Director: Tom Hooper
Distributor: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 110 minutes
Cats (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Cats is a musical that has been renowned for putting up people in costumes that enact the life of different cats. The story has always been an odd one, as it revolves around a poetry collection that actually dates back from 1939. The book of poetry was then adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber to become the next hit musical. The show ran for over 20 years and still lured many visitors. Now we have arrived at the 2019 reimaging of the musical to be featured in cinemas all across the globe. Only a few may know that Cats has already been turned into a movie once back in1998, only to be forgotten by those who watched it. This new version got a lot of wind in its sails, but more than often it was negative attention, rather than the positive kind the creators hoped it would get.
Cats has a fairly nonsensical story when you’re thrown into it. You’ll be witnessing many cats banding together, on the evening where one gets picked to be reborn. What being reborn actually entails never gets explained, and everything feels as if you’re watching a huge cult pick out their next sacrifice. Nonetheless, the next candidate for being reborn is picked by making himself/herself eligible by singing a song that tells his/her story. The choice of picking the proper ‘tribute’ is done by Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench). It’s clear that many vie to become the next cat to be reborn, there is also an evil presence trying to get rid of all the candidates, to be picked himself.
The flow of this movie is horrendous. It feels like there is no progress being made or no tangible plot for that matter. The movie is a succession of different songs, which isn’t odd, as it is based on a musical, but there is no proper filling or even build-up to the story to warrant it from going to a musical to a Hollywood production. You’ll notice that the actual story value is flimsy and that it’s just every different ‘special’ cat singing its song to have a shot at being ‘reborn’. You have no clue why they do this, and you’ll probably even say ‘WHY?’ several times throughout the course of the movie. We couldn’t figure out why this movie was made, and that the production team behind the film didn’t either shut the project down or did some proper quality control before they ran out of money.
Cats’ cast is actually phenomenal, but each and every cast member’s performance gets reduced to rubble because of how the movie looks and what atmosphere it generates. The film is truly appalling from start to finish, making it impossible for an A-list cast to actually save. We loved seeing several familiar faces, such as Judi Dench’s and Ian McKellen’s, but even these faces could not save this sinking ship from going down several times. The actors look like mangled versions of their real-life counterparts and the overall construction of the original Cats musical does not allow for a proper remake into the film-world. While we can commend the performances of the actors and actresses, it’s pretty much a tarnish on their reputations.
The Blu-ray version of Cats actually comes with many special features. These extras are pretty much all of the ‘making of’ kind, rather than something unique or special that tells you more about the story or the background of the 2019 film. Nonetheless, it’s fun to see how the cast had to perform their roles, to learn more about the singing, and even about the cast in general. The extra features will certainly lengthen your movie experience, if you were able to see it all the way to the credits.
Conclusion
When a movie has you shouting ‘what the fuck’ and ‘why’ more often than you’ve ever had to in your life, then you know you’re truly in for a (horrific) treat. Cats is truly an abomination. While every movie often has redeeming qualities, Cats pretty much has none. Throughout the movie, you’re treated to ghastly CGI sequences, a horrible flow for a musical-to-movie adaptation, and simply no charm because of how horrible everything looks. More than often you can’t look past the ghoulish faces that are glued on anatomically incorrect bodies of cats. If you like the musical, we reckon it’s best to watch a ripped version of that online, than to wade through this horror.
Cats (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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