Tom & Jerry

Tom & Jerry
Starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Michael Pena, Colin Jost, Rob Delaney
Directed by Tim Story

There's negatives that both film critics and certain films receive that are sometimes unfair, but more often on point. For film critics, criticizing children's films as something almost unwatchable for adults due to their total ineptitude is met with an opposing criticism that the film "wasn't meant for them." For certain films, there's the criticism that Hollywood has run out of ideas and instead has gone back to the long-forgotten well of past enjoyment to produce something new, fresh, and obviously a cash grab. "Tom & Jerry" is one such film, and even though some critics received negativity due to them panning the film as unwatchable due to its own nature, those critics themselves were silenced when watching the film and realizing those critics who get paid for a living to do this were totally on point.

In the Big Apple, Kayla (Chloe Grace Moretz) can't cut a break or find a job, despite her positivity and street smarts, until she lands a temporary job at the prestigious Royal Gate Hotel in time for the wedding of the century between celebrities Ben (Colin Jost) and Preeta (Pallavi Sharda) by supplying a fake resume. The general manager of the hotel, Mr. Dubros (Rob Delaney), falls for Kayla's charm and intelligence, while she earns the ire of event manager Terence (Michael Pena), who doesn't trust her for some reason.

Meanwhile, lovable frienemies Tom and Jerry have found their way to New York City as well, with Jerry taking up occupancy in the hotel, to the chagrin of Mr. Dubros, who doesn't want negative publicity that the hotel could have a mouse problem. Kayla hires Tom on to catch Jerry, resulting in hi-jinks between the two that threatens the reputation of the hotel and the upcoming nuptials, as well as Kayla's job.

Last year proved that some animated children's series should never be remade ("Scoob!"), but it seems that Warner Bros. didn't get that memo with "Tom & Jerry," a totally uninspired, unfunny, oddly-outdated animated/live action hybrid that's an insult to children, adults, parents, dogs, cats, mice, pigeons, drones, any anyone who's ever existed or will exist in the future. Its almost two hours of insipid moronicness (its so bad I made up a word) that drags on and whose only solid use would be to torture terrorists.

For a film that touts the antics of the beloved cat and mouse duo that's existed since 1940, there's not a lot of screen time between the two overly-done animated foes, and almost seemed like the idea for the film was something completely different until someone thought, "we could throw in Tom and Jerry and convince people to see this piece of crap based purely on nostalgia." The rare moments between these two are the very low highlight of the film, but could've passed for a few animated shorts instead of a huge, bloated, convoluted film. Even children will be turned off due to the overuse of the live action characters who seem to know that this will be a total disaster from the start and decide to just throw everything in to make it as wacky and nonsensical as the script delivers.

Chloe Grace Moretz is so much better than this, but she does pour her heart into this project despite its stupidity, but even she comes off as grating and annoying, a character who's extremely self-assured but also extremely outspoken, kind and compassionate yet stern and tough. She plays it all to the hilt and should be admired for it, but that doesn't make for a good character, but at least she offers something more than her cardboard-cutout counterparts. Michael Pena plays a villainous event manager who doesn't like Kayla because of reasons that we don't know, and sets out to destroy her reputation no matter what - again, just because. Colin Jost plays your typical Hollywood star who does everything extravagantly, while Pallavi Sharda tries to infuse some real emotion as the long-suffering future-wife who's tired of her future husband not listening to her - even though that story isn't really developed in any form until the end, which leaves you wondering where all the emotion came from in the first place.

Tom and Jerry themselves are fun and lively, brightly animated which is an odd juxtaposition to the live action world around them, and would've fared better if they had been done with CGI instead, but again it'd probably be just as horrible and they'd probably look worse off than they ended up being in the first place. Their feud is the stuff of legend, but here they're almost background characters to the nondescript live characters that we don't care a thing for. Although it could be called a wasted opportunity, it'd probably still be just as terrible if they were front and center. Essentially, this is a film that didn't need to be made, a movie that insults the intelligence of its audience, and is almost excruciating to watch for young and old alike - leaving you wishing you'd have Jerry around to hit you in the head with an oversized mallet in order to make you forget this movie in the first place.

Offering boring live-action characters as the leading roles against the title's namesake, "Tom & Jerry" isn't so much about the feud between the cat and mouse, but rather the feud between our own intelligence and what drivel was provided for us by this soulless cash grab effort.

The Score: D-