'Polly got in one good peck before the cat killed her....'
Cats Eye is an anthology of three Stephen King short
stories. The stories are united by the
appearance of a cat. King
fans will probably enjoy this little chiller more than most, as there are
numerous in-jokes during the course of the film, including an appearance by a
very Cujo-like St. Bernard and a very Christine-like 1958 Plymouth Fury.
The first story
deals with a
married man, Dick Morrison signing up for a smoking prevention course where the methods employed by the
organization are stringent, to say the least. If Dick is caught smoking by one
of the firm's many spies, his wife or child will be abducted and brought in to
the main office for some "shock therapy", while Dick only watches. The second
story has a wealthy man wagering with his wife's
lover his life if he can walk completely around
on the narrow ledge of his high-rise penthouse once. The film's final story, a
King original called "The General", sees a breath-stealing goblin on the make to
snatch the life essence from the young girl (Barrymore) of the house, while the
stray cat she is enamored of tries valiantly to help her.
As with most
anthology films, the quality varies depending on the story, and on your
tolerance and interest in them. The first chapter, "Quitter's Inc", is perhaps
the least satisfying, primarily because the set-up of the film is the only good
aspect, while the implausibility factor just about does in the rather silly
plot. It seems a great expense for this organization to employ a variety of
spies to monitor one man around the clock, particularly since it seems they have
more than one client. The second
story, "The Ledge", picks things up with an interesting, and funny, story that,
while somewhat predictable, is enjoyable. In
terms of overall enjoyment, it's probably the best of the three, although it
seems many critics differ on this. The third story, "The General", is
more of a classic horror romp, with lots of special effects and scares. It's not a very strong story, but the action does keep
it exciting, with a particularly gory ending to it that is memorably funny for
being so cruel.
Copyright(C) 2007
- 2020. All rights reserved.
| Directed by | Lewis Teague |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Dino De
Laurentiis Martha Schumacher |
| Written by | Stephen King |
| Starring | Drew Barrymore James Woods Alan King Kenneth McMillan |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | April 12, 1985 |
| Running time | 94 Minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7,000,000 |