By all accounts, Cats is an unmitigated disaster. (Or cat-astrophe, if you will.) The big movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical has an 18% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critic consensus reads: “a clawful mistake that will leave most viewers begging to be put out of their mew-sery.”
Instead of watching Dame Judi Dench pretend to be a cat, we suggest watching one of these vastly superior cat movies instead.
Traditionally, the Christmas holidays is a great day to go to the cinema in Australia. This year’s offerings include Hitler comedy Jojo Rabbit, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You and Cannes Film Festival hit Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Perhaps the strangest offering is Cats, the big screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, itself based on T.S. Eliot’s cycle of poems.
From the trailer, glimpses of a creepily transformed all-star cast (a sinisterly sibilant Judy Dench, Idris Elba and Taylor Swift to name but a few) and a darkly glamorous cat-fight vibe raised more than a few hackles – so much so, elements have been “subtly” reanimated. Reviews of the film have been overwhelmingly negative.
It remains to be seen whether Cats will land as deftly with film goers as it did in the theatre. But if nothing else, its release provides a timely reminder of how the big screen has gifted us many memorable feline performances.
Here are five of the very best.
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