Wednesday, March 23, 2016

A Talking Cat!?! [2013]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

I'm pretty sure there is no way to read the title of this movie without sounding goofy. Perhaps appropriately for the family fun we were about to endure, we started off our evening with a pre-show of an old training video for Game Crazy where a white lady named Zelda Scott utilized all the hip slang of the early 00s. It was deeply awkward, as was the entirity of our feature presentation that followed. The film was directed by a guy  who has made a lot of movies but seems to split is time between family films and horror films, all shot in the same location with similar looking actors, and all of them seeming to suggest that perhaps this man missed his calling as a porn director because that's really the kind of quality and vibe we're dealing with. It seems likely that we will watch another of his films in the future.

In a land of totally indeterminate geography (there are frequent establishing shots that contradictorarily suggest we are in the mountains, at the beach, near a lake, near a river, and in both tropical and temperate climates), a seemingly homosexual dad and son live in their fancy but tackily decorated mansion. The dad is a retired computer mogul and the son is trying to impress the popular girl. In another house nearby with confusing family dynamics, a mom who is trying to make ends meet lives with her app programer daughter who has dreams of getting rich off her product and her son who thinks he's no good at anything. For some reason the mom discourages the daughter from going to college and encourages the son to do things that he is unsure about while not acknowledging the skills he has. In the area, a cat, who is Eric Roberts recording dialogue in 15 minutes, wanders between these people, giving each a piece of advice because he can only speak to each person once. This interferance leads to the dad meeting the mom, the daughter meeting the dad who ends up wanting to help her develop her app, and the sons meeting and confusingly not falling in love even though they have a lot of chemistry and go swimming together. Seriously, the pool scenes were a gay porno waiting to happen and we were all kind of sad when they instead had the son sort of get together with the popular girl. After, the cat gets hit by a car and they need to find his magic collar to save him. So they do. And everyone's happy expect the son who thinks he isn't good at anything because his boyfriend got stolen by the chick who hates books. Lame.

This movie is hilarious. Aside from the aforementioned establishing shots, the awkward acting, and the thin premise, there's even more low quality fun to be had. The laser pointer that was used to direct the cat is visible in multiple shots and the animation to make the cat talk is pre-"Jingle Cats" quality with its mouth looking like a black void. The music is all public domain, mostly "La Cucaracha", and made with a Casio keyboard that involved liberal use of the slide whistle, Adam's most hated instrument. The app the girl creates involves scanning all your clothes so it can customize outfits which is not a bad idea although Cher Horowitz had the same program in "Clueless" in 1995 and the "scanner" is actually just a booklight. Also, check out this sweet cat torniquet and note that this is not the same cat on the movie poster above:
Quotes:
"I'm such a good friend."

"Is she in trouble?"
"Yes."
"Sweet."

Spoon Rating: 8

Adam's Grandma's Review: "It was good. I liked it."

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