Tomcats

By some lucky (?) chance, I watched this movie a few days after watching "Flesh Gordon 2", so I was able to easily tell the difference between a likable moronic and tasteless sex comedy and a painful moronic and tasteless sex comedy. Granted, "Tomcats" has more energy than laughs, and the story is predictable in the extreme; however, it works by mixing in some sweetness along with the vulgarity, and it certainly helps that Jerry O'Connell and Shannon Elizabeth have a nice chemistry together - you get the feeling they would make a likable pair. Now, if only they had given a larger role to Jaime Pressly....(**1/2)

A cartoonist gets in to hot water when a night in Vegas gets him in to heavy debt. His only chance to pay off the "semi-criminal types" is to win a bet with his extra stupid - but rich - best friend.

One of the "crass and silly" comedies that has come out of the studios in the aftermath of American Pie proves that cruelty and sexism still have a role to play in American society today. Who else thinks that a golf cart running over a bimbo is funny?

Silly laughs and face pulling are the order of the day as our hero tries to dig himself out of his self-made hole. Enough naked flesh is thrown in to keep the adolescent audience on their toes and some of the scenes are almost funny, although my ribs were never in any danger.

Thankfully it cranks along at a reasonable lick and the credits come up before it stupidity and cruelty really kick home. Watchable yes, but when people try too hard to be funny they very rarely are. Ironic, but true.

Firstly, I may well be slightly biased- because I really truly enjoyed this movie. However, seeing it with a score under 5- and then looking at the reviews, there is a notable trend. The good reviews are predominantly well punctuated and articulate, with such things as (gasp) accurate spelling and grammar. Conversely, most of the bad reviews tend to be short blurbs with not a capital letter to be found.

My take on this: Despite being a dumb comedy, Tomcats is to nuanced for the average consumer of dumb comedy. So, it's a smart-dumb comedy. The timing of jokes is impeccable, the pace is excellent, and the actual material is above average- with some of it even fresh! This leaves it in a bad place for reviews though- because it means a small segment of people love it, while big segments of the population (the pretentious smart and the uncultured dumb, we'll call them) will always pan this movie. So, if you're smarter than the average bear- but still appreciate dumb comedy romps, go for it- this one is a keeper.

The other night my cousins and I were watching some TV after midnight and we catch up the last 20 minutes of "Big Fish" and after that film "Tomcats" began. It was very late but the credits sequence was cool so we stay and the first beat in the film was really funny so we end up watching it until the end. That beat was between 4 or 5 friends and consist in never get married; they created a bank account so every day that passes, more money for the winner. Eventually everybody get married, except Michael and Kyle, and now the prize for the winner is $500,000. The story suddenly makes that Michael needs the money by the end of the week so he makes a plan and blah blah. After that we just forget about the beat and is all a love story, quite predictable by the way, and even the main character ends in a point when even he won the money, he doesn't care because of the love. But in that entire decent love story there are many funny moments especially for the sexual maniac that is Kyle and for Michael's bad experiences with women, even if they look like a pretty innocent girl or if they are the grandma of the innocent girl Eventually we have a really enjoyable time with this film without expecting something. So I think this film is the kind that if you have the chance to watch it just for coincidence in TV it will be a good way to have 90 minutes of pure entertainment.

I went to see this movie in a fairly downcast mood and was looking for something to cheer me up. Tomcats certainly seemed to hit the spot.

There are days when I'm looking for some serious moviegoing or a great spectacle to watch & there are days when I just want to lean back & be entertained.

Tomcats fell into the latter category & left me with a smile on my face for the weekend.

It would be easy to criticise the film (as a lot of people have done) but much of this criticism seems unfair to me.

I'd say give it a try with a few friends - you might just be surprised!