Tomcats

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!

I know "There's something about Mary" was much better as gross fun. But this one made me smile a lot, and actually laugh out loud two or three times. Not that tears were running from my eyes, but I was shaking with laughter at least once, so it was worth the while, all right. And, yes, now I guess I know what a nut looks like.

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)

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.

Now Tomcats wasn't THAT BAD. I remember all these critics were saying this movie was so bad. Yadda Yadda. These are the same people who said that Black Sheep was a bad movie. Tomcats had it's moments that you will never forget. Sure Jerry O'Connell was better in Joe's Apartment, and maybe Hoartio Sans isn't the best actor in the world, all together it makes up a pretty good movie. I recommend it, if you like slapstick comedy