Catwoman (2004)

A shy woman, endowed with the speed, reflexes, and senses of a cat, walks a thin line between criminal and hero, even as a detective doggedly pursues her, fascinated by both of her personas.

Director:

Pitof

Writers:

Bob Kane (characters), Theresa Rebeck (story)

Stars:

Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt

Bottom Rated Movies #45 | 13 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Halle Berry	...	Patience Phillips / Catwoman
Benjamin Bratt	...	Tom Lone
Sharon Stone	...	Laurel Hedare
Lambert Wilson	...	George Hedare
Frances Conroy	...	Ophelia
Alex Borstein	...	Sally
Michael Massee	...	Armando
Byron Mann	...	Wesley
Kim Smith	...	Drina
Christopher Heyerdahl	...	Rocker
Peter Wingfield	...	Dr. Ivan Slavicky
Berend McKenzie	...	Lance
Chase Nelson-Murray	...	Kid #1
Manny Petruzzelli	...	Kid #2
Harley Reiner	...	Kid #3

Storyline

Catwoman is the story of shy, sensitive artist Patience Philips, a woman who can't seem to stop apologizing for her own existence. She works as a graphic designer for Hedare Beauty, a mammoth cosmetics company on the verge of releasing a revolutionary anti-aging product. When Patience inadvertently happens upon a dark secret her employer is hiding, she finds herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy. What happens next changes Patience forever. In a mystical twist of fate, she is transformed into a woman with the strength, speed, agility and ultra-keen senses of a cat. With her newfound prowess and feline intuition, Patience becomes Catwoman, a sleek and stealthy creature balancing on the thin line between good and bad. Like any wildcat, she's dangerous, elusive and untamed. Her adventures are complicated by a burgeoning relationship with Tom Lone, a cop who has fallen for Patience but cannot shake his fascination with the mysterious Catwoman, who appears to be responsible for a ...

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Plot Keywords:

catwoman character | urban gothic | comicbook movie | black superhero | bare midriff | 

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Taglines:

CATch Her In IMAX

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for action violence and some sensuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

Catwoman has been portrayed in live action by more actors than any other comic book villain: Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt in Batman (1966), Lee Meriwether in Batman: The Movie (1966), Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (1992), Halle Berry in Catwoman (2004), Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Camren Bicondova in Gotham (2014).

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Goofs

The helmet appears and disappears during Patience's initial ride on the motorcycle.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Catwoman: [voiceover] It all started on the day that I died. If there had been an obituary, it would have described the unremarkable life of an unremarkable woman, survived by no one. But there was no obituary, because the day that I died was also the day I started to live. But that comes later. This was my life. Days blended together, consistently ordinary, thanks to a job that was the practical version of my passion. I was supposed to be an artist by now. Instead, I was designing ads for ...

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Connections

Referenced in The Big Bang Theory: The Bad Fish Paradigm (2008)

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Soundtracks

Same Direction
Written by Douglas Robb, Daniel Estrin, Chris Hesse and Markku Lappalainen
Performed by Hoobastank
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Crap in its purest form.

Directing 0/10, Writing 0/10, Cinematography 0.5/10, Editing 1/10, Acting 0.5/10, Overall Satisfaction 0/10

Final- 0.5/10

One word is brought to mind when thinking back to my viewing of, Catwoman- Crap. It might be inspired by my estimation of the film's display of only 12 minutes of living, breathing actors (which I will get into more below). Or it could possibly be inspired by the many errors that there wasn't even an attempt to cover, i.e.- Patience becomes Catwoman after wandering into a restricted area. How did she get into this restricted area, you ask? By walking through the door marked 'RESTRICTED AREA,' in bold, red text, which was simply unlocked and didn't even have a significant locking device on it. You know, I might've also hated the movie (not worthy of the word 'film') because of the pointless-undeveloped story line. And, really, it's not possible to look beyond the disgustingly audacious 'style' of one-named director, Pitof, which can only be described as the style of a headless chicken running through a maze of landmines. Oh, yes, said headless chicken is also being chased by angry natives wielding machetes.

I mentioned above that I estimated that only 12 minutes of living, breathing actors were shown during the entire 140 minutes of film. Almost every sequence of the movie featuring an actor seemed to be butchered by the insertion of CGI's. I'm dead serious. I'm not just talking high-flying, sucky action sequences- I'm talking scenes of Catwoman walking to a motorcycle and calmly getting on it, and the other one that immediately comes to mind is a sequence where a man (a baddie) is simply walking. Yeah, walking. It seems agents and managers are really watching over their clients these days.

Now, two questions I'm asking-

1) What is the point of Catwoman? What the [expletive] does she do?

It's explained in the film that Midnight, the 'magical' cat, chose Patience to become Catwoman, but something is wrong here- CATWOMAN HAS NO PURPOSE!! Every other superhero out there has a purpose- They save people! It seems Catwoman's only purpose is to kill the people who attempted to kill her and chase a cricket or two. There's nothing else to her!

2) Where is the REAL back story?

It sure as [expletive] wasn't in the film! Why wasn't she shocked and attempting to reason and deal with the emotional ass-kicking that would come with the revelation? She's told she's Catwoman by the cliché cat lady, she buys a mask and nails and the result is the 'superhero.' It's adds up, but not into anything of any value whatsoever. Shame on you terrible writers!

Halle Berry is a good actress. I'm not doubting or denying that. She fully deserved her Academy Award nomination and win for 2001's Monster's Ball, but something bad happened here. Her acting started awful and ended awful. I'm hoping the talents and reputation of Berry won't be harmed by her inadequate performance.

Now, My request to Halle Berry- Ms. Berry, I want my money back. I never thought I could see such a terrible performance from an Oscar winning actress. Maybe you were just doing your best with the material? But, you know, that really is not a valid excuse. After reading the screenplay, you should've thrown it in the face of the agent who dared display it to you. How could you not notice how awful it was? Make some better choices and hopefully your career won't plummet as so many others have.

I recall an interview with Ashley Judd, the original casting choice for Catwoman, who said something along the lines of, 'Turning down the role of Catwoman is one the things I regret the most.' Ashley, never say that again. You have only been saved by not appearing in this hilariously terrible film.

Listen people, don't waste your money on this glorified..er…um..crap. It's not worth the $6-$15 bucks!

So now you ask, why not just give it a zero? Why the zero-point five? Well, The editing was sufficiently bad; the acting of Alex Borstein could've possibly taken some effort, appropriately placed CGI's were okay, and I like cats.

Directing 0/10, Writing 0/10, Cinematography 0.5/10, Editing 1/10, Acting 0.5/10, Overall Satisfaction 0/10

Final- 0.5/10

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros [France] Warner Bros.

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

23 July 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled 'Batman Returns' Spin-off

Filming Locations:

Rogers Sugar Mill - 123 Rogers Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,728,411, 25 July 2004

Gross USA:

$40,202,379

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$82,102,379

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, DiNovi Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 87 min (Ontario)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1