Skip to content
The Garfield Movie… because they can’t just call it Garfield, as 2004’s Bill Murray film already took that.
Either way, it’s the return of the ginger tom (Chris Pratt) who craves pizza and lasagne like it’s going out of fashion – as long as it’s not Tesco’s Finest Horse Meat for the latter.
Again, Odie the dog never speaks, and following a brief series of slapstick scenes to appease the kids, including Garfield using the canine’s tongue as a bungee rope, it’s time for a bit of plot. His Dad allegedly abandoned him in a cardboard box by the side of the road. Luxury! My Dad left me in the MIDDLE of the road!
A chance encounter with human Jon (Nicholas Hoult – The Menu), in an Italian restaurant, leads to the pair bonding over the feline’s favourite foods… “And that’s how I adopted Jon”.
Garfield’s very much the everyman, given how he hates Mondays, and I agree we should skip straight to Tuesdays, or just have weekends only.
There’s a few basic laughs, such as the lead introducing himself as “Call me Garfield, Mr Garfield, or G-Money”, and a character playing with a rubber ball in prison, just like the Great Escape, but better gags which would go over the heads of kids include referring to an Australian animal with the name Daniel Day Possum, and Jon phoning a customer service line which, after a very long intro, offers “Press 1 for lost cat” (presses 1), “Press 2 for the colour orange” (presses 2), then tells him, “There are 1046 people ahead of you in the queue. Your call is important to us.”
This is tied in with equally slight plots, one which sees Garfield reuniting with his father, Vic (Samuel L Jackson – The Marvels), a side plot about Otto (Ving Rhames – Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One) the bull’s wife Ethel needing rescuing, as well as the awful Hannah Waddingham (The Fall Guy) as Jinx, who leads to the prison situation in the first place. I didn’t care to remember much else about that part of the story, but it’s safe to say, she hates Garfield & co.
If you’re wondering whether to go and see this in 3D, that aspect is completely unnecessary. Apart from the scene where he’s trying to board a train, and flinging to and fro above it, there’s nothing to write home about, as nothing else comes out of the screen. What a pointless endeavour.
In fact, you could largely say the same about the film as a whole. It’s not terrible, but it’s also far from great, and if it hadn’t been invented, you wouldn’t be asking for it to be made. To that end, see how quickly it bombs when it’s released on Friday. I saw a preview, but even for a new mainstream film, there was just me and a family of four in the room. No-one else.
Still at least it’s better than Chris Pratt‘s Super Mario Bros Movie.
But, about the screen in which I saw the film. It’s Trafford Centre’s screen 1, for which The Book of Clarence was clearly out of focus, back then. The problem is still there. You can see from my review of that film about how they’ve tried to gaslight me into believing everything is fine, but it doesn’t work. In fact, it’s insulting and a lie.
I wil be pursuing this with them.
Check out the video below to see what’s in the end credits, as well as a post-credits scene, of sorts.
The Garfield Movie is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 101 minutes
Release date: May 24th 2024
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 4/10
Director: Mark Dindal
Producers: John Cohen, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A Kosove, Namit Malhotra, Craig Sost, Steven P Wegner
Screenplay: Paul A Kaplan, Mark Torgove, David Reynolds
Characters: Jim Davis
Music: John Debney
Voice Cast:
Garfield: Chris Pratt
Vic: Samuel L Jackson
Jinx: Hannah Waddingham
Otto: Ving Rhames
Jon Arbuckle: Nicholas Hoult
Marge: Cecily Strong
Odie: Harvey Guillén
Roland: Brett Goldstein
Nolan: Bowen Yang
Snoop Catt: Snoop Dogg
Liz: Dev Joshi
Vito: Luke Cinque-White
Olivia: Janelle James
Tour Guide Tracy: Lynsey Murrell
Ethel: Alicia Grace Turrell
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.