Welcome back to 1 out of 5 – Would Recommend, where we once more dip our toes back into the world of indie direct-to video children’s films, 2013’s over-punctuated A Talking Cat!?!
What’s The Plot?
A retired tech millionaire and his awkward nerdy son learn lessons in life, love, and family from a self-proclaimed human whisperer named Duffy (the eponymous talking cat, voiced by Julia Roberts’ troubled brother Eric).
Who Made This Beautiful Garbage?
David DeCoteau, “the King of Homoerotic On Demand Schlock”, who has filmography that’s as long as it is unintentionally funny. Some of his other works include Petticoat Planet, Beastly Boyz, and Bigfoot vs. D.B. Cooper.
Really though, the cat doesn’t actually do all that much plot-wise.
Five Reasons to See It
- Eric Roberts’ seems to have recorded his lines in his bathroom, as all his dialogue is muffled and echoey regardless of where the talking cat is.
- Duffy can only talk to a person once. It’s the rules. Whose rules? Why only once? How long is “once”? They were saving that for the sequel, apparently.
- An interior scene is shot day for night. Why would you shoot an interior scene as day for night? The benefits of interior filming is that you can control the lighting.
- A teen girl spends a solid two minutes of screen time reading three short paragraphs about the tech-millionaire dad. Reading is…not her strong suit, apparently.
- ‘Tina doesn’t know it yet or not, but she’s going to be a very wealthy young lady!”
Recommendation
I usually love Eric Roberts’ work. He’s a bit of a garbage person in real life, but he’ll show up and chew the scenery if you give him money that’s green…except in this flick. In this flick, he’s half-asleep and that actually works in its favor: a talking kitty cat with a gruff, disinterested tough guy voice just adds to the unintended humor of this family comedy. As the AV Club put it, “for lovers of utter, unredeemable trash, it is highly recommended.” Toys wanted by collectors.
Child actor turned Rodney Dangerfield caricature Johnny Whittaker, the second biggest star in the flick.
Comes Back Next Week for a New Installment of Strange Times & Places!
