Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie Review

Nine cats review 'Nine Lives.'

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 18, 2016

Help! I've been kidnapped by nine furry feline friends who are refusing to let me go unless they get their say on the movie! Looks like I have no choice but to capitulate and open the review up to them. They've agreed to let me pen a one or two sentence introduction for them and also cover video, audio, supplements, and final words, oh, and this little paragraph, too. The first four reviews come from the four cats that currently live with me, and they're reviewing the movie strictly on emotional response. The other five are cats that have crossed our paths at some point over the years and gathered together (as best they can) for the movie. They're looking at it a little more critically. Hopefully they keep their word and I see you again below! HEY! Watch those claws! I know you're lovingly kneading my lap, but still, it hurts, and you're a little too close to that for comfort!

"You really think that stupid app can translate?"

Saber's Review:
Saber is the first cat I ever owned, a real daddy's girl who enjoys adoringly staring at me and trying to come into my home theater with me everyday. Don't tell any of the others, but she's my favorite, too. I really loved this movie. OK, I really love ANY movie that I can actually watch with daddy. He NEVER lets me into his theater anymore since he got all that fancy new equipment! The movie was a little slow in places, but that's OK...more cuddle time with daddy! At least until that no-good pet thief Meeso tried to bully me off daddy's lap with a headbutt! Oh, and mommy was in there watching too. Boo! I'm happiest when it's just me and daddy and nobody else, neither human nor feline. I'm not even picky about the movie!

Meeso's Review:
"Meeso" is a Tonkinese cat who is sometimes mistaken for a Siamese, which we have shortened to Meeso (his real name is Saturn). He's the house's pet thief, resident fraidy cat who runs and hides from everything (especially my father-in-law), and sometimes get scared out of his mind if I'm holding something in my hand. He also lives for his nightly allotment of cat treats. As the only boy cat in the house, I watched with my harem. Or at least I tried to watch. TOO SCARY! Take for example the flashing lightning and booming thunder outside of the pet shop. Terrifying! All those pink colors at the birthday party? Horrific! Brand's reckless driving? Count me out! The only part of the movie I liked was when Mr. Fuzzypants was inside the safety of his cat carrier. When mommy and daddy brought me home from PetsMart a few years ago, I literally lived in the back of my cat carrier for a couple of weeks. Too scary in the real world! I'm off to hide!

Geek's Review:
Geek (real name Sassy...long story) is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of cats. The sweetest thing in the world one minute and trying to rip a chunk of skin off the next, she's a conundrum of sweet and sour. In her golden years, she's grown to only really care about food and sits by the food bowl when she wants fed and circles the kitchen when we're obliging. She used to be queen of the house, but Meeso tends to bully her and pick a fight whenever he wants. Whatever. The worst part of this movie was that it was 90 more minutes before they fed me again. Although I could relate to the cat drinking that alcohol. Not because I'm a drunkard, mind you, but since mommy and daddy rudely took me to the vet and I woke up with most of my teeth pulled, it's been nothing but licking up juices and swallowing wet food for me (although my mouth does feel better and my breath is again tolerable!). And who in the world puts the litter box right next to the food dish? Gross! Only Saffy could like that. Eat. Poop. Eat. Poop. Eat. Pee. Eat. Poop. That's all that cat does, well except cry for daddy to sit down so she can spread out her girth all over his lap. Expect me to beat on the parents' bedroom door at 5:00 AM for the rest of the week as punishment.

Saffy's Review:
Saffy is the most easygoing of our cats. She's also the fattest. By a wide margin. She doesn't mind company and is very sociable. She gets along well with others, human and cat alike. She's also the cat that Meeso doesn't really bully, probably because they grew up together and are about the same age. Favorite pastime: sitting on her daddy's lap. And eating. I liked Mr. Fuzzypants. He looked like a pretty big cat. I'm big myself. If I were more orange they say they would call me 'Garfield,' whatever that means. All the food in the movie looked really yummy, even the canned food that Mr. Fuzzypants didn't want to eat. Not wanting to eat...how dumb! All that fancy New York stuff looked good though, but I wouldn't trade my life -- daddy's lap, looking out my window all day, and my food -- for the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Nope! Very happy right here with mommy, daddy, and especially Meeso, my best friend! Meeso and I lived at PetsMart together before mommy and daddy brought us home! Daddy wanted me. He had to talk mommy into it, but she's really glad he did!

Joe's Review:
Joe is a neighborhood cat who stops by to play with us and peer into the back door at the cats that live in the house. Seeing how I'm the neighbor's cat who just drops by for visits now and then, I wasn't able to watch the film. They even had the nerve to put the home theater upstairs and block out all the windows! However, I was listening to the movie from outside and for those who found the growling noises coming from Mr. Fuzzypants unrealistic, I can assure cats do make those noises, especially when we're annoyed or showing a strange cat who is in charge.

Boris' Review:
"Boris," as we called him, was a cat we really wanted to adopt several years ago but decided we already had too many. He was an older cat, very large, and sported a beautiful black fur coat. The poor guy always seemed to be popping up in different shelters and pet stores around the city. OK, so I didn't watch the movie with the Liebman family, but I have seen it. I have my ways. Let me tell you about it. I feel they made the purrfect choice casting Mr. Fuzzypants. A larger breed of cat like the Ragdoll made it easier to believe some of his stunts, although the stunt double was so obviously CGI in places that I felt the artist needed to spend more time studying the finesse with which cats move. Mr. Fuzzypants did an admirable job lending his talents to the film despite some fairly noticeable (to another cat) body language expressing his true opinions during some of the scenes.

