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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Cats (2019) in Movies

Dec 27, 2019

Cats (2019)

2019 | Musical

3.8

(16 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

[Nostalgia enters the room looking cheery. A cat lurks in the background. Nostalgia starts tapdancing. Suddenly a red dot appears on Nostalgia's back and the cat savagely attacks it, leaving it bloody and beaten on the ground.]

As I've been saying to people... this film isn't good, but it's also not entirely bad, it has its moments.

Let's talk about the CGI first. You know what? It's not all that bad. Take out whatever you think about the concept of the human cats the fur in the second trailer looked much better than its first outing. During the film, Old Deuteronomy looked so fluffy I just wanted to pet her. The ear movements were pretty good, if a little consistent, it felt a little like they'd looked up cat actions in a book and taken the textbook description to animate rather than watching an actual cat. The cats as a whole could probably been a little larger compared to the "life-sized" staging around them because the ratio did feel a little off, but it wasn't really enough to make it off-putting.

Ever since I saw Cats at the cinema I've been singing the songs, but that's off the back of me listening to the stage recordings on Spotify and not the film versions. They don't quite have the same pep of the originals, watching them wasn't the wondrous experience I was hoping for. There are small exceptions. Taylor Swift was excellent and set a perfect tone for her number. Jason Derulo is a showman in this and after his Red Dwarf Cat-like clip in the trailer I was excited for his full numbers, they didn't disappoint.

Memory has to be my favourite song since seeing it on the stage and I was keen to see the talented Jennifer Hudson perform it. When it surfaced briefly I was worried, there was no impact, no heart... potential disaster. Finally the full number happened at the end and I was convinced. I listened to Hudson sing with such emotion that I cried, streams of tears and a quivering lip. It was beautiful.

The rest of the cast, while chockful of talent, didn't have quite the same buzz about it.

Francesca Hayward is a massively talented ballerina but the acting portion of the performance didn't quite hit the spot. This wasn't helped by the advert that has been running with her and Jennifer Hudson before the trailer was running before every film I watched for about two weeks.

I love Dame Judi and Sir Ian, and it was fun seeing them in this, but both had their issues. I wasn't a fan of Dench's moments of singing and the melancholy role of Gus for McKellen was a little unsettling. Who doesn't love seeing an Idris Elba film? He does the bad "guy" well but there was something wrong here too, I think that was partly to do with that fur torso.

It would be entirely possible to go on and on about this and all its ins and outs, but I don't think either of us have the time for that. I do feel that having the previous knowledge of Cats on the stage will help immensely when seeing this. That does also have some drawbacks though, when we saw it at the theatre it was a very interactive experience with the cats in the aisles with the audience and that's something the film can't compete with. I'm tempted to say that they should have forgone CGI aspects for the most part and had costumed cast. Making something more realistic when everything around it is unrealistic (in that it's not quite what we're used to as regular-sized humans) makes everything more confusing, perhaps the low tech angle would have made it a little less scary to some.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2019/12/cats-movie-review.html

Kudos

Elvis Fox (24 KP) rated Thoroughbreds (2017) in Movies

Apr 29, 2019 (Updated Apr 29, 2019)

Thoroughbreds (2017)

2017 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

6.4

(10 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Olivia Cooke (2 more)

Anya Taylor-Joy

Anton Yelchin

Thoroughbred For A New Generation

With its striking visuals and cleverly paced plot points, this modern day cat and mouse teen Crime Thriller will leave you speechless by the end credits. Anya Taylor-Joy's performance more than makes up for the film's weaker plot points as she brings a sense of vulnerability to the character that otherwise may have felt less memorable if portrayed by any other actress. As usual Olivia Cooke delivers a fabulously balanced performance mixed with dead pan that just makes sense given the subject matter. I feel this chic mystery will garner a cult following in the years to come and it rightly deserves so.

Kudos

Vegas (725 KP) rated Ingobernable in TV

Sep 19, 2018

Ingobernable

2017 | Drama

9.0

(1 Ratings)

TV Show Rating

Engrossing (2 more)

Action packed

Political conspiracy

The First Lady of Mexico is a wanted woman, wanted for the murder of her husband, the President...

A cat and mouse game between her and the authorities who want her caught and bought to justice, Determined to try and prove herself innocent and not knowing who to trust and where to turn she leaves her family behind to try and find the truth...

The story is gripping and fast paced and reminds me of 24 in some ways, you feel for the characters and get drawn into the story with enough twists to keep it interesting. This is one of the better political thrillers of recent times.