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Movies / On DVD / P.S. Your Cat is Dead!
P.S. Your Cat is Dead!

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P.S. Your Cat is Dead! (2002)

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Reviews Counted:17

Fresh:4

Rotten:13

Average Rating:4.2/10

Runtime: 88 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: Actor Steve Guttenberg makes his directorial debut in this witty black comedy based on the acclaimed novel and play by James Kirkwood (of A CHORUS LINE fame). It's New Year's Eve and out-of-work... Actor Steve Guttenberg makes his directorial debut in this witty black comedy based on the acclaimed novel and play by James Kirkwood (of A CHORUS LINE fame). It's New Year's Eve and out-of-work Los Angeles actor/writer Jimmy Zoole (Guttenberg) is having a very bad night. His girlfriend has just left him, his latest play has been canceled after only one performance, and he has just found out that his adored cat has died. On the brink of a breakdown, Jimmy discovers Eddie (Lombardo Boyar), a cat burglar, hiding under his bed and decides to take the law into his own hands. Eager to teach the burglar a lesson, Jimmy captures him and ties him to the kitchen counter in a desperate act of revenge. Drunk on power, Jimmy tortures and torments the gay Mexican burglar for the next 24 hours. But, Eddie fights back with clever words and the two bicker and spar over the course of an extremely claustrophobic evening. Trapped together in a twisted standoff, what initially begins as a game of cat-and-mouse becomes a strange bonding experience, as the two supposedly different men bond over their extreme situation and their shared struggles. A New Year's Eve like no other, this bizarrely twisted comedy focuses on the character acting of director-writer-producer-star Steve Guttenberg and his talented costar Lombardo Boyar. [More]

Starring: Steve Guttenberg, Lombardo Boyar, A.J. Benza, Cynthia Watros

Starring: Steve Guttenberg, Lombardo Boyar, A.J. Benza, Cynthia Watros, Shirley Knight, Tom Wright, Frank Medrano

Director: Steve Guttenberg

Director: Steve Guttenberg
Screenwriter: James Kirkwood, Steve Guttenberg, Jeff Korn
Producer: Christopher Vogler, Kyle Clark, Steve Guttenberg
Composer: Dean Grisfield
Studio: TLA Releasing

[See More Credits]

Reviews for P.S. Your Cat is Dead!

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1 - 19 (sorted by comments; UK critics are listed first)
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The film's completely declawed of energy and comedy.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
01/10/03
E! Online
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine | comment Comment
03/04/03
Premiere Magazine

[The Boys in the Band] is much wittier and funnier than the comparatively frantic and frenzied shouting matches devised by Messrs. Guttenberg, Korn and Kirkwood.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
02/12/03
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer

A two-character roundelay whose modicum of enjoyment depends largely on your own personal appetite for social commentary transparently dressed up as assertively quirky entertainment.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Today | comment Comment
01/20/03
Brent Simon
Brent Simon
Entertainment Today

The story doesn't have anywhere interesting to go once Kate, appropriately humiliated, slinks away.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/16/03
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Canned theater.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
03/07/03
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

Guttenberg ... obviously meant this as a major stretch, and does his best acting work since his breakthrough in Diner.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/21/03
David Noh
David Noh
Film Journal International

It's another world now, which is why Kirkwood's play, adapted to the screen by actor Steve Guttenberg, feels so moldy and out of date.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/17/03
Edward Guthmann
Edward Guthmann
San Francisco Chronicle

It's nicely acted by the small cast.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/14/03
Elliott Stein
Elliott Stein
Village Voice

No review available.

comment Comment
11/04/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Guttenberg is a capable director; his framing is crisp, his pacing brisk, his eye alert to telling detail.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
01/23/03
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
L.A. Weekly
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
03/08/03
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

Guttenberg's Jimmy is such a natural extension of the actor himself, which adds a dimension the original playwright never could have imagined.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
01/20/03
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
San Francisco Examiner

It is, inevitably, an actorly exercise -- not off-puttingly so, perhaps, but at no time do we have a sense that we've transcended the stage. Or, for that matter, 1970.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
01/17/03
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday

Remains too much a filmed play.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/23/03
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In 1975, the idea of a straight man tying up a gay burglar was exotic, darkly humorous and sexually charged. In director/star Steve Guttenberg's new film version, it comes off as no big deal.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
03/07/03
Kim Morgan
Kim Morgan
Oregonian

The performances are solid, but as a screenwriter, Guttenberg can't make the situation seem like more than a theatrical construct in a contemporary setting.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/17/03
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post

Dominated by an unshaven Guttenberg mugging, ranting, screaming and hurling himself around the luxurious loft set we're meant to believe is a squalid dump that serves as a nagging reminder to Jimmy of his inadequacies.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
01/16/03
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

While [Guttenberg's] tenacity is undeniable, he would have been wiser to let sleeping cats lie.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
10/30/02
Michael Rechtshaffen
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 19 (sorted by comments; UK critics are listed first)
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