Catch Me If You Can is a cool and energetic crime-drama featuring great performances, a fascinating main character, an amazing score and excellent direction that holds up quite well today.
Catch Me If You Can (2003)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Crime, Drama, Adventure
DreamWorks | PG13 – 141 min. – $22.98 | December 4, 2012
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Writer(s): Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding (novel); Jeff Nathanson (screenplay)
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, Jennifer Garner, Elizabeth Banks
Theatrical Release Date: December 25, 2002
DISC INFO:
Features: Featurettes, Photo Gallery
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), Portuguese (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.85
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Disc Size: 42.2 GB
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 4.0/5
Plot Outline: Catch Me If You is inspired by the extraordinary true story of elusive and cunning conman Frank Abagnale Jr. (LEONARDO DICAPRIO) who posed in various jobs – including an airlines pilot – for many years and accumulating millions by passing forged checks. On his trail is by the book FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (TOM HANKS) chasing Abagnale across continents while Abagnale tries to stay two steps ahead.
Quick Hit Review: When Catch Me If You Can arrived in theaters back in 2003, I was impressed with just how effective it was. Not only is Leonardo DiCaprio captivating as the suave conman but Tom Hanks’ straight-laced Hanratty also left an impression and by film’s end, you felt the respect each of their character’s had for one another.
The film not only works because of the performances but also on Jeff Nathanson’s strict screenplay and Steven Spielberg’s direction which made the relatively lengthy 141 minute running time go by quickly.
If you haven’t seen this movie yet, now is a good enough time to do so. It now only shows how versatile an actor DiCaprio is, and continues to be, but also unveiling a story, even if a fair portion contrived, which is at the very least, fascinating.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.0/5
As best as I can tell, save for some production notes, all the features from the 2-disc DVD were ported over. All features are presented in standard definition unless otherwise noted.
Catch Me If You Can: Behind the Camera (17:09) – This featurette takes us behind the scenes as Spielberg and company make the movie. It contains interviews with members of the cast and crew including the real Abagnale.
Cast Me If You Can: The Casting of the Film (TRT 28:33) takes a look at how each role was cast from DiCaprio through Jennifer Garner.
Scoring: Catch Me If You Can (5:25) is an interview with composer John Williams on how he approached the score for the movie.
Frank Abagnale: Between Reality and Fiction (TRT 15:39) through 4 featurettes explores the real man as he explains what he did, including becoming a pilot, and how he got caught.
The FBI Perspective (7:07) – This featurette looks at the FBI technical advisor and what he provided to the project.
Catch Me If You Can: In Closing (4:59) basically puts a bow on everything and provides more behind-the-scenes footage and interviews.
Also included are three photo galleries (Cast, Behind the Scenes and Costumes).
VIDEO – 4.5/5
Paramount releases Catch Me If You Can with a nice looking 1080p high-definition (MPEG AVC codec) transfer. Presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio, the movie has a fair amount of noise but not overabundant that it becomes distracting while the (mostly warm) colors seem to be well balanced and pop off the screen very nicely. I didn’t notice any signs of DNR, dust marks or scratches making this a well done transfer.
AUDIO – 4.0/5
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is fairly vibrant though because it’s mostly dialogue driven, there’s not a whole lot here to judge. Still, the center channel probably gets the most use and dialogue levels sound nice and clear throughout. The other channels are primarily used for ambient noises and John Williams’ amazing score which should have at least received an Academy Award nomination.
OVERALL – 4.0/5
Overall, Catch Me If You Can is a cool and energetic crime-drama featuring great performances, a fascinating main character, an amazing score and excellent direction that holds up quite well today. The Blu-ray itself has some basic but informative features while the audio/video transfers make this a worthy upgrade over the DVD version.
Published: 11/30/2012