Hound222

The biggest lesson I've learned from seeing this film is to judge films for myself, and not to listen to the critics. If you look at the critics' reviews for this film, they're terrible! The NY Times said it could "only be stupider if it was longer." But look at the viewer reviews. 8.0 from IMDB users at the time of this comment, and four stars from moviefone.com viewers. I almost didn't see it because of the critical reviews, but my fellow moviegoers won me over. And I couldn't be more pleased. This film is an intelligent synthesis of the ideas of autocracy and population control presented in such books as 1984, Brave

New World, and Farenheit 451. It presents a dark view of the future, but grants enough light and hope in the story to carry an audience's attention. Admittedly, the romantic side story with Emily Watson is overwrought and practically

unnecessary, but what movie doesn't have one or two flaws? Plus, the main selling point of this film is the action sequences. Christian Bale carries off the "gun-kata" synthesis of martial arts and gunplay with believability and a surprising grace for someone who, to my knowledge, really hasn't been a part of the action/martial arts genre at all to this point. And the direction definitely polishes any weakness that Bale (or Diggs for that matter), may show. It is a beautifully done, artistic action film, with fight scenes to rival the matrix. And it's all done without the "flying" (though wirework is undoubtedly used), so it's much more palatable in my mind than the fight scenes in the Matrix or

Crouching Tiger. See this movie. Don't believe those snobby critics and their smear campaign. Join us, the people, and fight the good fight!

There is no good reason not to see this movie. When checking out the vote history on IMDB, I was astonished to see that anyone at all had rated this movie a "1". Whether it's your type of movie or not, this movie could never be considered "awful" under any rational rubric.

This movie skillfully captures that which has been sorely lacking from the last offerings that Disney has given us: it is a movie which revels in its own cleverness, yet never at anytime ceases to poke fun at itself. The vocal acting is stupendous, regardless of whether or not you enjoy Myer's feigned scottish accent, and the character modeling is realistic and evocative. Most impressive is the way that actual features of Lithgow, Diaz, Myers, and Murphy are molded into those of their respective characters.

The writing is almost brilliant. It oscillates from low-brow to high-brow without effort, and earns hearty laughter either way. When characters in the movie do things that are annoying, something funny and violent usually happens to them to make them stop, granting all of us a great deal of gratification. If only the producers of Star Wars:Episode One had had a similar attitude towards Jar Jar...

This movie is without comparison in the field of animated films. Many Japanese animes have produced stories and action which is as evocative as Shrek's, but their ways and means are far different. Shrek is a movie that never insults your intelligence (too much), never takes itself seriously, and insists on being an enjoyable film with depth of both drama and humor. Go see it: it's something you can feel good about in the morning.