Movie Review: Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. It gave me an allergic reaction.

I suppose if I had cared anything for the original live-action Garfield (based on Jim Davis’ once-popular comic strip, from 2004), I would have liked this one better. Suffice it to say, however, if you have children, there are certainly worse movies you could take them to.

I can’t think of any of those right now, but I’m sure there are worse ones, although, even Bill Murray when asked if he had any regrets in Zombieland, responded “Garfield, maybe.”

Anyway, since it’s difficult for an adult critic (as I have been accused of being at times) to judge a picture like this, I brought along my daughter to see this one with me — just to be fair. When she only laughed at a few parts of this movie, I knew my assessment was not wrong. Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is a ridiculously stupid film.

Based on the much better Mark Twain story of the Prince and the Pauper, the animated feline (voiced by Bill Murray) somehow gets mixed up with a pampered cat (voice of Tim Curry) living on a huge English estate. There’s trouble afoot, though, as British stand-up comic, Billy Connelly (Gulliver’s Travels, Fido), the nephew of the late owner, wants his share of the property and will do anything to get rid of the animals which inhabit the place, including trying to drown the Prince, shoot a duck and threaten his lawyers with a crossbow.

You see, he wants to build a resort on the land. Oh, why even go on?

Just because they move the location to the British Isles doesn’t mean that any more class or intelligence was added to this stupid series. The dialogue is silly and humorless, the situations are absurd (even for a goofy movie like this), and there’s no chemistry between the two leads, Jon Arbuckle and Liz (Brekin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt, even though the whole adventure revolves around Jon prosing marriage to her). Fortunately, we see very little of this tepid couple throughout, so I suppose it’s not all terrible. But the biggest crime of all is wasting the talents of Murrary, Bob Hoskins (a bulldog’s voice), Curry and Connelly on this enterprise which smells like a full litter box in July.

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties stinks so bad in fact, that even though I am painfully allergic to the meowing beasts some call pets, I’d rather spend 90 minutes in a room full of them than to ever have to see another flick starring the lasagna eating feline again.