Rated: G
Directed by: Tom Hooper
Screenplay by: Lee Hall, Tom Hooper
Based on: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, the musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Produced by: Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Tom Hooper
Starring: James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and introducing Francesca Hayward.
‘It’s party time, with your permission, of course.’
With dark streets lit by the neon signs of, The Egyptian and, The Rising Sun, cats prowl the streets…
Based on the multi award winning musical (including seven Tony Awards), Cats, I expected a lot of, well, cats singing.
That is the nature of the beast, so to speak.
What I wonder is how to write a review about a musical when I really can’t stand the things.
And I have to say the movie got so bad, it was kinda good. Sometimes.
Take Skimbleshanks (Steven McRae) the Railway Cat. He had nothing else in the story except being a tap dancing, ginger cat that lives on the railways. It still tickles me because it was just so bad.
But, I love that ginger Railway Cat!
Weird, right?!
The whole movie is just a little bit weird. But basically, Victoria (Francesca Hayward) gets dumped by her owner in the streets and suddenly, all the street cats start singing about being a Jellicle cat and how one cat gets chosen by Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) for another life at the annual Jellicle Ball.
With a few, I mean a FEW, jokes thrown in like, Cat got your tongue; and other jokes in the same bad dad joke arena, the film is all about singing and dancing. To the point the question was asked, ‘Who is Deuteronomy?’
And I thought, No doubt they’ll sing about it… Guess what, they sang about it.
I couldn’t wait for the film to be over so I could cleanse my brain with a crime thriller of some description.
Then, either because I got used to the painfulness, accepting the cat reality, or, the movie got a little better, I found myself moved by the beautiful sweet voice of Victoria. And I could visualise some of those beautiful ghosts (from some of the more famous songs fans will be well aware of).
But most of the time, I was scratching my head (influenced by that cat scratching behaviour, no doubt), wondering, why?