Review of That Darn Cat

It's one awful hairball of a film. Based on the book 'Undercover Cat' by Gordon and Mildred Gordon, as well as the 1965 original motion picture of the same name. This 1997 remake directed by Bob Spiers tells the story of a FBI agent, Zeke Kelso (Doug E. Doug) using pet owner Patti Randall (Christina Ricci) & her cat DC (Elvis) to help find the culprits of a recent kidnapping. Without spoiling this flick from the wonderful world of Disney too much, I do have to say that somebody must have been high on catnip when making this. It's because this film written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski waste all its nine lives on putting most of the screentime focus on the human characters than the titular animal. It kinda sucks because the Siamese cat in the original honestly live up to its name by causing trouble & being a menace around town at night. Plus, Sid was one of the most trained animal performers in movie history. In here, not only the cat not camera or people friendly, by always trying to escape the performer's grasp or not facing the right direction, but Elvis wasn't really that darn of a feline. The animal didn't really cause that much havoc. Because of that, the awkward comedy in the film mostly convoluted unrelated local yokels fighting and falling in love with each other for cheap laughs than involving the cat. These filler scenes tend to take away the focus from the main plot FBI investigation big time. Unlike the original, this film takes 20 minutes for the cat to locate the criminals. Don't get me wrong, establishing supporting comedy relief characters could be interesting if the film buildup the mystery and suspense of who the kidnappers were, right. However the movie kinda ruin it by using the obviously noticeable speech patterns of performer rather than distorting the voice; making solving the case very predictable. The film could had done better with making the villains far more sinister. The bank robbers from the first movie Iggy (Frank Gorshin) & Dan (Neville Brand) were intense & interesting. They really look like they could murder anybody at any moment. Their wiliness to kill adds to the stakes why the FBI must find them quickly. Here, the antagonists are playing the long term waiting game with their ransom. They don't even make much threats. In truth, it really felt like the cops could take their time in solving this case. There was a pacing issue. Another problem with the script is how much focus is moved away from the cat and onto Ricci's bratty and generally unlikeable character. The whole gothic teen angst outsider look was jarring and distracting. It felt like she was typecast yet again. It wouldn't be so bad if Christina honestly deliver a performance here, but sadly, she pretty much sleepwalk through this movie. She readt her lines with little emotional value. At least, she didn't act with a British accent when her character is supposed to be American like the original actress Hayley Mills did. As for Doug E. Doug, he's a little better than Ricci, but he's no straight man actor like Dean Jones was. The poor man's Chris Tucker really didn't seem like a real FBI agent. He plays Kelso way too goofy nor given much insight of the agent's hatred of cats & allergies. Jones filled that role perfectly in the original. He kept his cool under the bizarre circumstances and that's what made it funny. As for the rest of the supporting performers. They were decent even if the sound editing cuts away some of the dialogue they had, making it a bit awkward. Nevertheless, one of the things that I love about this movie is the fact that they cut away the older sister and her date plotline. That subplot kinda muddled the first film a bit. Nevertheless, I do miss the character Thomas Lowell played as in the original motion picture. Canoe was one of the funniest individuals in that film. Yet, I did dig the Dean Jones's cameo in this remake even if he along with others weren't really needed. Sadly, another thing that didn't work was the slapstick humor. It felt too Home Alone-ish. Also all the explosions felt Michael Bayish. It was too much and look recycled. I miss the classic humor that came with the first movie such as the jumping on cars roofs at the movie drive thru scene, along with getting soak and getting stuck in the garage. It felt more unique. Another thing that didn't work was the weird camera angles and freeze frame ending. It was just too confusing. It had no focus. As for the music. The soothing orchestrated title song in the original written by the Sherman Brothers was sung beautifully by singer Bobby Darin. In this movie, the opening faux-ska song was repetitive, in your face and loud. Highly annoying. The musical score by Richard Gibbs was not great. Overall: While curiosity indeed killed the cat. This movie butchered my love of seeing 1960s Disney live action movies getting remade. In the end, like misleading movie poster with the feline with the hip sunglasses. It's too dated to be worth revisiting. This is one cat that needs to stay in the bag and never be open. It's that bad.