3.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Patience Philips is a woman who can't seem to stop apologizing for her own existence. She works as a graphic designer for Hedare Beauty, a mammoth cosmetics company on the verge of releasing a revolutionary anti-aging product. When Patience inadvertently happens upon a dark secret her employer is hiding, she finds herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy. What happens next changes Patience forever. In a mystical twist of fate, she is transformed into a woman with the strength, speed, agility and ultra-keen senses of a cat. With her newfound prowess and feline intuition, Patience becomes Catwoman, a sleek and stealthy creature balancing on the thin line between good and bad. Like any wildcat, she's dangerous, elusive and untamed. Her adventures are complicated by a burgeoning relationship with Tom Lone, a cop who has fallen for Patience but cannot shake his fascination with the mysterious Catwoman, who appears to be responsible for a string of crime sprees plaguing the city.
Starring: Halle Berry, Benjamin Bratt, Sharon Stone, Lambert Wilson, Frances ConroyAction | 100% |
Comic book | 99% |
Fantasy | 83% |
Thriller | 19% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps)
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
So as not to belabor this review, I’m going to go ahead and get all the feline metaphors and puns that could be used to describe Catwoman out of the way up front. Ready? Okay. The script, for one, has been totally declawed. The story should be have been tossed out with last week’s kitty litter. Halle Berry pussy-whips the baddies into submission, but she’s spayed by horrible dialogue and catty one-liners. This spilled milk isn’t worth crying over. It’s hardly purr-fect, purr-poseful, or purr-ceptive, and it’s more purr-functory than anything. Berry’s purr-formance is overly purr-ky, and Catwoman will be a purr-menant fixture on lists of Worst Films purr-petually. Nobody will want to give a home to this mangy, malnourished film, so it might as well be put down. Seriously, not even the Humane Society or the SPCA would give this film a second chance.
This dude's totally going to get cat scratch fever.
Catwoman claws onto Blu-ray with a 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer that's far more impressive than a film of this ilk deserves. Sharp, clear, and colorful, the look is everything that that the film—script, dialogue, and characters—is not. The color palette is warm and vivid, going to great lengths to emphasize Halle Berry's deep bronze skin tones. Most of the colors are intentionally over- saturated—see the fire engine red of Catwoman's lipstick, the neon green lighting in George Hedare's office, and the bright rainbow of colors during the nightclub scene. Black levels are very solid throughout, showing only a few mild instances of crush, and the overall image has a nice dimensionality and presence. Some of the CGI is less than impressive, and looks flat in comparison to the "real" surroundings, but this isn't really a transfer issue. There's also very little grain present in the image, but you'll notice no DNR smearing or soupiness. The transfer is fairly sharp— particularly in a few scenes with more heated contrast—and you'll notice plenty of detail, from the masked wrinkles on Sharon Stone's face to the fine textures of Berry's leather get-up. No one should buy Catwoman based on picture quality alone—I'm very tempted to say that no one should buy Catwoman, period—but if this is one of those discs that, for whatever reason, you just have to own, rest assured that the title looks great in high definition.
Likewise, Catwoman's every throaty purr is well rendered with the help of a nicely tuned Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. You've heard bigger, better, more detailed mixes, but you might be surprised by how substantial this track is, especially given that the film is flat-out awful. There's a decent amount of activity in the rear channels, lending the film a modestly engaging audio experience throughout. Gunshots ping from one speaker to another, a whole sound engineer's toolbox worth of swooshes pan neatly, and place-establishing ambience is subtle but present. I even noticed a few foley effects as particularly impressive—specifically the tinkling of glass on a marble floor and the sound of a chain being dragged across asphalt. And despite the sometimes-hectic soundscape, I never felt the dialogue was buried in the mix. The track also boasts a well weighted low-end, which gives some sonic gravity to all the silliness otherwise on display.
The Many Faces of Catwoman (SD, 29:44)
A somewhat creepy Eartha Kitt hosts this retrospective of Catwoman's career in comics and on
both the big and small screens. Featuring interviews with a variety of comic book experts as well
as ex-Catwomen Julie Newmar, Lee Merriweather, Adrienne Barbeau, and Michelle Pfieffer, the
program culminates with an extended look at Halle Berry's take on the iconic feline foe. Worth a
watch, I guess, if you're into the character.
Behind-the-Scenes Documentary: HBO First Look (SD, 13:02)
This is your average HBO promo piece, with a few talking heads and a smattering of behind-the-
scenes footage intercut with final scenes from the film. Entirely skip-able.
Chase Me: 2003 Animated Short (SD, 6:21)
Originally an inclusion on the Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman direct-to-video release,
this short film features Batman chasing Catwoman through the streets of Gotham, all set to a
pretty terrible jazz score. There are lots of jaggies in the image as well.
Additional Scenes and Alternate Ending (SD, 6:25)
Don't expect any game-changing revelations here. If anything, you'll be surprised that the
screenwriters could come up with an alternate ending that was actually lamer than the
original.
Theatrical Trailer (SD, 1:58)
Teaser Trailer (SD, 00:59)
Catwoman. It's terrible. You know it, and I know it. It looks and sounds good in high definition, but don't buy it unless you want your Blu-ray collection tainted by a distinct, ammonia- like, cat piss stench. I'd only recommend a rental if you can muster up some friends and give the film a proper Mystery Science Theater-style lampooning. Otherwise, steer clear.
Director's Cut
2003
1995
1989
Director's Cut
2005
1992
Extended Cut
2007
1997
2012
Icons
2009
2008
2008
2021
2020
Director's Cut
1997
2003
2010
The Ultimate Cut
2009
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2014
1998