At the rate the Shrek sequels are going downhill, Shrek 4 will probably just consist of an Idiocracy-style 90-minute sequence of Shrek farting and Donkey laughing. Also, it'll make $500 million in its theatrical run, and twice that on video. Shrek The Third (DreamWorks) was wildly successful on the big screen, in spite of a lazy, low-energy plot that mostly just recycled its jokes, not just from the first two films, but from minute to irritating minute. Remember, America, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the cinema you shell out $10 per head to watch is the cinema you deserve…
The anthology feature Paris, Je T'Aime (First Look) practically defines the term "hit and miss," which makes it an ideal DVD rental. The short films to skip to: the Coen brothers' "Tuileries," a funny, stylish mini-farce about Steve Buscemi's troubles as a tourist trying to obey some of the more arcane rules of Le Métro; Tom Tykwer's "Faubourg Saint-Denis," which zips through the highlights of a love affair with a sense of scope and sorrow; and especially Alexander Payne's "14ème Arrondissement," in which a Denver postal worker narrates her trip to Paris in flat, nasal French, and reaches an epiphany about the city and her life that culminates in one of the most moving scenes in any film this year…
Though playful in form, Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's films are foremost a tribute to Hollywood star wattage; as a result, they're as inconsequential as they are breezily entertaining. While a marked improvement on the previous effort, Ocean's 13 (Warner Bros.) goes through the heist-picture motions in a manner so similar to the first outing that the two movies are more or less interchangeable. It's still a pleasure to watch Soderbergh and his stars have in-jokey fun for two hours, but the series has clearly run out of gas…
If Marion Cotillard scores an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose (HBO), it will be more for the quantity of her acting than the quality. Cotillard acts up a storm portraying Piaf as a feral, agitated woman-child fighting a losing battle against her vices. She does little service to a shrill, headache-inducing show-business melodrama that stumbles down a rabbit hole of wearying excess.