CATS & DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE (Brad Peyton). 85 minutes. Opens Friday (July 30). For venues, trailers and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
Shirley Bassey’s still got it. Her cover of Get The Party Started – which plays under the Bond-baiting opening titles of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore – is brassy and silly in just the right way, and for about five minutes it had me believing that this talking-animal adventure might actually be worthwhile.[rssbreak]
It didn’t take. The sequel to 2001’s talking-animal action comedy Cats & Dogs only infrequently sets its sights on spy-movie spoofery, preferring instead a string of dopey puns and low-impact animal chases.
Director Brad Peyton changes things up a little by having his canine and feline actors interact with puppets and fully CG characters, but the unsatisfying result gives the sense that talking-animal technology has gotten less convincing since the first movie.
The story finds Diggs (voiced by James Marsden), a hotheaded San Francisco K9 officer, recruited by the secret dog organization that exists to keep cats from taking over the world. His mission: stop the schemes of Kitty Galore (Bette Midler), with the help of cranky minder Butch (Nick Nolte, replacing Alec Baldwin) and feline agent Catherine (Christina Applegate). Also, Katt Williams turns up as a sassy pigeon.
The action is indifferent and the jokes unfunny. Even the small fry at my Queensway preview screening were unimpressed – though in fairness, that screening suffered from an underlit projector and improperly modulated surround sound, turning an already dark 3-D experience into something positively gloomy and occasionally incomprehensible.
