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Cats & Dogs

Movie Cats & Dogs Director Larry Guterman Producer Warren Zide Cast Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins

By Ad-Lib The first thing a critic does after he sees a movie is to try and decide which segment of the audience would find that movie appealing but Cats and Dogs defies all known logic and confuses every segment of the audience into saying, “What just happened?” To call this offering from Warner Bros good would be as accurate as calling Hitler a Red Cross Volunteer. It’s the present day and all is well, except in the pet world. Apparently, unknown to us, is a battle that has been raging for centuries between that canine and feline worlds and things are just about to get uglier. Buddy the dog has just been kidnapped by the cat world and that spells trouble because the head of Buddy’s Brody household (Jeff Goldblum) is a scientist who is developing an anti-allergy drug for people with Dog allergies. With Buddy out of the picture, Cats can sabotage his research and that’s bad news for Dogs. This is where Lou comes in; a beagle puppy that is adventurous inadvertently gets switched with some Doberman pups and ends up at the Brody’s. Butch is the local operative, part of a James Bond like world of Dogs, along with a poodle for a surveillance expert and a Sheepdog for an overenthusiastic spy. Due to the switch, Butch now has to teach Lou how to be an agent and make sure the Cats headed by an evil Mr.Tinkles cannot get the formula. Lou gets on the job and endears himself to the Brody’s as well as learns a few secrets about Butch. The Cats send in Ninjas, a Russian operative and the works to try and get at the formula but all efforts are in vain. That is until they kidnap the Brody’s and hold them to ransom in exchange for the formula. The naïve Lou gives them the formula and now Butch, Lou and the gang try to reacquire the formula. At this point, disbelief which has already left you with an aching jaw goes into high gear and you are shown an alliance of Cats and Mice! But the movie is thankfully over and you don’t go into a coma. Unrealistic, badly written and totally misdirected are three words to sum up the movie. The animals are cute and laughter does escape now and then. Otherwise, normally this is one for the over-imaginative child who probably has an imaginary friend. But then again, that’s not very normal. Graphics are top of the line but all resources have been wasted on a very tired scriptwriter. Cats and Dogs earns a meager 2 out of 10 and that’s a “license to avoid”!!