Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

34 10,000 B.C.
48 21
47 27 Dresses
17 88 Minutes
39 Alvin and the Chipmunks
55 Baby Mama
69 Bank Job, The
52 Be Kind Rewind
42 Bucket List, The
54 Charlie Bartlett
65 Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
36 College Road Trip
31 Deception
51 Doomsday
41 Drillbit Taylor
29 Fool's Gold
57 Forbidden Kingdom, The
67 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
59 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
57 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
71 Horton Hears a Who!
63 How She Move
78 Iron Man
35 Jumper
81 Juno
56 Leatherheads
41 Mad Money
37 Made of Honor
9 Meet the Spartans
48 National Treasure: Book of Secrets
39 Never Back Down
55 Nim's Island
50 Other Boleyn Girl, The
xx Rogue
44 Ruins, The
47 Semi-Pro
76 Shine a Light
37 Shutter
57 Smart People
37 Speed Racer
62 Spiderwick Chronicles, The
50 Step Up 2 the Streets
61 Stop Loss
55 Street Kings
33 Superhero Movie
92 There Will Be Blood
45 Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns
40 Vantage Point
36 What Happens in Vegas...

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

97 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
83 Alexandra
43 Anamorph
35 Babysitters, The
32 Backseat
80 Band's Visit, The
62 Battle for Haditha
47 Bella
63 Blind Mountain
71 Blindsight
47 Boarding Gate
60 Body of War
58 Bra Boys
70 Caramel
54 Cashback
44 Chaos Theory
32 Chapter 27
69 Chicago 10
82 Chop Shop
46 CJ7
78 Counterfeiters, The
30 Cover
49 Dark Matter
35 Deal
62 Dhamma Brothers, The
92 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
20 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58 Fall, The
43 Favor, The
58 First Saturday in May, The
57 Flawless
87 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx From Within
44 Frontier(s)
57 Fugitive Pieces
41 Funny Games
66 George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
61 Girls Rock!
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57 Grand, The
58 Hats Off
68 Honeydripper
xx Jack and Jill vs. the World
67 Jellyfish
xx Kiss the Bride
37 Life Before Her Eyes, The
72 Life of Reilly, The
50 Look
65 Married Life
35 Meet Bill
63 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
55 Mister Lonely
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
55 Noise
62 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
55 Pathology
48 Penelope
90 Persepolis
62 Planet B-Boy
xx Plumm Summer, A
67 Praying with Lior
46 Previous Engagement, A
72 Priceless
17 Prom Night
69 Redbelt
79 Reprise
72 Roman de gare
48 Run, Fat Boy, Run
50 Sangre de mi sangre
85 Savages, The
24 Sex and Death 101
66 Shelter
75 Shotgun Stories
40 Sleepwalking
67 Snow Angels
67 Son of Rambow
71 Standard Operating Procedure
76 Stuff and Dough
64 Surfwise
xx Tashan
82 Taxi to the Dark Side
57 Teeth
56 Then She Found Me
55 Tracey Fragments, The
57 Turn the River
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
59 Under the Same Moon
76 Unforeseen, The
66 Unsettled
90 Up the Yangtze
55 Vice
79 Visitor, The
64 Water Lilies
45 Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
57 Without the King
75 Witnesses, The
63 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart
45 Zombie Strippers

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Cats & Dogs
Warner Bros.


5.8

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Son of the Mask

MPAA RATING: PG for animal action and humor

Starring Alec Baldwin, Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins, Sean Hayes, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jon Lovitz, Tobey Maguire, and Joe Pantoliano

Using a combination of live action plus cutting-edge technology including sophisticated puppetry and computer animation, the ancient and secret rivalry between cats and dogs is brought to the big screen -- complete with heroes, assassins, double agents, high-tech gadgets and, of course, a plot to take over the world! (Warner Brothers)

GENRE(S):	Family/Kids
WRITTEN BY:	John Requa Glenn Ficarra
DIRECTED BY:	Lawrence Guterman
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 16, 2001 Video: October 16, 2001 Theatrical: July 4, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Washington Post Jane Horwitz

Surprisingly witty and sophisticated spy movie spoof that will tickle adult pet lovers and still capture kids 6 and older with its boy-and-his-dog love story and pet slapstick.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

An hour and a half of giddy, ridiculous fun.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One of the movie's most enjoyable in-jokes is the way some of the animals actually look a little like the humans doing their voices.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

For its first hour, it's a delightful cloak-and-dagger comedy starring a brave Beagle James Bond and a depraved Persian Dr. Evil.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Only a sourpuss could fail to be amused by this movie's sight gags and action sequences or to be charmed by its lighthearted good humor.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The plot and script sag like worn out chew toys just when Cats & Dogs should be in full squeak.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

As delicious as this premise is, Cats & Dogs is about as funny as a hairball left on your pillow.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Undeniably charming, and kids will certainly enjoy it.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This special-effects animal-action comedy is for heavily identified pet owners.

