Garfield, le film

Firstly, i really liked the CGI incarnation of everyone favourite cat and i thought Bill Murray provided his voice superbly, capturing his character with perfection. Other than that though Garfield - the movie failed to deliver the essence of the cartoon's produced by Jim Davis. The humour in the original comic strips were entirely geared at the adult generation, not the kids.

I knew the movie would cater for the younger viewer, but i felt that it went overboard a little, and this was detrimental to the films enjoyment. As a family movie it is entertaining, but Garfield - the movie seems to have ignored the comedy that made him everyone's favourite cat; only traces of it still remain.

It's worth watching as a family movie, but for fans of the Jim Davis comic character, it's probably best left alone.

6/10

I didn't absolutely hate Garfield 1, but I personally thought the film wasn't that great. The first problem is that the plot is as thin as a piece of cardboard and rather slow-moving. Bill Murray does his best with rather superficial material, but at times he sounds rather monotonic. While the script isn't completely devoid of humour, it is very uneven, and while kids will like the jokes, adults won't find much to go on. Stephen Tobolowsky's villain, despite having some good delivery, just doesn't quite convince, likewise with Brekin Meyer as Jon.

However, there are several redeeming merits, the most obvious one being Oadie the dog. I am 17, but I still found him so adorable, especially when he started dancing on his hind legs. Another obvious plus is the always lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt as Liz, who has been in a number of duds, but still shines because of her endearing personality and beauty. I also thought there were some well chosen locations, and while the film on the whole wasn't very funny, the scene when Garfield is blown so hard into the air-conditioning duct that his face gets stamped into the metal was very funny indeed.

Overall, not a bad movie, but not a particularly good one either. I don't really recommend this other than for Jennifer Love Hewitt, Oadie or if you're a Garfield fan, but I did enjoy the sequel more. 4/10 for a brave attempt to bring a comic book to the big screen. Bethany Cox

And only marginally redeemed by Garfield.

There's not much to separate this from rubbish like Cats and Dogs and Stuart Little. Everything that happens on screen is there to appeal to the youngest of kids. No one over the age of 8 will get much out of this movie. Unlike movies such as Shrek 2 or Brother Bear, there's absolutely NOTHING in this for adults at all. A shame really as the humor in the Garfield comic strip can sometimes be very clever and observant.

It's worse when you go see this with a bunch of screaming kids (and a baby-honestly why bring a baby to the cinema?!?) who laugh at every single thing. And that's including the stuff that isn't meant to be funny. It did get very irritating and proves furthermore that this is a movie for infants.

The tiny bit of humor the movie does have comes ENTIRELY from Garfield. Bill Murray is great, his delivery is catatonically laid-back and dry. The CGI of Garfield is also very good. He looks to cute that you just want to keep him. But any positive the movie has begins and ends right there.

Breckin Meyer may look the part of Jon but he has less than nothing to do in the role. Jeniffer Love Hewitt (gorgeous as she is) is totally slumming it in a role that requires her to do even less than Breckin Meyer and the other animal cast members resemble nothing like their comic-strip counterparts.

I was a little annoyed at seeing Garfield talk in the trailers but in the movie no humans can hear him or the other animals. There are some other things they have changed. Odie comes straight from the vet, though in the comic-strip he came from Jon's friend Lyman. Nermal does not appear to be Garfield's cousin and Arlene doesn't appear to be his girlfriend either.

The story of Garfield rescuing Odie from an 'evil' TV host is completely uneventful and nothing much happens around it. The ending is an unentertaining, unexciting anti-climax and disgustingly childish. I appreciate kid's stuff. I could watch 100 episodes of Sesame Street back to back. But this film was the most brain dead excuse for low, low-grade kid's entertainment in a long, long time. Jim Davis should be ashamed for allowing his wonderful creation to me made into such a lousy movie.

The 3 stars are for Garfield himself ONLY. Otherwise, without him, it's a hardcore 1-star experience. You wouldn't find Calvin and Hobbes behaving this way.

As a huge fan of the laziest cat on Earth, I confess that I was really expecting too much of this movie, but when I watched it, I got a bit disappointed... "Garfield" is not a bad movie at all, but is far away than all the fans expected, for some reasons in particular:

First of all, this movie is basically for children. Anyone who read the original Garfield's comic books knows that his sarcastic humor is for all ages, not just for kids.

The second problem in my opinion maybe can divide some opinions, but let's go: Garfield is lazy, as we all know, but this is an action movie...and nothing is more anti-Garfield than action! I think that a comedy of situations based on all Garfield's countless books could be more interesting, his loyal legion of admires will certainly agree with my point of view.

But, after all, if you just want some fun for a while, this movie will entertain you. Bill Murray is great doing Garfield's voice, very faithful to his shameless and ironic personality. The rest of the cast is OK; a bit affected sometimes, specially Breckin Meyer (Jon Arbuckle), he looks a lot like the cartoon version of Garfield's owner, but I really think that he is exaggerated, always trying to look goofier and goofier... Well, whatever, I think that I must getting older and complaining about things that are not so serious. Kids will love "Garfield" and adults with child's heart will like it as well...at least, if you're not so hard to please as I am...

As simple good clean entertainment this movie really isn't that bad. The movie however fails to making a lasting impression. Nothing in the movie is something new or memorable. The story itself is also extremely simple. The fact that the movie is so incredible short makes the story seem even worse than it perhaps is.

I'll admit that Garfield is a better looking CGI-character than Scooby-Doo was. Still that doesn't mean that Garfield looks incredibly impressive or realistic. Plus of course this movie has very little to do with the original cartoon, so many grew up with. None of the characters really make an impressive appearance, not even Bill Murray's voice talent can change this. Jennifer Love Hewitt is looking good in this movie but she gets very little to do and her characters just felt needless for this movie. A big disappointing character was the villain Happy Chapman he was not fun, not villainous enough and his exact motivations were too unclear and/or too lame.

The movie also fails to be really funny. The movie will perhaps make you grin at times but it almost most certainly won't make you laugh out loud. Still as simple clean entertainment it serves it purpose and I can't not entirely trash this movie. It does has its few moments but it simply all doesn't make a very lasting impression.

Entertaining enough to watch it once.

5/10

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