Reviews Film / Cats

A Masterpiece of Insanity

I have never seen the stage version of Cats. I only remembered seeing a few pictures of it as a kid and it creeped me out a bit. So when the trailer came round, I was surprised that people complained about it being weird. Now I've seen it, that weirdness is actually the thing that makes the film so incredibly enjoyable.

In terms of geninuely good stuff, the singing and the dancing is as good as you'd expect from an Andrew Lloyd Webber show. Beautiful Ghosts is a very welcome addition and I was surprised to hear it wasn't in the original stage show ad it gave Victoria a character, as well as generally just being a great song. However, the singing is only part of what makes the film hillariously fun to watch.

James Corden gets waterboarded. Ian Mckellen walks someone off a plank while dressed as a hobo. Dame Judy Dench explains very sternly that a cat is not a dog. The cats aren't particularly creepy like the trailer made them out to be, but their movement is still incredibly bizzare. The CGI for everything else is so plastic it looks like it came out of The Phantom Menace, but it somehow works considering the weird movements of the furries on stage. The entire thing is an LSD trip of the best kind, and there's few sences where you won't be smiling to yourself thinking "What the fuck am I watching?"

Cats is not a great film from a filmmaking standpoint, but if you're looking for pure, incredibly silly entertainment, join the Jellicle Cats at the Jellicle Ball!