The Dispatch from Moline, Illinois • 13

Following 'Wall Street' down the road B2 i i Whiplash not a problem for Rourke B2 She's not a cougar and resents the growls B3 The good, the bad and the classic B6 Friday, May 21, 2010 The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus B1 By Christy Lemire Associated Press Given that Shrek Forever After is the franchises first film in 3-D, its surprisingly flat and were not just talking about the look of it. REVIEW Great Escape Theaters, Moline: 'MacGruber" (R) "Shrek Forever After" (PG) Rave Motion Pictures 53, Davenport: MacGruber(R) "Shrek Forever After" (PG) Putnam IMAX Theatre, Davenport: "Shrek Forever After" (PG) Central Theater, Geneseo: "Shrek Forever After" (PG) Nova Cinemas 6, Moline: 'Furry Vengeance" (PG) tw 1 Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) strides' through town in a scene from DreamWorks Animation 'Shrek Forever "MacGruber" (R, 99 minutes). Will Forte's "Saturday Night Live" character makes the jump from 90-second skit to 99-minute movie. A mullet-wearing soldier and special operative is called up to find a nuclear warhead stolen by his sworn enemy. (In the SNL skits, MacGruber always fails to deactivate the bomb and gets blown up.) With Ryan Phillippe, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Powers Boothe and Maya Rudolph; written by Forte, John Solomon and JormaTaccone, and directed byTaccone.

Universal Pictures was screening the film late Thursday night across the country, too late for a review in today's paper. (Los Angeles Times; not reviewed) "Just Wright" (PG, 99 Latifah exudes her effortless charm as the best friend of a beauty (Paula Patton) who entices a proposal from an NBA star (Common). When the player's knee is injured and the Queen moves in as his resident physical therapist, the obvious happens but slowly enough that we can enjoy it unfolding. Latifah has a natural sunniness that beams in a film like this. Rating: "Robin Hood" (PG-13, 131 minutes).

An action bloodbath having almost nothing to do with any Robin Hood you may be familiar with. Actually a prequel to the Robin Hood legends, it has Robin as a mercenary home from France and leading a revolt against the tyrannical King John. Cate Blanchett is Marion, not a maid but a widow, and the film is a good deal darker than the title might lead you to believe. The third act is largely viplence of the sort we have seen over and over and over again. Rating: More movie mini-reviews on page B4! are funny the first couple times but get beaten into the ground Shrek loses it.

He misses the simple pleasures of being a fearsome ogre: terrorizing villagers, wallowing in the mud, etc. He throws a tantrum. Blinded by his frustration, he enters an ill-advised contract with the obviously evil Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) to revisit his old life for one day. But this sends him to an alternate universe where the land of Far, Far Away, as he knew it, no longer exists. Fiona isnt his wife, but rather a warrior princess leading a rebellion; his best friend, Donkey (Eddie Murphy), is still perky and sassy but doesnt know him; and, most troubling purely from a survival standpoint, ogres are being hunted in the woods.

Thats right, its the old alternate-universe bit. So Shrek must befriend Donkey and woo Fiona to make everything right again basically, repeat all the This fourth and allegedly final installment in the series is lifeless, joyless and woefully devoid of the upbeat energy that distinguished the earlier movies well, at least the first two. If Shrek the Third from 2007 felt tired, Shrek Forever After is practically narcoleptic. Brief bursts of manic energy give way to long, heavy stretches that drag. Most of the hackneyed pop-culture references of its predecessors are gone, mercifully, but so is the fun.

This time, the big, bad ogre is having a mid-life crisis not exactly a hoot for the kids in the audience, and their parents can suffer through that at home for free. As for the animation, presenting it in 3-D doesnt add a whole lot. This is not a deeply immersive experience; more often, it consists of stuff being flung at you in gimmicky fashion. After this summer, when about a half-dozen movies will be leaping out at us in 3-D, can the whole trend just go away? Please? And the frustrating part is, the Shrek movies didnt need an added dimension: They already had an impressive visual scheme all their own. The texture of the surroundings that made the franchise stand out among a slew of animated fare the tactile nature of the grass and trees, the water, Donkeys fur gets obliterated when rendered in 3-D.

