Review of Cat's Eye (1985) by Catherine S — 30 Oct 2010

Cat's Eye is good entertainment if you're not looking for true scares this Halloween. If you look at this as a horror flick, then it fails on every level. If you look at it as simple and not incredibly bad entertainment, then it's actually pretty ok. Instead of my usual review format, I'm going to look at Cat's Eye as a series of vignettes, and I'll do seperate reviews for each of them.

Story line glue: A cat is on a mission to save a young girl in North Carolina from an evil being, somehow getting himself tangled in the web that is the other stories of this movie. I won't reveal much, but I'll say that General (the cat) makes the best animal heroes in cinema look like chickens. (Even the heroes that are chickens.).

Quitters Inc.: A man tries to beat his addiction to smoking, however learns that the program isn't all it's cracked up to be. This is my least favorite vignette. I don't know if it was because I was distracted while watching this portion (I was carving my pumpkin.) Still, Quitters Inc. was not very satisfying at all, with uninteresting characters and a silly plot.

The Ledge: A man is captured by a gang of drug dealers, who plant cocaine in his car. They plan to get rid of the drugs from his car, if he can circle the building by using the ledges (which are only 5 inches wide.) All the while, the drug dealer is using everything he can to knock off the man. It's pretty ridiculous, but it's not that bad of a story. It feels a little overdone, but in my opinion it's the best story in the film.

The General: General finally makes it to his destination: A little girl's house in North Carolina. She's suffering from nightmares about a little demon who is planning on killing her (i.e. stealing her breath away), and believes General can help her. Her parents are hesitant of course, believing the cat will create more harm than good. But when the demon finally appears, General is the only one who can stop him from killing the girl. The General is a pretty mediocre story, and the telling of it in the movie gets to the ridiculous levels pretty quickly. It's over the top, but that's what makes it fun to watch.

Overall, Cat's Eye is pretty mediocre. It's not Stephen King's best work, but it's not extremely terrible or anything. This is more of a movie to grab your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife and spend a fairly entertaining hour and a half with. So, if you have an hour to spare, give this one a look. (Real rating: 62%).