Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

Customer reviews:

Slick And Stylish, An Excellent Cat & Mouse Chase, 2008-08-25
Catch Me If You Can is one of those true story movies that achieves a rarity. It gives you a really interesting and intense film while still keeping its feet on the ground and not going overboard or off track with the initial story.

This film is based around the true life of Frank Abagnale Jr. who became known as an expert impostor, who managed to con Pan Am airlines out of millions of dollars by impersonating a pilot, a doctor and a legal prosecutor. In the movie it generally keeps to the core roots of Franks story and the man himself was even involved in the making of the movie.

The film is set out from his teenage days and shows a young man who has a talent of confidence. This confidence allows him to fit into any role he's presented with and at the start of the movie we see him impersonating a teacher, which ultimately gets him into trouble. He's a kid who idolises his father, a man who's in serious trouble with the IRS and is being cheated on by his wife, Franks mother. Frank Jr's parents split and Frank runs away to Manhattan with just $25 in his checking account. Determined to clear his Fathers losses and repair his parents marriage, Frank becomes one of the biggest con artists ever known to the United States. The film then turns into a cat & mouse chase between Frank & FBI Agent Carl Hanratty, but what starts as a felon being chased by a cop turns into a father & son type relationship.

The film itself is just incredible, the settings and the script are just superb and have a certain style and confidence very rarely seen in movies these days. It has real life situations taking place that to some would seem utterly unbelievable, yet the film makers display these situations with such a confidence (Due to them being true situations and all) that it's pulled off without it detracting from the film itself.

There's one scene in particular which I'm thinking about and it's a point in which Carl actually manages to find Frank and get into his Motel room while Frank is still there. At this stage in the film Carl is unaware of what Frank looks like and Frank, with his sheer exuberance manages to convince Carl, with no proof what so ever, that he's the man who's caught Frank and had him arrested moments earlier. Taken in by his confidence, Carl believes the story and allows Frank to leave the room and ultimately escape. Of course to most people this would seem utterly ridiculous but the way it's put together in the film, it works perfectly.

A very good movie that is a masterpiece in my eyes and unfortunately overlooked by many. Buy it or rent it, I promise you wont be disappointed either way.

Buy Todays, 2008-08-16
Fantastic movie. Buy it today. Smart, witty, clever, action, humor, a sex scene or two, drama, Leo dicaprio and Ellen Pompeo (Grey's Anatomy).