by ANNE MARIE MARKO and MALCOLM FRASER

Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties

What’s the point here? Who is this movie for? Nerdy adults? Eight-year-olds? People with absolutely no power of discrimination? It isn’t good fun. It’s stupid and tired and predictable and tells the same non-jokes that have been told since whenever bulging-eyed Jon Arbuckle and his bitchy old queen of a cat, Garfield, first hit the funnies. (That’s the comics page for those of you who find it mind-boggling to use any form of the word “funny” in connection with that particular section of the newspaper.)

In this sequel to 2004’s Garfield: The Movie, Garfield (voiced by a soulless-sounding Bill Murray) and his canine companion Odie accompany their nebbish owner, Jon (played with gusto by Breckin Meyer) to England. Jon’s planning to propose to his veterinarian gal-pal, Liz (cyborg Jennifer Love Hewitt), much to Garfield’s dismay.

Elsewhere in London, Prince, a royal feline and Garfield’s twin, is flushed into the London sewer system by the evil Lord Dargis (Billy Connolly). Why? Because the cat inherits the castle that Dagis planned to sell for millions and is thus standing in his way. Naturally, a contrived mistaken-identity plot is employed and, as Bryan Ferry once sang, you can guess the rest.

Enough already. No more lasagna jokes. No more arrogant showboating. No fat cat strutting. No more Odie abuse. The kids’ll live. They’ll find other unfunny things to laugh at. And so will their parents. (AMM)

The Lost City

You might consider Andy Garcia a mere journeyman actor, but another side of him is apparent with The Lost City, his directorial debut and a pet project he’s developed for 16 years. Garcia also stars as Havana nightclub owner Fico Fellove, who gets caught up in both political and personal turmoil during the Cuban revolution when two of his brothers join Castro’s insurgency. The consequences for their old-money family are predictably tragic.

The film is clearly a labour of love for Garcia, who stuffs it full of lush locales, top-notch production design and classic Cuban music to capture the time and place. Unfortunately, he drops the ball on some crucial dramatic elements. The intricacies of Cuba’s political upheaval aren’t really spelled out for the uninitiated, and entirely too much time is spent on the romance between Garcia and Inés (Aurora Fellova), the wife of his martyred-to-the-cause brother, which fails to heat up or move the plot along.

Bill Murray continues his sleepwalking streak, playing a nameless writer (apparently an autobiographical wink by screenwriter Guillermo Cabrera Infante) who offers goofball comic relief with a performance consisting entirely of cringe-worthy one-liners.

Cuban-born Garcia has a bittersweet take on the revolution; his characters are happy to see the fall of Batista’s dictatorship, but alarmed at the repressive nature of Castro’s regime. Garcia clearly has a passion for his native land, which keeps the film alive. But at 143 minutes, and with recurring instances of stilted dialogue and melodramatic excess, might have found its footing with a little dictatorial crackdown in the editing room. (MF)

>> Movie Listings