Cats and Dogs

2001

SF elements

intelligent animals

Review

It seems that dogs really are Man's Best Friend, protecting us humans from the perfidious cats ever since the felines were ousted from power at the end of the Egyptian period. An underground network of high tech-surveillance equipment helps them keep on top of the struggle. But now the cats are launching a desperate attack against a human scientist [Jeff Goldblum] about to perfect a cure for dog-allergy. A highly trained dog agent is ready to protect the human, but, due to a mix-up, a cute puppy gets sent instead. Cue confused mayhem.

This is funny. The James Bond spoof (didn't you recognise the head cat?), the martial arts spoofs, the high-tech spoofs, are fun, and there are many laugh-out-loud moments. It is also clever. The SFX are tremendous -- it's very hard to spot the cuts from real-life to animatronic animals, and the talking mouth-work is very good. And there is enough of a reasonably coherent underlying plot that this isn't simply an effects-demo.

If you are a dog person, you will love the confirmation that Dogs are Good, Cats are Evil. And if you are a cat person, you will just have your suspicions about what the cats are really up to confirmed!

Rating: 3.5

[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]