☆☆½
Well, what did you expect? Director Tom Hooper has made a movie version of the stage hit Cats and, guess what? It is, in every possible way, Cats.
It is as plotless as the original, just as weird, silly and frenetic-- maybe more so, because the movie is incapable slowing down and letting us ogle it. Is it bizarre to see famous faces as cats, singing and dancing with mice and cockroaches? Very weird. The movie does the actors no favors, but also no injustices. Does the movie make any sense? No, but then the show doesn't, either.
Every single performer in this movie seems entirely comfortable with the idea of playing singing, dancing cats. They acquit themselves surprisingly well, especially (not surprisingly) Judi Dench and Ian McKellen, who give it everything they've got and then some. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. The only people discomfited by it all are pop-culture analysts who have determined this movie is worth scorn and derision. Did someone tell them they were going to see a movie about singing, dancing cats? Did they fail to notice the tails and ears and whiskers in the trailer? The derision, the scorn and the anxiety seem to say more about the critics than about the movie.
Cats has always been weird, unsatisfying, entertaining only in fits and starts, spectacular but emotionless, filled with antiquated words and synthesized '80s music. Nothing's changed.
It's Cats. Seriously ... what did you think it was going to be?
Viewed December 22, 2019 -- AMC Burbank 16
1210
It is as plotless as the original, just as weird, silly and frenetic-- maybe more so, because the movie is incapable slowing down and letting us ogle it. Is it bizarre to see famous faces as cats, singing and dancing with mice and cockroaches? Very weird. The movie does the actors no favors, but also no injustices. Does the movie make any sense? No, but then the show doesn't, either.
Every single performer in this movie seems entirely comfortable with the idea of playing singing, dancing cats. They acquit themselves surprisingly well, especially (not surprisingly) Judi Dench and Ian McKellen, who give it everything they've got and then some. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. The only people discomfited by it all are pop-culture analysts who have determined this movie is worth scorn and derision. Did someone tell them they were going to see a movie about singing, dancing cats? Did they fail to notice the tails and ears and whiskers in the trailer? The derision, the scorn and the anxiety seem to say more about the critics than about the movie.
It's Cats. Seriously ... what did you think it was going to be?
Viewed December 22, 2019 -- AMC Burbank 16
1210
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