Cats Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs

5. The Bizarre, Offputting Tone

Perhaps even stranger than the jarring visual effects is Cats' ever-shifting tone.

This is a film that clearly should've embraced its campiness, and though nobody could ever accuse Cats of taking itself too seriously, it's more weird for weird's sake than genuinely daft in a fun way.

There's more innuendo here than anyone should probably ever cram into a "family-friendly" film, and it's overall filled with so many eccentric and deeply baffling creative choices that it's clear Hooper had no idea what kind of movie he was really trying to make.

The film never lets the audience get comfortable or know how they're actually supposed to feel, because it so erratically bounces from one glue-huffingly insane idea to the next.

It's certainly a more interesting result than the film simply being a bland, forgettable adaptation. Even so, you might feel a bit exhausted by the time it's all over at just how aggressively odd it truly is.