Review: Shrek Forever After (3D, U) ***

True, all the building blocks are there with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz returning for another laughterfest with a morbidly obese green ogre at its core.

John Cleese, Julie Andrews and Antonio Banderas are there too. Seemingly everyone is shoe-horned into this continuation of a saga that began nine years ago, but number four has little of the originality that made Shrek such a hit.

Re-treading old ground, the tale takes Shrek on a journey of self-discovery after he agrees to sign a contract with Rumplestiltskin that gives him a day to do what he used to do best: shout, stomp, roar and generally terrify ordinary folk. But Shrek hasn't read the fine print. In gaining a day and giving up another, he inadvertently allows Rumplestiltskin to erase his birth, alter history and assume power as the ruler of Far Far Away.

Naturally, when Shrek realises his blunder, he must make things right. That means finding his true love Princess Fiona. In the end it all comes down to a kiss. If Shrek can convince Fiona to kiss him, all will revert to what it once was. But if he never existed, how will she know him…?

Opting to embrace the tried-and-tested formula of fairytale format packed with schoolyard gags and wink-wink movie references, Shrek Forever After doesn't break the existing mould. Instead it pits our hero against a power-crazed villain, re-plays familiar aspects of Shrek's life (he's as flatulent and misanthropic as he ever was) and lays on the lovelorn desperation with a hefty trowel. While it misses the full-on belly laughs of its 2001 original, Shrek Forever After is still a capable comedy with two immensely talented jokesters at its heart.