Very disappointed :(

Awesome Movie

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

No major spoilers here.Why would I watch TCFOS let alone write about it? (Or is that "why would I write about it, let alone watch it"?) Well, for one thing, it gives me a small measure of satisfaction to rate a silly old Disney flick much higher than I would "Avatar". (Much much much higher.) Secondly, it's a nice little opportunity to compare the cat's "performance" to Tom Cruise's in… just about any movie he's been in. The cat beats him every time, hands down. (And it only got paid in Friskies, not millions of dollars.) It has only one facial expression, but it's a multi-faceted expression compared to Cruise's wide "variety" of annoying grins.Someone pointed out that the cat used for TCFOS waggled its tail every time someone lifted it. "It didn't like being handled," this amazing Agatha-Christian detective pointed out. Which brings me to the third reason for writing this comment: considering what crap some daft people write, nothing I include in this comment can be any worse. Look, I can be a detective too! Example: I have NOTICED that the cat doesn't open its mouth when it talks. So they must have used a NORMAL cat as opposed to an actual alien feline that can talk. The bleedin'-obvious detective work; I am so glad I am capable of it too.TCFOS is a cute little feature with a simple plot, the usual broad Disney acting, and dialog aimed at young kids – so it should be right up Nicholas Cage's alley. (I also hotly recommend the movie and its non-complex story to Sean Penn.) In fact, I'd suggest TCFOS to Nick as study material should he ever want to "improve" on his over-acting shout-a-lot method-acting technique (which I hear normally takes 500 years to develop). In any case, he should watch the film because I hear that these kinds of Disney flicks help develop the young, under-developed mind. On a more embarrassing note, the grand-finale chopper/plane action sequence beats almost anything any recent James Bond film had given us. Daniel Craig is actually shorter than the damsel-in-distress being rescued here (and she's of average female height), so I don't even know if she could have been cast in any new 007 movie; Bond should never be towered over by a taller woman – not even in a Craig "Bond". What this has got to do with either TCFOS or the rotting Bond franchise, you ask. Absolutely nothing. And yet everything.

Disney's 'The Cat From Outer Space,' released in 1978 and starring Ken Berry and McLean Stevenson as two military engineers who help an alien named Jake, who just happens to be a cat! The chaos of comedy ensues as Jake is on the run from being caught by the military commander, Harry Morgan, and from being stuck on Earth. Jake must fix his own spaceship in order to leave Earth and return to his mother-ship. For that to happen though, he needs Gold! $120,000 worth of gold, that is. How does he get the money? Jesse White of Maytag repair fame, co-stars as a loan shark who makes a bet with Frank (Ken Berry) and Link (Stevenson) for the money. Meanwhile, the woman that Frank is in love with (Sandy Duncan) is interfering with the objective. In the end, Jake the cat gets what he wants. After all, it is a Disney film, what else could happen?

I remember seeing this movie as a kid back in 1978. I thought it was a pretty fun film. As an adult, I picked this movie up on DVD for nostalgia, and I'm pleased to say that it holds up very well. This is a movie I would be happy to show my guitar player's kid. It is a nice family film with just the right amount of action and humor to keep it friendly. Another reason this movie resonates with me is because of its cast, at least four of whom starred, or guest starred in my all-time favorite TV series, M*A*S*H. The late McClean Stevenson (LCol. Henry Blake), and Harry Morgan (Col. Sherman T. Potter) , the commanders of the 4077th. It was nice to see them on screen together in this film. Sorrell Booke (uncredited) as the judge, and Rick Hurst as Dydee One. (The two would also star in later seasons of Dukes of Hazzard.) You cannot go wrong with a family film like this..especially if your young ones have an affinity for light science fiction, and a love of cats. And Jake is a beautiful little cat. Pick this one up to add to your family film collection.

Wow, now this is certainly a rarity – a talking animal flick that doesn't rely on that moving-mouth-n-lip-synch gimmick which has really been dogging the genre of late (bad pun on my part, I know). Sure, the only thing we can attribute this merit to is its age – as others round here have already pointed out, were this movie shot in this day and age the overused and overplayed technique would have undoubtedly been employed. I also imagine that, at some point during the running time, they'd have Jake spit up a big slimy hairball, mark his territory over some sucker's flowerbed, and stick a leg in the air so he can lick at his crotch – along with any other animal bodily function they could swipe a gag out of. It's one of those reasons why, for all its skimpy production values, 'the Cat from Outer Space' is now such a refreshing blast from the past – in an era swamped by crude, flashy animal movies made exclusively for the under-12 market, this is comes across as quite a pleasant piece of nostalgia, harking back to the good old days when the humour was always clean, and any critter who wanted to wrap their tongue around the English language did so the conveniently telepathic way. (Yikes, I'm starting to sound like a right old whinger here, which really I'm not, but that's just how jaded I am).As a stand-alone film, TCFOS is very much a cheesy but warm-hearted affair and, for fans of all things sublime n' feline like myself, this was a childhood classic growing up in the 1980s. Back then, it always qualified as my runner-up pick for Disney's coolest live action feature, second only to the original 'Incredible Journey' (yeah, I *did* watch Mary Poppins', but never really got much further than the animated sequences – it just got boring after that). I happened to come across it on my shelves recently, having left it undisturbed for several years, and decided it was time for a revisit.The worst thing about it is inevitably the title (which just screams 'B Movie!', don't it?), only just managing to pip some of the flat and, quite frankly, irritating human characters on display to the post, who've more-or-less accepted that churning out even Oscar-worthy performances ain't gonna spare them from being upstaged by the four-legged favourite. Sandy Duncan in particular portrays a bimbo so staggering it'll make your jaw drop that she even made it into the paranormal research department (plus, she believes all of Frank's lame excuses – yikes, how dumb is she?). Then there's that spy character who insists on speaking with such loathsome smarminess not seen since 'the Shop Around the Corner', you could break your TV screen trying to sock him one in the mouth.The best things about TCFOS, oddly enough, owe a lot to the retrospectives we have after 26 years. Jake is definitely entitled to feel smug that he was getting himself stranded on planet Earth, amongst all the typically hostile folks, and making his human ally's bicycle fly *four freakin' years* before ET showed up on the scene (is that uncanny or what?). Not to mention the casually conniving fashion in which Jake goes about trying to secure his way back home, somehow managing to involve rigged sports games along the way; ethics so dodgy by today's standards that really you gotta love it. And the special effects are now so crude and outdated that, well, they're cute! Jake is undeniably the star of this vehicle, churning out all the better lines of dialogue, and this is such an endearing story deep down that it's all too bad that the script never delves particularly deeply into his friendship with Frank (after all, ET's major trump card was always his lump-in-the-throat relationship with Elliot), choosing instead to skim through the character interactions at such a pace that the film never really has the chance to deliver any true emotional wallop.I did also get a kick out of reading the previous comment concerning the body language of the feline double act playing Jake, and will verify it all the way – pay close attention to the climax in particular, and note that the poor kitty currently on the scene looks positively bewildered!Sure, it's imperfect and now that I'm older I can see where the faults lie a lot more than I used to – but still, it's a likable and evocative romp, and personally I'd much rather be subject to this than to recent animal conspiracy theory trash like 'Cats and Dogs' or 'Good Boy!', any day. A real treat for cat lovers everywhere.Grade: B-