Movie Review: The Cat in the Hat

First it was The Grinch and now it's Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat hitting the big screen. Can Mike Myers be as funny wearing tons of feline make-up and fur as he can in the padded latex of Austin Powers' Fat Bastard?

The Walden kids, (a brother and sister, badboy Conrad (Spencer Breslin) and control freak Sally (Dakota Fanning) are ordered by successful real estate agent mom (Kelly Preston) not to mess up the house before she hosts an important party. Mom drops off a sleepy, useless babysitter, says goodbye and magically, party animal Cat (Mike Myers) appears, causing the children to loosen up and have some fun that results in the entire house being trashed and Cat's wacky world being mixed (at least inside the house) with theirs.

Kids and Cat must retrieve a padlock from the family pooch who has run off with it and close up the Cat's trunk from where all the chaos emanates. Causing problems along the way is Lawrence (Alec Baldwin) the gold-digging next door neighbor who wants to marry the kids' single mom and send Conrad off to military school.

Okay, I'll admit right off that, as a child, I was not familiar with the Seuss books so I have nothing to compare this film to but friends tell me it's a big stretch from the more kid-friendly books. The movie suffers from not knowing whether it's a family film or a Tim-Burton-esque touch-of-evil romp that features off-color jokes that older teens and adults will certainly get but aren't for kids. For example, Cat holds up a garden hoe covered with mud and says "You dirty Ho" and starts to lick it! Hilarious, but for your 6-year-old sister??

Mike is doing characters you've seen on "Saturday Night Live" or Austin Powers (including Fat Bastard and Shrek's Scottish accent) so he hasn't really created an entirely new character for the Cat. Alec Baldwin is hilarious however as the sleazy next-door neighbor and Sean Hayes is really funny as the voice of the family fish and mom's anal retentive boss at her real estate office.

What is really great is the colorful production design, the gadgetry, cars, etc. They are all very Seuss-like, but in 3-D. The physical gags and chases etc. should tickle younger kids but the story is pretty thin. The Cat leads the kids into being terrible destructive forces but all in the name of teaching them to be more "balanced" in life and learn how to have fun and love each other. That's nice but I wasn't too happy with a scene in which the Cat takes the place of a piñata and is belted by kids with baseball bats. Myers IS playing a cat...not a good example.

So, mixed feelings about this one. You might enjoy it for the Cat's crude, kinda sexy humor. Whether it's a family film, although PG rated, is questionable.

For a cute look and some off-color..."I can't believe he said that"..laughs.. 3 out of 5 stars.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.