Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore 3D

Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore 3D (2010) – Rated PG for animal action and humor.

I went into this screening not ever having seen the first film.  I was told this would not be a problem, and that was correct.  What was a problem was how incredibly dull this film was.  I remember that the reason why I never saw the first one was because the trailers did not appeal to me.  Talking cats and dogs?  Seriously?  To be perfectly honest, the trailers for this film didn’t appeal to me either, but being a film critic and all it’s kind of one of those cons of the job.  I half-expected to at least laugh a few times and leave somewhat satisfied.  It’s a shame that didn’t happen.

It should be noted that the first film came out in 2001 so there was a nine-year gap between the two.  You’d think that with nine years between these films that they could at least come up with some good jokes or at least a story that hasn’t been done literally millions of times before.  Instead we were served with butt sniffing jokes and the classic dog and cat fights.  Yeah, dogs have a spot on their tummy that makes their feet wriggle in delight.  And yes, cats hate water.  Haha?

What’s most surprising is the talent they attracted to this bore fest.  How did they convince Bette Midler to voice Kitty Galore?  Christina Applegate?  Neil Patrick Harris?  And Chris O’Donnell?  Where did your career go?  And the 3D wasn’t even that impressive.  Not that I’m a huge fan of 3D to begin with (that’s a whole other post), but it was so unnecessary here.  You can tell that Warner Bros. was hoping the 3D upcharge would help with box office monies.

I am finding it really hard to say anything else about this film.  I felt like I was watching a film that probably should have gone straight-to-DVD and called it a day.  We’ll see how long it lasts in theaters before it inevitably starts showing on TBS every Saturday afternoon.  Filmtastic review = 1 star.

The Back-Up Plan

The Back-Up Plan (2010) – Rated PG-13 for sexual content including references, some crude material and language.

While I was watching The Back-Up Plan I realized that I should have made a back-up plan of my own…walking out and watching another movie!  Jennifer Lopez couldn’t save this heap of trash.  Even the handsome Alex O’Loughlin couldn’t be enough eye candy for me to enjoy it.  The movie begins with the longest voice-over to ever, well, begin a movie.  Honestly, if I had been the script reader for CBS Films and saw that the first ten pages were nothing but voice-over, I would have immediately put it in the trash pile.  And, yes, I’ve been an intern/glorified script reader for a production company before.  That would’ve saved me from the rest of this horrible movie.  Even the meet cute between the two characters isn’t even cute.  And, to save you some time, the meet cute is shown in the trailer.  Big shocker.  They both accuse the other of stealing their cab.  Love ensues?  Now I know what you’re thinking.  Hey, it’s a romantic comedy!  You shouldn’t judge it so harshly!  And that’s when I’d tell you that you’re wrong.  Because that would be a direct insult to all romantic comedies.  And there have been some really good ones.  If I asked you to predict what happens in this movie, you’d guess it all.  Boy meets girl.  Girl finds out she’s pregnant.  Girl tells boy.  Boy runs away.  Girl and boy get back together and live happily ever after.  There you have it!  I just saved you your time and your money.  That’s the entire plot.  To make this even worse for me is the fact that I went in with low expectations in the first place.  This movie could have been mildly good and I would have been satisfied because I wasn’t expecting much from it in the first place.  But the fact that I still left the theatre disappointed only lets me know that it was truly a bad film.  1 star.