Boston Globe Loren King

The effects are so showy, and so relentless, that they call attention pretty quickly to the fact that there is not much else to Cats and Dogs.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It is never less than interesting. But who wants interesting from a movie called Cats & Dogs? It needs to grab the audience by the scruff of the neck and shake it.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

There are the gadgets and the effects. But Cats and Dogs definitely could have been more fetching.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

"Shrek" had some refreshing, genre-twisting innovation but Cats & Dogs plays it safe and nice instead and, by not taking risks, doesn't quite make it out of the doghouse.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Inoffensive fun that kids will love and adults will likely love too, it's a middle of the road affair, but a far cry from roadkill.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

At its best, Cats & Dogs plays like a live-action Tex Avery cartoon, down to the exploding ACME dog bone; it's slapstick and slapdash, full of silly and violent nonsense worth a chuckle or two as dogs slam into glass doors and cats play dead on suburban streets.

Variety Todd McCarthy

This comically intended battle of the species is family entertainment for families that will buy anything.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Plays cleverly to adults, but will fly straight over the heads of minors, who have little but a lone fart joke and wave upon wave of flying fur to keep them laughing.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Some stunts and jokes are genuinely clever.

USA Today Mike Clark

This family entertainment hard sell lags far behind even "Dr. Dolittle 2."

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A matted hairball of a kiddie flick that's alternately maudlin and slapstickishly violent.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Every good joke in the movie is to be found in those trailers.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Irritating, childish and more frantic than funny, Cats & Dogs does manage some few pleasant moments, but they are not worth waiting for.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The premise is tragically flawed and politically incorrect. In fact, it is blatantly cat-ist.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

Inconsistency of tone and internal logic plagues the film throughout.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The plot pants so hard -- that it makes less sense than the average pet-food commercial.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Grindingly tedious.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kitty C. gave it a 10:
Surprisingly original with a large amount of wit to go with the great gags for children.

Pat C. gave it a 3:
It did everything but strive for excellence. And I'm not sure what the target audience was. Maybe there's 3 days just after one's 8th birthday where this one really hits home.

Layne gave it a 4:
Why do you see movies like this? Because it's fun to verbaly bash them, that's why! So, I'll get to the bashing: the acting, other than the brilliant animal acting (ha,ha), is a waste of screen, the CGI is so embarrasingly fake it's a wonder why they didn't just remember the glory of blending traditionaly drawn characters with actors, like in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam. But when you're done bashing, there are always moments in those films in which you love to look back on. There are few to look back on here, but enough for a 4.

Michelle P. gave it a 2:
I'm only giving this movie a 2 because it had only 2 things I like about it: the dogs (which are my favorite animal that I'm obsessed with), and hearing the sweet voice of Tobey Maguire (who voiced the oh-so-adorable beagle, Lou). But though I love dogs much more than cats, I thought the movie left out an awful message about cats. It's been a tradition for cats to be villains. Think about it: Sylvester who constantly pursues the obnoxious Tweety (who's SUPPOSED to be "sweet"), Tom who pursues the obnoxious Jerry, the cat from "Cinderella", the cat to who the villain Dr.Claw holds, and (our favorite) Dr.Evil's pet cat. Felines aren't as loyal to their owners as canines are, but is that really a sin? And this film's plot was unbearable as well, it didn't even have a single good sub-plot to make up for its mess.

Trystan S. gave it an 8:
Cats & Dogs was one of these movies that was like, hillarious!I laughed alot, and yet didn't completely lose my head. This was a cool comedy and I did have a lot of laughs, it was great!

Don D. gave it a 2:
This movie lives up to one of its names - a dog! Nary a laugh from any kids in the audience. The trailer misrepresented the true production. Another lame movie for our kids!

Michael C. gave it a 7:
A movie I happily say will be enjoyed by all family members, even teenagers will find it hard to bust a gut laughing at cats screaming Our day has come! I couldnt resist chuckling very loud at the cinema. The jokes were all extremely original like the rest of the movie and all of them succeeded excellently. While the movie does work resoundingly well as a comedy, the drama area is not the one for Cats & Dogs. There are many cheesy father-and-son moments and boy-and-his-dog and they arent played out or written properly, losing points for the flick. However, I still loved the comedy and action, it was hilarious and I really got into the spirit of this movie. And I just loved that dog kennel! Press your hand (or paw) on the back and computers and gadgets whiz out at you. That red button dog train service just takes the cake. The voices for the movie were all good, particularly Sean Hayes take on the evil Mr. Tinkles. The live-action acting was alright, with Elizabeth Perkins putting on the best show, but the voice-overs were just fabulous, over-ruling the live-action acting like the dogs over-rule cats at the start. But how does it all finish? Who wins the war? Who will you root for? Go and see this original and ultimately cool movie and find it, its well worth it.

Cats & Dogs Warner Bros.

Cats & Dogs
Warner Bros.