Catch Me if You Can Reviews

'Catch Me if You Can' has such a talented cast, the true story is a fascinating one and while Steven Spielberg is an inconsistent director he was a big childhood influence and he has proved several times that he is capable of masterpieces of iconic status.

While 'Catch Me if You Can' is not quite one of Spielberg's best films (in a list that sees the likes of 'Schindler's List', 'Jaws', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and 'ET'), it is one of his better later films, for me that's since 'Schindler's List'. There are occasional lapses into overly-sentimental schmaltz with the depiction of Abagnale's family life, not the first or last time with Spielberg and a long way from the worst case, but that is the one fault that was had for me.

Spielberg directs impeccably, both in visual style and dramatic momentum, a directorial job that just screams of pure class. 'Catch Me if You Can' further benefits from as always beautiful cinematography from Janusz Kaminski and 60s period detail that not only looks sumptuously handsome but also evocative to make one think that it is more than just a film with a 60s setting.

John Williams' score is not one of his best or most memorable, but still fits really well and has the right amount of slick jazziness, whimsy and understated pathos without over-emphasising (over-emphasis was the reason why his score for 'Amistad' was a rare misfire from him). The story takes a fascinating story and makes a ceaselessly engrossing film out of it, from the ingenious opening credits sequence to the heartfelt ending, the film is long but never feels it.

This is further helped by a script that has a deft mix of genuinely funny comedy, poignant emotional moments and nail-biting suspense. The characters are intriguing. Can't praise the performances enough. Leonardo DiCaprio is movie star charisma personified, and brings wit, larceny and charm to a character that is a true crook in every sense but it is easy to see why one would fall for his actions.

It is easy to overlook Tom Hanks, due to the role being not as colourful or as showy, but he brings charismatic command, generosity and doggedness in a role that could have been really bland and annoying in lesser hands. Of a sterling supporting cast, Christopher Walken is especially superb, particularly in the latter parts of the film as his life is ruined. Martin Sheen and Amy Adams are memorable, and Nathalie Bye solid.

Overall, even if 'Catch Me if You Can' is not one of Spielberg's masterpieces it is one of his better later films and one of his most purely enjoyable ones. Well worth catching. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Pretty Good Movie here. 8/5/10 I rate it. One of the very RARE Movies in which Dicaprio's character DOES NOT DIE!!

It's certainly been a while since I've seen a film so easy to like and purely entertaining as Catch Me If You Can. Fun and well paced, though not lacking in intelligence, Catch Me If You Can is ideal film. It doesn't reach the masterpiece status many proclaim it has, but it's a confident and enjoyable ride, that even boasts some surprising emotional depth.

Inspired by actual events, Catch Me If You Can follows the story of Frank Abagnale Jr., who runs away after his parent's divorce at the age of 16. Following in his dad's footsteps, Frank becomes a masterful conman, stealing millions of dollars. However, Carl Hanratty, an FBI agent, is hot on Frank's heels. As Frank continues to successfully evade the law, he also faces difficulties of his own, such as old wounds from his parent's divorce.

While not as fast paced as one might expect from such a film, Catch Me If You Can never feels long or boring, despite the lengthy run time; nearly two and a half hours. The film's consistent cleverness, and intriguing plot keeps the audience completely captivated for the entire duration.

The film works as a number of things. It makes for an excellent comedy. Frank Abagnale Jr. is fiendishly clever, and gets into some interesting (and humorous) situations by faking his identity. Catch Me If You Can also works as an action film, due to it's "chase" premise.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Catch Me If You Can also works as a drama. While providing breezy fun, this is also a surprisingly touching film. All of Frank's schemes and cons are done to make his father proud. For despite the devastating divorce, Frank really loves his dad, and this adds an emotional element of the film. Catch Me If You Can would've been a pleasant and enjoyable film without this element. But this extra layer makes Catch Me If You Can memorable, and helps separate it from the dozens of other similar films out there today.

Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent in the leading role as Frank Abagnale Jr. His love for his father, and his easy confidence makes him a surprisingly likable character. Tom Hanks as the persistent FBI Agent, Carl Hanratty is also well done (the amusing Brooklyn accent helps). In a role that's similar to DiCaprio's, Christopher Walken portrays Frank's loving father, who's also a bit of a conman himself. Walken's performance really boosts the emotional umph in this film, making his role the standout in the film.

John William's score is very playful, and is also delightfully jazzy. The child-like main theme and heavy use of the saxophone are memorable staples of the score. The music truly enhances the film, and makes up one of William's most underrated scores.

Catch Me If You Can isn't your average action flick. It's emotional depth and intelligence distinguishes it from others of it's kin, while it's cleverness and humor ensures that it's a fun ride for all. While there are brief moments of genius, Catch Me If You Can isn't a masterpiece, or even close. But it's extremely memorable, and well made, and a lot different than most films of the same nature.