And so, in theory, all thats left is the story, but that doesnt reach out and grab us either. Q-C IMAX By Jonathan Turner jtnrnerqconline.com In addition to debuting at Quad-Cities multiplexes today Shrek Forever After is opening at the Putnam Museum IMAX Theatre, Davenport the first time in the eight-year history of the local IMAX that a Hollywood feature has opened there on the same day as its national release. Weve been talking with IMAX for some time about giving us the opportunity to release a film on its opening day. Were very excited that Paramount is working with us, Putnam presidentCEO Kim Findlay said this week. Davenport has been one of about a dozen markets in the U.S.

where the local IMAX theater must wait to show a first-run film after its release to a multiplex, according to Dean Fick, the Putnams director of theatre operations. IMAX negotiates for the Putnam with film distributors on release timing and financial arrangements, he said. 1 nationwide opening certainly the room in our metro area for the cineplexes and our one giant screen to be able to all do well. The Putnam expects to have Shrek Forever After at least until June 17 and will show it five or six times a day on weekends, Ms. Findlay said.

Todays showings are at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11:59 p.m., and it will be shown six times Saturday Avatar at the IMAX which just ended Thursday sold out every weekend show, twice a day, in the 250-seat theater in its first six weekends, Ms. Findlay said. One man said this week that he was seeing Avatar for the 29th time, she said. Our ability to secure feature films like Toy Story 3 will hinge on how the community responds to this one, she said. I'd love to think our sales with Avatar will help.

Todays first showing will include preshow fun for an invited audience of preschoolers from Skip-A-Long steps he went through in part one, which only reinforces the lack of originality now that weve reached part four. An attempt at injecting some novelty with the Rumpelstiltskin character also falls flat: Hes tiny, but hugely obnoxious; Its one thing to have an over-the-top villain if hes a compelling, well-developed figure. This guy is just off-putting. The only thing that changes about him are the wigs he wears for various occasions. Thankfully, Antonio Banderas returns to voice the swashbuckling Puss in Boots only in Shreks weird new world, the kitty has gotten so lazy and overfed as Fionas pampered pet, he cant even buckle his own belt.

Still, Puss remains the most consistent source of comedy in the Shrek series. Heres hoping that when the character gets his own movie spin-off, hell be able to stand on his own two paws without the needless aid of a third dimension. Child Development Centers in the area. Courtesy of film sponsor Northwest Bank and Trust (which is covering the costs of many tickets), the kids will be treated to a green-carpet opening, green glow necklaces, Shrek masks and a Shrek slime salute, Ms. Findlay said.

The IMAX is holding a contest to find the Biggest Shrekkie the Q-C, with the winner getting an Apple iPad loaded with the first three Shrek movies. Fans should send in their story (or video or pictures) of Shrek love via the Putnams Face-book page by this Sunday The museum will choose the best five, which will be posted on putnam.org for the entire Quad-Cities to decide who is the biggest Shrekkie. Polling will be open May 24 through June 1, and the winner will be announced June 2. Shrek tickets are $11.50 for adults, $9.50 for seniors studentsmilitary, and $7.50 for ages 3-12. swered, added Cuse.

Where to begin? Since its premiere in fall 2004, Lost has gloried in its multiplying mysteries, in the paradox of a series thats set on an island but is anything but insular. While the show was being filmed in Hawaii (with an evolving cast including Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Terry OQuinn and dozens more), Lindelof and Cuse toiled with fellow Writers in See Lost, B4 'Shrek Forever After' Rating: PG, for mild action, some rude humor and brief language. Running time: 93 min- utes. The verdict; Vj As directed by Mike Mitchell (Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Sky High) from a script by Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke, Shrek Forever After finds the lovable green dude (voiced as always by Mike Myers) increasingly disenchanted with his subdued, family-man existence. The triplets he had with wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are a year old now, and he realizes that each new day is the same as the last (in a sequence straight out of Groundhog Day).

After being repeatedly tormented at his kids birthday party to do the roar that made him famous one of a handful of jokes that gets first Most of the more than 430 IMAX theaters worldwide get major films on their national opening day, Ms. Findlay said, but typically Kim Findlay the Putnam has had to wait eight or nine weeks. Avatar in 3-D did not come to the Davenport IMAX until 13 weeks after its nationwide release last December. I dont know specifically why this one they decided to give us the shot Ms. Findlay said of the fourth Shrek movie, also made in 3-D.

