Garfield: The Movie

The comic-strip cat comes to the big screen thanks to some pretty nifty computer animation and—in a really inspired move—the voice of Bill Murray as the fat orange feline who’s seemingly been everywhere since 1978. Written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow and directed by Peter Hewitt, the dumb-bunny plot has a TV star (Stephen Tobolowsky) kidnapping the dog Odie, with Garfield, his owner Jon (Breckin Meyer) and a sexy veterinarian (Jennifer Love Hewitt) dashing to the rescue. The movie’s only distinctions are the animation and Murray’s voice, but they’re enough to make it—just barely—worth seeing, as a sweetly silly and harmless time-killer. Parents, if your kids insist on dragging you in, you’ll have a pretty good time; just don’t think about all the money you dropped on this 80-minute trifle.