514: Cats

[00:00:00] 221. Let's get to the last Tom Hooper film that I will be covering, which is Cats from 2019. Of course, done by Hooper. Stars James Coren, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Aegis Elba, Robbie Fairchild, Francesca Hayward. The cast is sort of all mixed up on this list. Taylor Swift is in there for a little bit.

[00:00:28] And the synopsis is, a tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will send to the heavy side layer and come back to a new Jellicle life.

[00:00:41] Well, we reviewed this one when it first came out. It was essentially trashed across the board. People were just loathing it, calling it one of the worst movies of the decade.

[00:00:57] It also flopped pretty bad at the box office. I went in with an open mind. I'm usually the defender of harshly criticized films as anyone who listens to the show knows.

[00:01:15] This being my third viewing of it in its entirety. I don't think the movie is good at all. I don't think it's horrible.

[00:01:26] As some people make it out to be I get why some people trash it and like this is terrible. This is laughable, etc.

[00:01:33] And there are things that are very bad in it. But I'm gonna try and not be contrarian because that's not my intent.

[00:01:43] But there are some things that I truly do appreciate and enjoy about it.

[00:01:49] Good things first. I think the movie looks amazing. I think the lighting of the city. There's great use of shadow and backlighting with the characters.

[00:02:02] The overall design of the city itself. The very colorful blue pink goldish sky. I know some people really criticize the CG which there are points that don't look good.

[00:02:20] The main criticism for me in that is that it is probably one of the best examples of hit and miss.

[00:02:32] Because there are some characters like Francesca Hayward who was or who is a ballerina.

[00:02:38] She is fantastic and I totally as weird as it sounds I buy her as a cat.

[00:02:46] And yet there are other actors maybe more notable ones like James Corden, Rebel Wilson, who I cannot help but look at the show.

[00:02:55] Look at them and say that just looks like an actor dressed up in a cat costume.

[00:03:01] Which is too bad because it's hard to really say or predict whose face from a just structure standpoint is gonna look like a cat believably with a lot of CG.

[00:03:13] So I don't totally fault Tom Hooper or the casting director for that.

[00:03:21] I think Idris Elba looks great.

[00:03:24] Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift like I had no issues.

[00:03:29] But I do think that for the most part the effects of the cats themselves with the hair and the different colors like that.

[00:03:38] I think that looks good.

[00:03:41] It's not the best special effects that I've ever seen.

[00:03:44] And I understand that Tom Hooper I think was editing this movie until basically the day that it was premiered at festivals or wherever else.

[00:03:54] And the overall production of the CG was a nightmare.

[00:04:00] And while this is Tom Hooper's definitely his worst movie and I know that he is at fault.

[00:04:05] I'm not trying to defend this guy and say he's perfect in any way.

[00:04:08] He's definitely a flawed filmmaker.

[00:04:09] I can understand that someone like him, this was his first movie with a lot of CG or it's all CG.

[00:04:19] Perhaps that became overwhelming to where he just couldn't focus on that much else of the production.

[00:04:28] That's just projecting.

[00:04:31] Despite all of the problems with it, the many problems, the biggest one, the most offensive one by far,

[00:04:40] is this being a musical and him having just done Les Mis, which is one that has a lot of long takes, a lot of intimacy, a lot of showcasing for an actor's performance.

[00:04:53] This has none of that.

[00:04:55] It ruins, I think, all of the work, both musically and choreography wise.

[00:05:01] Because for anyone who loves musicals, especially the early ones like the Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers ones,

[00:05:13] what makes those so great is that we see the work that they do to put those dance numbers together.

[00:05:22] We see them in one singular take, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together, twirling, singing, all those things.

[00:05:31] And we see, man, they really did hard work to get that all done.

[00:05:36] And so we can see it all together.

[00:05:40] In this, I fully believe that all the actors, and I even saw training, the choreography training,

[00:05:47] they put a lot of work into creating elaborate dance numbers, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:05:52] But Tom Hooper feels the need through directing and editing to chop up these scenes, to constantly cut back and forth, show different weird angles, swirling cameras.

[00:06:06] And that completely eliminates the magic of the moment.

[00:06:13] There are a few, like, there's even one small moment towards the beginning when it's all quiet and you see Francesca Hayward on this, maybe it's like a gravestone or something,

[00:06:24] and she's twirling, doing this like ballerina twirl.

[00:06:27] And you see the silhouette shadows from the moon above.

[00:06:32] It's very peaceful and like this elegant moment.

[00:06:37] But then everything else is bombastic, or not everything else, but most things are bombastic.

[00:06:43] The pacing of scenes is all over the place.

[00:06:47] I lose sense of geography as well.

[00:06:53] Also, one thing that I wanted to mention is I have little to no knowledge of this show on stage.

[00:06:59] I've never seen it live.

[00:07:03] What was interesting, for better and for worse, the first time is there's almost no narrative in this, and there's almost no conflict.

[00:07:12] At its core, it basically is a musical about singing and dancing.

[00:07:22] It's cats singing about being cats, and they're competing for a prize to become basically the best cat.

[00:07:32] Which, that's fine.

[00:07:34] I'm not criticizing its shallowness in this case, because that's refreshing.

[00:07:40] Hey, just be an innocent, lavish musical that you don't feel the need to have all of this cultural commentary whatever.

[00:07:49] That's cool of me.

[00:07:52] And the third act, when a lot of things come together and it's definitely the most big scale dance numbers, I think that's pretty entertaining.

[00:08:06] Personally, I don't know how other people feel.

[00:08:08] I know it's a huge Broadway show.

[00:08:10] I don't love the music in this.

[00:08:13] I think the Jennifer Hudson song is great.

[00:08:18] For example, the Rebel Wilson song, Towards the Beginning, she cannot sing.

[00:08:23] Terrible casting.

[00:08:26] Even James Corden.

[00:08:27] I'm not a big James Corden fan at all.

[00:08:29] He just does not do much for me in general.

[00:08:35] Judi Dench and Ian McKellen are very fun.

[00:08:41] Going back to what I was saying about it just being about song and dance.

[00:08:46] I can appreciate, even though it's not a good movie, that this movie exists.

[00:08:52] Not to laugh at, but I appreciate its weirdness.

[00:08:56] There's nothing else really like it in Hollywood, for better and for worse.

[00:09:03] There is a plot, because they're just desperate to have some plot in this, of this boat scene.

[00:09:10] Like this kidnapping, rescue thing that didn't need to be there.

[00:09:15] Like there's already so little that I don't feel the need to have that in there, falsely.

[00:09:21] Because even when I first saw it, it just felt out of place.

[00:09:24] I'm like, why are we on this boat?

[00:09:29] The railway sequence is pretty fun.

[00:09:32] I think that's one of the better songs.

[00:09:37] So overall, my thoughts are what they are.

[00:09:40] I wish it could be a masterpiece.

[00:09:42] I wish I could say this movie is amazing.

[00:09:45] You just don't get it.

[00:09:49] Hate it if you want.

[00:09:50] I don't fault you.

[00:09:52] I'm gonna probably rewatch it at some point.

[00:09:55] Can't help it.

[00:09:56] I don't know why or what's wrong with me, but just how I feel.

[00:10:02] So that one is a light two and a half out of five.

[00:10:06] I don't know why or what I'm gonna do.

[00:10:06] But the next one is a big deal with me, but it's all about the time.

[00:10:07] But instead, the time is a little bit easier.

[00:10:07] Thank you.