Paws, purrs and the lack of purpose!
Felines hate canines, a truth as trite as the battle of the sexes. But, the movie gets its history from its prequel Cats and Dogs. It shows the two...read more
Felines hate canines, a truth as trite as the battle of the sexes. But, the movie gets its history from its prequel Cats and Dogs. It shows the two species as highly evolved and using advanced weaponry and espionage to outsmart and annihilate each other. The first one was hilarious, funny and the CGI was clutter breaking for its period. The sequel though has all the flaws which its predecessor easily overlooked. The enjoyment and gratification provided by this movie is inversely proportional to the age of the viewer.
The movie is about Kitty Galore (voiced by Bette Midler), a field agent for the MEOWS, the covert ops agency led by cats, loses her fur in a freak accident caused by a dog. Bitter & further, betrayed after being kicked out by her owner, she wows for revenge against humans and dogs. To foil her plan, the dogs recruit a good for nothing police dog Diggs (James Marsden). At his aid is the ace canine spy Butch (Nick Nolte) and together they try to investigate Kittys evil scheme. Together they sniff their way through dark alleys and counter cats with sharp paws and superior fire power. In their quest, they join hands, rather paws with the feline spy CATherine who justifies her actions by saying that cats, despite popular belief actually care for us humans.
The movie is meant for kids and aims to awe and amaze them by using 3D technology. Though some of the 3D sequences are impressive and stunning, especially the Road Runner clip at the start, the movie suffers with the usual flaws of 3D. The picture looks dim, you have to peer through your goggles to see whats going on and adding to the misery is the night time climactic fight sequence, making it all the more difficult to decipher what exactly happened between the blurred figures pouncing in air.
The CGI used for creating the animals is impressive, even life like in certain cases. The movie is superabundant with movie references for adults. However, it only attempts to bring humor through these overt references and divulges from creating some good conversations and chemistry between its characters. Neither the canines nor the felines share much camaraderie and their chatter is mostly giggle worthy for kids and evoking an eventual guffaw from their parents. The most hilarious reference involves Mr. Tinkles, the previous villain trying to pull off a 'Dr. Hannibal Lecter' on the trio investigating him. The CGI , the reflection of his face on the window of his cell is all nicely done, but the glitch being the children watching this film have not seen The Silence of the Lambs or any Bond film to understand and laugh at these jokes. The soundtrack is purposely reminiscent of those used in spy films and works wonderfully to spread some smiles. The voice acting by Bette Midler as the evil cat is impressive with each purr and rant delivered with a certain nefarious conviction. The most hilarious character was Seamus played by Katt Williams who despite his deserving first name plays an informant pigeon in the film. Like all informants in the cine-world, the pigeon seems to be of African-American decent and opts to talk in a street lingo and has the most hilarious lines in the film.
Surely, there are a few laughs and giggles here and there. But, nothing about this film is original or clutter breaking. It is predictable to the extent that I wondered if the production underwent using the first draft of the screenplay or if only a single draft was made for the screenplay. Each plot point, jokes and incidents seem so obvious that as the spontaneity slumps, the dj vu heightens till you effectively conclude, that this movie you have seen before, and due to the creative recession, you would soon see this movie again.
This movie is just another entity showing how bad writing cannot be covered up using 3D. The direction also seems as repetitive as the writing, as the director keeps throwing things at the audience in an attempt to surprise them as seen in the opening scene. Kids of our age are now growing on a cinematic diet of 3D, wonder what new excuse or ruse, film makers would use to attract the audiences and to avoid writing an intelligent script. The end promises a sequel, all those in favor may raise their paws. Cats have nine lives; I suggest you skip this one for your next life unless your kids ask for it. Who knows kids with their infectious laughter might make you enjoy this clean family film? If not seen under the supervision of children, this film is absolutely average and passable.
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