Cat-urday

Just recently finished my two-week training at my new job and off to do the real thing on Monday night. I decided to have my remaining weekend taken up in catching some more Z's and watching some movies at SM Bicutan.

My watching itinerary involves Catwoman and Garfield, a rather curious mix of back-to-back watching of cat-related movies.

Catwoman was very much a woman empowerment piece which has somewhat distanced itself from the original concept established in the 2nd Batman movie. It does however makes a twist into the origins of the Catwoman as a totemic character as evidenced in the opening credits and in some scenes that involves Halle Berry's character being tested, subsequently brought to life and her curiosity to her newfound origins. It was interesting to note that Lambert Wilson (Merovingian from Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions)plays a similiar character, though it was short-lived. I hope its not a trend he plays a powerful man yet get taken down a notch or two by his own wife by force of personality or subterfuge due to spite for his extra-marital activities. Sharon Stone plays as the main villain in this piece, though this part was a lot longer than when she played bad guy in Total Recall. The villainess plot involves her hushing up any leaks regarding her and hubby's cosmetic company, Hedare Cosmetics, on the findings of their latest product Beau-Line. Turns out that the new wonder product have rather dangerous side effects. But in the case of the Laurel Hedare, it has affected her mind and her body, I mean she has marble hard skin with an extremely high pain threshold that makes it close to feeling nil. Of course, Catwoman's diamond claws makes short work of that in the end at the climax of the movie. For the more discriminating viewer out to look for Batman in this one, forget it. Online critic reviews say how this movie was poorly handled by Pitof's directing as that typified with music video stylings as directed before to current movie directors. Its not really a total brain-check at the door but a warning sign may be posted for this before viewing.

Garfield was a more light-hearted fare to watch. Bill Murray's voice is dead on to Lorenzo Music's in giving the titular feline his voice. The initial impression of this CG cat, which some slightly disconcerting features, particularly having what appears to be Down Syndrome or mongoloid forehead for sure. Everything else was rather amazing especially when Garfield was dancing away with Odie to the song "Hey Mama" by the Black Eyed Peas. All in all, the movie was rather simple and very much geared to kids as opposed to the true blue followers of the comic and cartoon series and specials.

All in all, I had a rather entertainment afternoon for watching such.