Catwoman 2004

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Catwoman isn't really bad enough to be one of those awful movies we can't resist, nor is it incompetent enough to be the female Daredevil. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Catwoman doesn't belong on the big screen. It belongs in the litter box or to be scraped off the bottom of our shoes as we head quickly for another theater. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: The Showgirls of superhero movies. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Not everybody will be able to swallow its heady romanticism, yet its French director, Pitof, has brought sophistication to a comic book sensibility. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Arguably the worst superhero film ever made. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: If things begin to go south for the actress careerwise, Berry can use Catwoman as an audition reel to land a part in a road company of Cats. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A purr-fectly ridiculous and boring cat-astrophe. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The kind of movie that almost guarantees the loss of a few I.Q. points. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Catwoman's director, a visual-effects specialist named Pitof, is not contained by the rules of filmmaking. Scenes that make sense? Nonsense. Characters with inner lives? Utterly passe. Read more

Ted Fry, Seattle Times: Most respectable comic-book plots rely on a genius scientist gone insane, an alien invader or the like as villainous foil. In Catwoman, the bad guy is a cosmetics company. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: An odd, idiosyncratic movie -- dark in look and dark in spirit -- that plays as a kind of pop culture investigation into the meaning of feminism and the options open to women in the modern world. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This is barely a film -- it's more like a music video-slash- TV-commercial- slash-computer game. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It's not even campy enough for a good laugh. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Relentlessly gaudy and in love with its PG-13 approximation of kink, Catwoman is essentially an excuse to pose Berry in ever-skimpier outfits. It's all too pre-fab to register as sexy, though, and even the fight scenes look like fashion shoots. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: This wretched film is nothing but an excuse to show [Halle Berry] wearing that skimpy leather suit. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Watching [Halle Berry] run around in that getup I felt embarrassed, the way I do for people who put on makeup before climbing a StairMaster -- it's too much. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: A soulless amalgamation of quick edits, computer images and swooping, nausea-inducing dolly shots. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The screenplay's a hodgepodge of witchcraft, ancient Egyptian lore, pulp feminism, and a dash of S&M. Read more

Noah Berlatsky, Chicago Reader: Obviously, no one involved in this disaster cares anything at all about Catwoman. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: You'd never know Berry is an Oscar-winning actress -- her performance as Patience is downright amateurish. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: [A] laughable disaster. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Most of the movie has the cruddy lighting and generic, death-by-franchise atmosphere of a third-rate spectacle that's been worked over by too many hacks. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Any way you look at it, Catwoman disappoints. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Spayed and declawed update of the oft-told DC Comics tale. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Campy, smart-and-dumb fun. Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: Another hundred million dollars down the drain. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A clawless cross-breed of comic book movie cliches. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: A movie needs more than a few sexual innuendos and throaty purrs to keep us from taking a catnap. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Directed by a Frenchman with the single, not uncatlike name of Pitof, Catwoman is a howlingly silly, moderately diverting exercise in high, pointless style. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Despite its feline pretensions, Catwoman belongs to another animal family -- it's either a dog or a turkey. Take your pick. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Tired and dated. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The stench of the litter pan is all over this big-screen $90 million disaster-in-waiting. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Instead of basking in the considerable charms Berry has to offer, the director, Pitof ... treats them like accessories to the picture's flashy, senseless cutting and overused special effects. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The movie suffers from the opposite of a syndrome affecting most comic-book spin-offs. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Every odorous frame before and after [the 'outfit'] can be safely consigned to the litter box. Read more

Peter Goddard, Toronto Star: Get out the kitty litter. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: When is a cat a dog? When it's Catwoman. Read more

Nick Bradshaw, Time Out: You're left with flashes of mis-spent promise: the feline mysticism; the cosmetics-industry intrigue; the idea of electrocuting Lambert Wilson's unctious corporate cad. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The screenplay is flat and predictable, and bad dialogue prevails. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: Plays like a Lifetime movie on estrogen overdose, barely held together by a script that should have been tossed out with the kitty litter. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: This plodding, by-the-numbers superhero flick has all the feline grace of a walleyed mastiff. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Catwoman is dragged down by a paper-thin story, the predictable number of fight scenes executed at equally predictable intervals and stock, unmemorable characters. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: As for the story, which details how meek, gentle Patience Philips (Berry) came to be Catwoman, met a sexy detective (Benjamin Bratt) and defeated a skin cream empire, it goes down (and comes back up) like a hairball. Read more