Catwoman (2004)

Movie Info

I’m Catwoman…rob and fight cosmetics!!!

Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) is a quiet woman with a big designer job at Hedare Beauty run by George Hedare (Lambert Wilson) and his wife Laurel (Sharon Stone).  When Patience accidentally discovers that the new product Beau-Line could potential maim its users, Patience is killed.  Resurrected by cats, Patience discovers the cats have brought something out of her that she never expected.  Patience finds she has nerves of steel, a new attitude, and perfect balance…and a desire to take shiny baubles that don’t belong to her.  With Detective Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt) pursuing her, Catwoman is out to bring down Hedare Beauty and get revenge on her killer.

Yes, I’m being resurrected by computer animated cats!!!

Directed by Pitof Comar, Catwoman is a big screen adaptation of the classic DC Comics character.  The movie was critically panned as one of the worst pictures of all time and a box office bomb.  The film won Razzie Awards for Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Halle Berry), Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay with nominations for Worst Supporting Actor (Lambert Wilson), Worst Supporting Actress (Sharon Stone), Worst Screen Couple (Halle Berry and/or Benjamin Bratt/Sharon Stone)…as a good sport, Halle Berry became the first actress to accept her Razzie in person.

Catwoman was a disaster of a movie.  With the release of Batman Returns in 1992, a Catwoman spin-off was already in the works.  Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman was exciting and fun (and probably the best part of Batman Returns).  As the years passed, it was obvious that Pfeiffer couldn’t be Catwoman again and with a long history of replacing Catwoman, Halle Berry didn’t seem like the worst possible choice…but not a great choice either.

1992 called and wants its lame “sexy” basketball game back

First it must be stated that this “Catwoman” isn’t the Catwoman from the classic Batman series and this poses part of the problem.  I don’t know if the writers worried that viewers couldn’t accept a replacement Selina Kyle after Batman Returns, but they chose to create a similar mousy woman that would become a powerful independent woman…and put her in the girly-est story they could find involving make-up and a cover-up.

Halle Berry isn’t my favorite actress, but I actually feel kind of sorry for her here.  She’s saddled with a difficult script that has her doing a lot of what Michelle Pfeiffer pulled off in a tongue-and-cheek fashion, but it is more serious.  Sharon Stone is the heavy in the film as the villainous Laurel.  She, like Berry has to deal with a bad script and doesn’t pull it off.  Like Kat Dennings in Thor, Alex Borstein plays the comic relief sidekick Sally…who is also extremely annoying.  Frances Conroy is a woman who knows all about the history of the Catwoman and likewise feels crammed into the story.  The only person who is halfway tolerable is Benjamin Bratt as the officer out to stop Catwoman while falling for Patience.

This is much better than the final costume

The movie also looks awful.  Not only is Halle Berry’s Catwoman costume a step back (I liked her better with the domino mask on her first robbery), but the special effects are weak.  With a ton of CGI Catwoman, the movie really didn’t try very hard to make her look realistic.  Also, the movie lacks a good “villain” and the movie could have been aided by a cool looking enemy at least.

Catwoman is a mess.  As bad as it was when it came out, it is even worse now.  It is one of those films that doesn’t even get the so-bad-it-is-good status because it isn’t very entertaining in its attempts at camp.  Catwoman did redeem herself a bit in her appearance as played by Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.

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