Here in the land of opportunity, we pride ourselves on taking one another at face value. That's why in a culture that falls all over itself to invest glamorous images with substance, any quick-witted trickster can have a field day pretending to be what he's not.

In the opening scene of ''Catch Me if You Can,'' Steven Spielberg's supremely entertaining portrait of a virtuoso impostor, its protagonist, Frank W. Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), appears on ''To Tell the Truth,'' the archetypal television game show celebrating mendacity and fraud. Before his 19th birthday, the announcer proclaims, Frank successfully impersonated an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, and made millions of dollars forging checks.

As the camera surveys the three contestants, there's Mr. DiCaprio in the middle, the faintest twinkle of mischief in his snaky eyes, his baby face gone playfully poker. Mr. DiCaprio's portrayal of this brilliant fraud is, in a word, sensational (and far more confident, by the way, than his stolid star turn in ''Gangs of New York''). An extraordinarily fluid and instinctive actor, Mr. DiCaprio has always conveyed the slippery acuity of a chameleon whiz kid who could talk his way in and out of any situation, and his performance is a glorious exhibition of artful, intuitive slipping, sliding and wriggling.

In ''Catch Me if You Can,'' the 28-year-old actor melts into the body and mind of a wily, precocious teenager who turns himself into a master forger. Adding depth to his performance is the flashing intensity with which he conveys Frank's mercurial bouts of insecurity and panic. Even while his character is flying high, Mr. DiCaprio understands that Frank is a wounded boy, and the actor remains in intimate touch with the childish desperation behind his bravado.

Initially at least, Frank's goal isn't a selfish urge to find a shortcut to the high life, but to recoup the standard of living lost by his larcenous father, Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken), who is being hounded by the I.R.S. for tax fraud. The son also vaguely imagines that with enough money he can reunite his parents, who split up early in the movie. In the most poignant scene, a lawyer announces to the stunned youth that his parents are divorcing, and in the next breath insists he choose between them. Frank refuses and runs away from home to begin his career of kiting checks.

A major strand of the film is a father-son love story, in which Frank hungrily absorbs his shady dad's lessons in deception, bribery and sweet talk. The chemistry between Mr. DiCaprio and Mr. Walken (giving one of his strongest, most sympathetic screen performances) is so charged the two actors actually seem to share the same reptilian genes.

''Catch Me if You Can'' moves in pirouetting leaps and dips that mirror its peripatetic antihero's shifting identities and changes of fortune. The game-show excerpt, which follows a cool-handed animated title sequence, sets the lighthearted tone of a movie that admires Frank almost to the point of suspending moral judgment.

From here, the film hops over to France in 1969 to observe Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the strait-laced F.B.I. agent who has pursued Frank with a Javert-like persistence, confront him with the roster of criminal charges in a grim Marseille prison. Then it bounces back to 1963 in New Rochelle where the fresh-faced 15-year-old Frank and his French mother, Paula (Nathalie Baye), are attending a cozy Rotary Club ceremony honoring Frank Sr., whose fortunes are about to take a dive.

The film eventually makes stops in Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New Orleans. Some of the wittiest scenes find Frank engaged to an adoring airheaded nurse, Brenda Strong (Amy Adams), whom he meets during his brief career impersonating a doctor. He so charms her unctuous father, Roger (Martin Sheen), a New Orleans prosecutor, into imagining they're fellow romantics that Roger helps him establish a new identity as an assistant prosecutor. Frank's television textbook for courtroom decorum is ''Perry Mason.''

To describe ''Catch Me if You Can'' (which takes its title from the autobiography of the real Frank Abagnale) as a smart, funny caper film is to ignore its strain of sly social satire. If the spine of the story is the elaborate cat-and-mouse game of Frank and Carl, the movie, written by Jeff Nathanson, is also a delicately barbed reflection on the American character and the giddy 60's ethos that allowed Frank to live out his fantasies. The 60's, you may recall, were the decade when jobs became ''gigs.'' And John Williams's uncharacteristically jaunty, saxophone-flavored score captures that spirit of frisky devil-may-care merriment.

The film's cheeky attitude is distilled in a fable Frank Sr. passes down to his son about two mice who fall into a vat of cream. One mouse instantly drowns, while the other puts up such a furious struggle that the cream turns into butter and the mouse walks out. That story is repeated three times in the movie, the third time as a ludicrous mealtime blessing Frank delivers at the Strongs' dinner table.

Without referring to the burgeoning hippie culture or to the era's radical politics, drugs and rock 'n' roll, ''Catch Me if You Can'' captures the frivolous side of the 60's: the decade of ''The Pink Panther'' movies, ''The Girl From Ipanema,'' the Rat Pack and James Bond. A clip of Sean Connery and Honor Blackman swapping double-entendres in ''Goldfinger'' introduces a delicious scene, set to the silky purr of Dusty Springfield's ''Look of Love,'' in which Frank, impersonating a junior-size Bond wannabe, outwits a high-priced call girl.

