossing ones of all time. The voice actors do minimal work yet it most likely is the most lucrative of their careers. The concept has endless possibilities. Yet, this will be the last Shrek film forever?
Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.
Shrek misses being an ogre, so he makes a deal with a mystical being to have one more day of feeling wild and untamed. Unfortunately, this mystical being he makes the agreement with is Rumplestiltskin, whose every deal he makes is more of a trick. Now Shrek finds himself hunted, Puss in Boots fat, and having never met Donkey or Fiona. He must find a way to return things to normal before the changes become permanent.
If this is the last installment of the franchise, then I hope it goes out with a bang. The premise doesn’t seem like one that would be all that spectacular. But, who knows? This film might be the last in name only.
2. MacGruber (Universal, 2,551 Theaters, 99 Minutes, Rated R): There seems to be some mistaken belief that Saturday Night Live is still a breeding ground for sketches that can be turned into sure fire box office hit movies. But there are far more misses (Superstar, A Night at the Roxbury, Coneheads, The Ladies Man) than there are hits (Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World). And I think this one is going to land in the miss column.
MacGruber is a series of sketches usually used as cut-aways before commercials on SNL. The entire premise can be boiled down to one thing: What if MacGyver was incompetent. That’s it, that’s all. It is a wonder how they got as many sketches as they did out of that concept, let alone a film.
This film feature MacGruber being called in to track down a terrorist who has stolen a nuclear bomb. Add to that stale concept a bunch of quirky, vaguely filthy sounding names and the lead character’s bungling, bumbling incompetence and you have what they’d like you to believe is hilarity.
The sketches are usually my clue to go to the bathroom or fix myself a snack on the rare occasions I watch SNL. So why would I want to pay money to see it in the theaters?
