Has anyone here seen CATS (2019)?

Gabriel Knight · April 03, 2021, 05:03:17 PM

Just wondering, if anyone here seen that movie, and what comments they have about it. I noticed it's fairly new and located deep in the bottom of IMDb. When I read the reviews I laughed very hard, but nobody really gave a proper explanation of why this movie is so bad.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5697572/?ref_=tt_urv

Rev. Powell · April 03, 2021, 06:00:12 PM

Yep. Do you like musicals? Then you will hate it, because it's crappy. Do you hate musicals? Then, naturally, you will hate it, because it's a crappy musical.

The people who find camp value in it tend to be people who like musicals. I don't like most musicals, so a bad musical to me is... well, it wasn't THAT terrible. I wish it was worse, in fact. My original review read "The patchy plot ties together a series of songs about various 'jellicle cats. I don't get the extremity of the hate for this; it can't be that much worse than the middlebrow Broadway show, can it? Personally, I'm waiting for Andrew Lloyd Weber's version of 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'"

This woman did a long and pretty insightful description of the film and the reaction. It's almost an hour long, but it's more interesting than the movie: https://youtu.be/G6iqAip-ZNo

Now, at Alamo Drafthouses before the pandemic, they were having "rowdy" screenings where people were encouraged to yell at the screen. One of those would be fun. But I wouldn't want to see it again without a group waiting to mock it.

ER · April 03, 2021, 08:40:59 PM

Yeah, Gabriel, I have and it was bad. Cats has always been a little goofy but the best version to watch, if you ever want to see it, is the one done in the '90s which was often shown in the US on PBS, and is probably still all over YouTube. That production took the best performers in the New York and London casts and made ALW's zany head trip fun. I think I figured out what was going on in The Wall before I did Cats, but once I sorted it out, it made sense.....a bunch of felines get together once a year, some plead their case, and one is chosen to go to Kittie Heaven. Nothing weird there.

indianasmith · April 03, 2021, 08:42:56 PM

I saw the latter half of it, and the CGI is just . . . creepy.
The storyline is fairly trite, but the overall impression was based more on the morphing of cats into . . . . semihuman cats.
With very awkward body language.

RCMerchant · April 04, 2021, 01:59:08 PM

How do you give a thumbs down on a movie with just one word?
CATS.

Trevor · April 04, 2021, 02:10:18 PM

Always makes me LOL when a filmmaker who made an anti-SA film falls on his ass.

Gabriel Knight · April 05, 2021, 09:10:17 AM

Well, damn, thanks for the comments. I mean, I hate musicals, regardless of how good people say they are, but this one seems dreadful. I don't think I want to see it even for a chuckle.

Trini · April 05, 2021, 01:55:19 PM

I have not and I am eternally thankful

zelmo73 · April 06, 2021, 04:05:54 AM

Quote from: Gabriel Knight on April 05, 2021, 09:10:17 AM
Well, damn, thanks for the comments. I mean, I hate musicals, regardless of how good people say they are, but this one seems dreadful. I don't think I want to see it even for a chuckle.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999) is much better, even if you hate musicals, and the music on that one is surprisingly good even if you hate show tunes like I do.

Trini · April 06, 2021, 04:09:14 AM

I've always had this theory that the movie was part of some "Springtime for Hitler" ploy to make an intentional flop.

Alex · April 06, 2021, 06:16:15 AM

I hate musicals generally (there are a few exceptions, but not many). My wife on the other hand loves musicals.

Neither one of us wants to see this one.