Among Frank's assumed identities, the one he savors the most is airline pilot. And the movie's zaniest scenes remind us of those tinselly days when air travel was sold as sex in the sky. Before the arrival of the metal detector lent aviation an ominous undertone, every airline passenger was a jet setter, uniformed pilots rivaled astronauts in masculine sex appeal, and a lubricious novelty like ''Coffee, Tea or Me? The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses'' could be a best seller.

The movie's recurrent images of squealing, strutting flight attendants batting their eyes at the pilots are a hilarious throwback to a swinging 60's just before a resurgent feminism rewrote the rules of courtship and airline employment, and turned stewardesses from jiggly, compliant bunnies into crisply efficient flight attendants.

Arguably the best-acted of any Spielberg film, ''Catch Me if You Can'' finds Mr. Hanks displaying his usual aplomb. The actor hones a severe, potentially drab role into an incisive, touching character study of a lonely, humorless New England workaholic whose adrenaline is fired by a cat-and-mouse game in which he loses all the early rounds. Over time, Carl develops a respect and a paternal fondness for Frank. And in the movie's finale, the father-son theme culminates in Frank having to choose between the values of his real father and the surrogate dad who reined him in.

''Catch Me'' is the most charming of Mr. Spielberg's mature films, because is it so relaxed. Instead of trying to conjure fairy-tale magic, wring tears or insinuate a message, it is happy just to be its delicious, genially sophisticated self.

WOW! This movie will leave you absolutely amazed, shocked, and entertained. This is really what Hollywood is all about! This movie is strongly recommended, no matter your age, size, weight or nationality. This movie is really enjoyable and I completely recommend it.

Just finished watching it and I loved every moment of it. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the part so well and Tom Hanks was a perfect match to try and catch him. The best parts were when Frank pretended to be a teacher at his school, tricked Carl into think he was Secret Services and when he decided to become a doctor, but couldn't tolerate the blood.
Loved it all! Would def recommend to a friend

A well made movie, with a good plot and actors

awesome movie , one of my favorite movies ,
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Beforehand, I was expecting a fun flick but I wasn't expecting to be blown away like that. Fist of all, the true story on which the movie is based is just really amazing. Of course, I'm well aware that they must have made up a few things but it still is an amazing story. Personally, I thought it would be a typical Spielberg effort, you know, very well made and entertaining but rather shallow and no really deep. So, I was really amazed when I realised that they devoted a lot of time and energy in developping the psychological torment lived by the main character. It was just fascinating to behold. Furthermore, there was actually a darker mood than what you usually get in your typical Spielberg production and this approach was more than welcome. Finally,  there was a great cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, James Brolin, Jennifer Garner), above all, Christopher Walken was, as usual, completely stealing the show every single time he was on the screen. Surprisingly, it has actually become my favorite Spielberg film. Yeah, it is that good, in my opinion. It is so fun and so sad at the same time. To conclude, I think it is a great entertaining movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Spielberg's movies.

"Sometimes it's easier livin' the lie."

Catch Me If You Can is one of Spielberg's best films of late. The whole film is told with a very bright, charming atmosphere accompanied by great filmmaking in every aspect.

Based on the real life story, Leonardo DiCaprio plays teenager Frank Abagnale Jr. who runs away from home at a tender age of 16. After the bitter divorce of his parents, Frank can't deal with the emotion and flees his home in an attempt to escape what is happening. But Frank soon discovers that he has very little funds to keep him going, and realises that he can pose as someone employed in a high class occupation to get him a nice fat paycheck.

Before Frank reaches his 21st birthday, he proceeded to impersonate a pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and became a dab hand at forging cheques and making millions in the process. Tom Hanks is FBI agent Carl Hanratty who is assigned to the case. Over the course of many years, Carl chases Frank in an attempt to bring him to justice for his brilliant crimes.

The film's running time hinges on the lengthy chase that ensues when Carl is chasing Frank who appears to be one step ahead all the time. Many may complain about the running time, but I was engaged in the film from start to finish.

Spielberg's direction makes for a fascinating visual feast for the eyes, and John Williams' jazzy score creates an audio feast for the ears. The style of the film has yet to be matched in a film of this genre. Because everything is done to perfection there are little flaws, and hence an astronomically high entertainment value.

From the cleverly animated opening credits that set the atmosphere right up until the brilliant conclusion, I was hooked.

Leo DiCaprio was a great choice for the title role. Although I'm not an overall fan of the young fellow, I felt that only Leo could pull this one off. Tom Hanks is exceptional as an FBI agent.

Catch Me If You Can is a high energy romp that is truly one of Spielberg's best films in recent years. It will surely provide great entertainment for a rainy afternoon or a boring evening.