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| An amusing poster for the movie adaptation of the famous comics feline, Peter Hewitt's Garfield |
Lazy house cat Garfield's owner John acquires a dog to make an impression on a girl, but when said dog gets stolen by an amoral TV host, Garfield gets overlooked, and so he decides to get the woof-meister back!
Garfield is written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow (Toy Story (1995), both), based on the long-running same-titled 1978-? comics by Jim Davies (U.S. Acres (1986-89)), and directed by Peter Hewitt (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)).
Both script and direction are uninspired, and Breckin Meyer (King of the Hill (2000-10)) and a stiff-as-an-ironing-board Jennifer Love Hewitt (Heartbreakers (2001)) are inauthentic and bereft of charm as the film's main human stars. Bill Murray (Coming Attractions (1978)) voicing the title character is the film's biggest draw.
Garfield is a far-fetched and by-the-numbers exploitative attempt at cashing in on Davies' beloved creation. It will entertain children without giving them anything real in return for their time and attention. It is a fairly vapid flick.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 203.1 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.06 times its cost)
[Garfield premiered 6 June (Los Angeles) and runs 85 minutes. Murray has explained his performance in the film as given due to his mistakenly thought that (master filmmaker) Joel Coen had co-written the script, not Cohen, - but the anecdote is described by Sokolow as "complete horse shit." Shooting took place from March - June 2003 in the UK and in California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, fellow new release The Chronicles of Riddick and holdover hit Shrek 2, to a 21.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 75.3 mil. $ (37.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were 17.4 mil. $ (8.6 %) and Spain with 10.1 mil. $ (5 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches over this one. Despite Murray's later story about his involvement (given in 2010 in GQ magazine), he returned with Meyer and Love Hewitt for flop sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006). Hewitt returned with Zoom (2006). Murray returned first in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Garfield is rotten at 14 % with a 3.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Garfield?
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