In 1985, Stephen King was a mainstay in theatres. As a follow up to his successful adaption of King's "Cujo" the previous year, Director Lewis Teague brought a trilogy of King short stories to the screen with CAT'S EYE.
He should have stuck with the Dog.
Mean-spirited and dull, the three stories only linking thread is a house cat that wonders through the first two tales before taking part in the 3rd.
Chapter One is 'Quitters Inc', detailing the most heinous Stop Smoking organization in history. Comedian Alan King has fun as a former mob boss bringing his talents to smoking cessation and James Woods is at his nervous best as a hard core smoker. What might have been fun on the page just becomes sadistic on screen.
Chapter Two is the weakest, with a millionaire (Kenneth McMillan from 'Dune") making his wife's lover (Robert Hays of "Airplane") walk around the outside of his penthouse building in a bet as penalty for his infidelity. It's boring and goofy.
The last chapter "The General" is the best chapter (it's a low bar) with a young Drew Barrymore as a young girl with a seriously demented little Gremlin in the wall of her bedroom. The problem with the story is that her Mom (Candy Clark) comes across as the worst mother of the year in service of the story, while Drew's left battling green screen monsters.
Thank heavens that damn cat is there to help her against the goofy little creature. Come to think of it, there was a Disney movie called "That Darn Cat" in 1965 that probably had more dramatic credibility than this stinker.
It's hard to believe that King wrote the screenplay. To this day he's one of my favorite writers on the page, but he's rarely had success in writing for the big screen.
A different forum to be sure. I'll follow King anywhere in hardcover, but this one is all set up and no payoff.
I'll give it a D.
King fans might have fun spotting the all too obvious references to Cujo, Christine, The Dead Zone (one of the BEST King film adaptions) and Pet Semetary.
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