Cast, Crew, and Other Info
Halle Berry as Patience Phillips / Catwoman
Benjamin Bratt as Tom Lone
Sharon Stone as Laurel Hedare
Written by John D. Brancanto & Michael Ferris and
John Rogers,
based on a story by Theresa Rebeck and John Brancanto
& Michael Ferris.
Directed by Pitof.
Complete information is available from
the
IMDB.
Buy from:
Amazon.com
or
Amazon.ca
Past movie reviews can be found
here.
Premise
An artist accidentally overhears some damaging
information. She is
killed, only to be resurrected by an Egyptian cat,
and granted all
sorts of cat-like abilities.
High Point
Sally's reaction to meeting Tom Lone was somewhat
amusing. We've seen
it many, many times before, but it's still the best
writing this
script has to offer.
Low Point
The "evidence all points towards" a woman who, if
given a blowback
test, would be shown to have been nowhere near a
firing gun.
The Scores
This is a somewhat original take on the
character of Catwoman
and her abilities, in the sense that it's completely
unlike any other
version of the character. We've seen heroes like
this before; in
fact, I'm convinced that producers were hoping to
capture the same fun
of Spider-Man with his agile, animal-granted
combat skills.
The idea of an evil cosmetics conspiracy hasn't been
seen elsewhere to
my knowledge, either. (This is probably because it's
such a bad idea.)
I give it 4 out of 6.
The effects were primarily made from a
rubbery CGI version of
Halle Berry. They did not look good. Some of the
special
photographic effects could have worked, but the
edited used to go
along with them was terrible, preventing us from
really understanding
what was going on from time to time. I give it 3 out
of 6.
The story is strained and frequently
non-sensical. There are
just too many inane little moments to hold things
together, and a lack
of caring or understanding needed to hold a script
together. I give
it 2 out of 6.
The acting was not as bad as I expected.
Berry did a decent
job during her interrogation, as well as with the
change in body
language. Bratt did decent work with the shallow boy
scout. Stone
lived up to her name. I give it 4 out of 6.
The emotional response was in no way
positive. This was bad,
but not bad enough to become amusing in its own
right. It was just
weak throughout. At no point did I care about whether
or not the
conflict would be resolved. I give it 1 out of 6.
The production was awful. The setups made
continuity editing
difficult if not impossible. The colour filtering
was far too
blatant, and really overdone. (It was also
inconsistent; take a look
at the fight scene on the catwalk when Lone first
meets Catwoman.
With the green filter in place, Catwoman's red
lipstick would film as
black. Some shots have digitally restored the
colour, but others
haven't.) The camera work and editing in action
sequences made the
action extremely difficult to follow. (Not even
Batman
Forever was this bad.) Pitof just screwed
everything up. The
pointless sweeping city shots weren't needed to
establish the location
of Hedare's company, so the only conceivable reason
for having them
was to try and capture more of the
Spider-Man feel. I give
it 2 out of 6.
Overall, it's a lousy superheroine film. We
need a good
superheroine film to show people that it can be done.
(Supergirl was the only other real attempt I
can think of.)
This is bad, but it's not the complete and utter
train wreck it's
often regarded as, which precludes the opportunity
for MST3K-type fun
with it. The only remaining reason to watch it is
for Halle Berry in
leathers. If looking at Halle Berry is the only
reason to watch this,
you've got her in leathers in X2 (a vastly
superior movie),
topless in Swordfish (which wasn't great,
but was better than
this) and completely naked in Monster's Ball
(which is a
great movie in its own right, although it's not
similar in tone to
these in any way.) I can't think of anyone I'd
recommend this to.
Even Catwoman fans are better served by Batman
Returns. I
give it 1 out of 6.
In total, Catwoman receives 17 out of 42.
