Garfield: The Movie (2004)

It's about as bad as you'd expect. I guess that's to be expected, considering how difficult it would have been to make a decent movie out of the raw materials used here. If I was told to try and do something with a script written by the guys who gave us the Cheaper by the Dozen remake based on a grossly commercial comic strip that hasn't been funny for about fifteen years, then learned my stars were Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, a dancing terrier and a badly-animated CGI cat, I don't think I could have kept my head in the game either. Still, the total lack of effort on both sides of the camera is depressing. Bill Murray's spirited voicework is the film's lone asset and the only thing that keeps this from total failure. I will report that I laughed twice (when Murray intoned the word "lederhosen", and then thirty seconds later when he did it again).

Grade: D