If we perform well, if our attendance is good, then we understand well have the op-. portunity to do additional films on their opening day Were just trying to be responsive and flexible and are pleased weve got the opportunity, she said. Theres terview alongside Lindelof on Wednesday. He called the ending kind of spiritual and said it feels like a fair way to honor the fans, the characters and everyones commitment to the show. He also said he expected a wide range of viewer reactions: Thats bound to happen.

But Lindelof predicted Lost will spur its own distinctive brand of morning-after debate one much different from viewers raging response to the blackout that concluded The Sopranos three years ago. That series ending centered on one thing, said Lindelof) Would Tony Soprano live or die? So whatever a viewer thought should happen to Tony (when last glimpsed, he was alive and well and enjoying onion rings) played a major role in whether the outcome pleased that viewer. The Weinstein Company In a post-apocalyptic future, Viggo Mortensen, right, and Kodi Smit-McPhee watch the traffic on The These movies will be released on video Tuesday: "Dear John" (PG-13, 105 minutes). A Special Forces soldier and a sweet South Carolina rich girl Meet Cute, fall in love, and pledge to meet and marry when his tour ends in a year. But it is not to be.

Another one of 1 those bittersweet Nicholas Sparks stories that laboriously endeavor to wring from us a sad smile. I was sadly smiling not at their loss, but at mine. Although Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried are attractive and well-matched as the would-be lovers, and Richard Jenkins makes autism seem kinda sweet (if it's a mild case), this movie is so doomed to end exactly the way it does that we wonder why the characters don't prevent it, if they want to. Rating: "The Road" (R, 1 19 minutes). Evokes the images and the characters of Cormac McCarthy's novel but lacks the core of emotional feeling.

film is a sincere attempt to relate the story of a man and his son trekking westward across a devastated future America, but the strength of the novel isn't in the action; it's in McCarthy's prose, which evokes so much more than it says. With Viggo Mortensen as the father, Kodi Smit-McPhee as his son, and CharlizeTheron in flashbacks as the wife and mother in years before the unexplained apocalypse. An honorable attempt, but McCarthy is daunting to film. Rating: "Stagecoach" (NR, 1 939). This is where it all started: John Ford's enduring masterpiece revolutionized the Western, elevating it from movie to the A-list.

The to) quintessential tale of a group of strangers thrown together into extraordinary circumstances nine passengers travelings dangerous route from Arizona to New Mexico "Stagecoach" features outstanding performances from Hollywood stalwarts Claire Trevor, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell and, of course, John Wayne, in his first starring role for Ford, as the dare- 1 1 devil outlaw the Ringo Kid. Superbly shot and tightly edited, this Is Hollywood storytelling at its finest. New, 1 restored high-definition digital transfer with many extras. (OnVideo.org) Roger Ebert lost' duo empty as journey ends Associated Press Producers Damon Lindelof, left and Carlton Cuse discuss the end of the series 'Lost' in New York on Wednesday. NEW YORK (AP) Dont expect a laser show.

Dont bet on the island to lift off into space. While intel is scarce about the much-awaited, underwraps finale to Lost, those hints come straight from the guys who not only know the truth, but also created it: executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. But other than such tongue-in-cheek tips, Lindelof and Cuse remain supremely tightlipped about the Lost conclusion, airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on ABC. Exactly how theyll polish off this epic mystical thriller after six trippy seasons well, that literally remains to be seen.

Fans of Lost can hardly wait, and the 2 -hour finale, even sight unseen, has already been decreed a major television milestone. Were satisfied with the finale, said Cuse in an in KoNtribOtes Have an event Quad-Citians should know about? E-mail it to eventsqconline.com But for the Lost finale, people dont really know going into it what would satisfy them, Lindelof declared. If you say to somebody, What thing would need to happen in the story for you to feel theyd say something like, Well, I want all my questions to be answered. But they cant tell you what they want to happen to the characters. They dont even know what the questions are they would want to have an jywNpiwtwvr IEDITORK 1 (309) 797-0331 twelvaertqconline.com i.