Invisible Cat's Review:
OK, you know you're nutty cat people when you blame unexplainable occurrences around the house on an invisible cat. But he's in some ways our favorite. No poop, no feeding, no shedding. The best kind of cat! I've seen a lot of animal films -- I'm always everywhere -- and I'm not biased when I say that cats are much better actors than dogs. Think of the scene with the box or the back pack. A dog would not have done justice to either. Besides, meows and purrs beat out barks and growls any day. Did you see those yapping pests that kept showing up? If I wasn't made out of thin air, had hands, and some muscle, I might have made a move for a BB gun! Or, at least, called animal control. OK, maybe just hiss at them. Yeah, a good hiss. CATS RULE AND DOGS DROOL!

Sadie's Review:
Sadie was Mrs. Liebman's cat who was with her when she was a teenager, when we first met, and all the way through several years of marriage. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago but still lives on in spirit. She was a similar breed to the movie's protagonist, Mr. Fuzzypants. While the film overall was well made and acted, especially by Mr. Fuzzypants, I felt the main premise that a shellfish human became a cat because cats are the most selfish animal was a bit off base. Yes, cats get a bad rap for being standoffish and selfish, but that doesn't mean we all are. Personally, I am a very caring and friendly cat that cares how my human feels. Making all cats selfish creatures is a stereotype that Hollywood should address!

Mr.'s Review
"Mr." is a soft, cuddly, stuffed cat that also lives in the house, albeit away from the other cats who would certainly tear his defenseless body to shreds. I've watched a lot of feel good Hallmark type movies in my day; Mommy and I like to work puzzles (well, mommy works puzzles while I just hang out and occasionally show her pieces by batting at them...in my mind...Geek is the real trouble maker on puzzle night) in the living room or hang out in the bedroom while she does her cross-stitch projects. 'Nine Lives' did a good job at hitting the feel-good movie top five: a selfish main character with no desire to change, a quirky stranger who helped him see the error of his ways, a hilarious animal (ok they don't all have an animal; some use small children), a life-changing decision, and a happily ever after. I felt that if viewed in the proper mindset and not comparing 'Nine Lives' to more serious or stylistically different films, most viewers, and especially those who "get" cats, would have enjoyed it as an "awwwwww" type of sweet movie. I know I did.

Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

OK. Whew! They let me go. Anyway, Nine Lives features a very colorful, exceedingly vibrant, and borderline...gaudy 1080p transfer. The digital source material is certainly very clean and exacting, revealing the finer point details on the top-of-the-line clothes and high end furnishings in the office building and the Brand home, not to mention cat fur complexities and many of the much more enticing raw details in the cat shop and throughout the back alley around. It's abundantly clear and razor sharp, home to some source noise in the background but as far as the detailing is concerned, the transfer is good-to-go. Colors are exceedingly showy, red and pink in particular. They seem to almost want to burn the retinas. Reds are very oversaturated, showing a hint of bleeding, even, and flesh tones oftentimes pick up that exceedingly warmish red push, too. But all the "Firebrand" red logos everywhere are particularly hard on the eyes. The rest of the palette is very showy and exuberant, but never quite so garish as the reds. Black levels hold sufficiently deep, and beyond the noise no additional eyesores are readily apparent.

Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nine Lives' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 loses soundtrack is really kind of bland. It's oftentimes fairly shallow at reference, calibrated volume. Dialogue and narration are clear, but not very authoritative. It's at least well positioned and never struggles with prioritization. Reverberation is nicely presented at a large gathering around the 10-minute mark. Music is nicely spaced along the front, never really stretching the sound system to its limits but basic clarity impresses, even without a ton of surround or low end support. Minor ambient effects -- gusting wind outside the plane at the beginning, driving rain and booming thunder elsewhere -- find a little more back channel presence, but rarely enough to really surround the listener. Basic clarity is fine, however. Popping fireworks near film's end are the most dynamic element in play, spreading far out to the sides and presenting with a healthy wallop of bass. Otherwise, the track is just kind of...timid.

Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Nine Lives contains two featurettes and a trailer. A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV digital copy are included with purchase.

• Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Making of Nine Lives (1080p, 12:03): A discussion of the qualities the primary cast brought to the film, costumes, the movie's look and texture, how the cat's presence influenced the production design and shoot, Barry Sonnenfeld's direction, and more.
• Russian for Herding Cats (1080p, 14:07): A closer look at the cats that played Mr. Fuzzypants, "hypoallergenic" ones imported from Russia. It also looks at some of the other cats in the movie, working with the cats on the set, training them, making a few cat stunts, and challenges on the set.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:25).

Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Saber is right. Nine Lives is a good "cuddle" movie for cat lovers who will understand its sense of humor and cat antics. The movie could definitely use some work in other areas. It slows to a crawl in spots and there's never much of a believable tension in any of the business-side dealings, but it handles its feline characteristics very well, even in some of the more obvious CGI shots and always in personality. Fox's Blu-ray delivers very vibrant video, eh audio, and a couple of extras. Definitely recommended to crazy cat people (like myself and my wife), but those who don't know and love the way of the cat probably won't like this one too much.