C a t w o m a n

Plot Summary

Patience Philips (Halle Berry) works for a huge cosmetic company run by the obnoxious owner, George Hedare (Lambert Wilson), and his wife Laurel (Sharon Stone).  By accident, Patience stumbles upon the terrible secret of a new product that is about to be launched. The new facial cream is addictive and contains toxic chemicals. Patience is chased by Hedare's henchmen and drowned but she is resuscitated by a mythical cat that breaths new life into her.

Patience returns to her apartment dazed and confused. Over the next few days her confusion grows as she comes to terms with her new powers of agility and acute sense of sight. She also finds herself devouring loads of tinned tuna and hissing at dogs in the street! The once quiet, shy girl has been reborn as Catwoman and she has a few scores to settle...

Review

There have been plenty of comic strip fantasy heroes on the big screen including Batman, Daredevil and Spiderman. We've seen Catwoman played most recently by Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns. This time Catwoman takes centre stage and gets a movie of her own. Halle Berry dons the revealing leather cat suit and looks every inch the sexy feline as she swaggers and struts across the rooftops as she stalks her prey. Her audacious parading is so embellished it brings a cheeky, funny, silliness to the role.

Unfortunately not everything is perfect in the movie and there are a number of things that ruin the fun. Firstly, there are a lot of stereotypical characters. Catwoman starts an affair with police detective Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt) who, predictably, is assigned to investigate the sightings of Catwoman. The guy even does volunteer work with the local kids! The corrupt cosmetics tycoon and his nasty scheming wife are also fairly unoriginal. Although it has to be said that Sharon Stone plays the cold hearted schemer extremely well!

The movie is also let down by the dialogue which is very clichéd.  There are quite a few corny lines that are a bit too silly.

Finally, while the action moves along at a nice steady pace it never creates the excitement or tension of similar movies. The fights scenes are good but nothing special and the special effects aren't half as entertaining as those in the Spiderman movies.

Bottom Line:  Good fun but just a a little too silly. If you didn't enjoy Spiderman, or Spiderman 2 you won't enjoy this inferior offering.

Reviewed by Niall Quinn, Premier Movie Reviews 2004.

RELATED MOVIE REVIEWS:  HALLE BERRY:  Monster's Ball,  Die Another Day,  Gothika,  Swordfish.  SHARON STONE:  Cold Creek Manor.  BENJAMIN BRATT:  Miss Congeniality.

Genre: Action

Certificate: 12's

Director: Pitof

~ Main Cast ~

Halle Berry

Sharon Stone

Benjamin Bratt

Lambert Wilson

RATING

ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO