Rating: 
Summary: Suspend Reality
Review: Okay, so the movie version of Kirkwood's cult classic has some problems (see reviews below). It's still a great good time. Just follow the old "suspend reality" rule and don't look for flaws. If you really loved the book and play, the movie's worth seeing. Enough said.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful adaptation of a dated play
Review: P.S. Your Cat Is Dead is dedicated to the playwright James Kirkwood and the late actor Sal Mineo (who was preparing to open the play in Los Angeles when he was murdered). Kirkwood published his comic play as a novel in the early 70s and it was quite popular and, at the time, very risque. Today, however, it appears quite mild and dated with subjects like bisexuality pass'e.The film, however, doesn't just suffer from being dated - it is badly paced, has terrible continuity problems and is just plain boring. And for a film like this to work, the audience must connect with the characters and care about them. Lombardo Boyer is funny as the burglar but Guttenberg's character comes across as a disheveled ranting and raving lunatic and is irritating beyond belief. It's hard to imagine his ex-girlfriend (Cynthia Watros, who is equally annoying) ever seeing anything in him, much less the burglar! The final scene in the film is well played and we almost get a sense of empahty with the characters but by then, it is too late. Equally awful is the commentary by Guttenberg, actors Boyer and Cynthia Watros and writer Jeff Korn, who all sound like a group of giggling high school kids. It is all very amateurish and juvenile.
Rating:
Summary: Poor rendering of a very funny and touching play
Review: P.S. Your Cat is Dead should be hilariously funny. It should be poignantly touching. The film version of the same is neither. Steve Guttenburg, who both stars and directs this film is to be commended for making a film that most would not bother putting to celluloid. Unfortunately, he needs someone to provide him with better direction and someone to provide better pacing of the film. The basic premise is that Jimmy Zool is a poor jerk who has just lost his girlfriend, his job, his cat is in the vet, and his apartment has just been robbed - for the 3rd time! Life can't get much worse can it? Enter the robber for another return visit. Caught in the act, the robber is forced to undergo humiliations at the hands of Jimmy. Eventually the two come to terms with each other and learn to actually not only like each other but realize there may be something more in the offing. Guttenburg plays Jimmy as a sad sack with little or no likable characteristics. The character is supposed to merely be the victim of a series of bad incidences. He's feeling pretty low. Unfortunately, Guttenburg's Jimmy is morose and not likable at all. Also, he wears this tragically unattractive facial expression throughout most of the film that is supposed to pass for sadness - not an emotion that is one that Jimmy is really dealing with - it's more deeply felt than just that. The fellow who plays the robber is at least refreshing in his role, though I feel that he's playing it a bit too light heartedly. (You see, I've directed the stage version of this play). This is the role that Sal Mineo was playing at the time of his murder - I doubt that the talented Mineo would have played him quite as flippant on the whole. My last, and probably biggest qualm with this film is that Guttenburg has chosen to avoid the entire subject of the romantic involvement that happens with Jimmy and the Robber. Heck, they end up in bed together at the end of the play! This is a subtle piece of characterization that happens as Jimmy realizes that maybe he's been going at things in his life all wrong. Instead, Guttenburg plays this as though the two men, although one is gay, simply become friends. Since one of the men is laid face down and naked from the waist down (in the play - not in this film) on the kitchen sink for most of the action, it is doubtful that a simple friendship is all that would come out of this encounter. It is also doubtful that anything truly meaningful with come of the encounter, but it is likely that somehting poignant and life changing will come of it for Jimmy. THAT is the message that the play provides. It is NOT the message that the film gets across. I love this play and the book on which it was based. I don't love this film - and I really wanted to.
Rating:
Summary: Poor rendering of a very funny and touching play
Review: P.S. Your Cat is Dead should be hilariously funny. It should be poignantly touching. The film version of the same is neither. Steve Guttenburg, who both stars and directs this film is to be commended for making a film that most would not bother putting to celluloid. Unfortunately, he needs someone to provide him with better direction and someone to provide better pacing of the film. The basic premise is that Jimmy Zool is a poor jerk who has just lost his girlfriend, his job, his cat is in the vet, and his apartment has just been robbed - for the 3rd time! Life can't get much worse can it? Enter the robber for another return visit. Caught in the act, the robber is forced to undergo humiliations at the hands of Jimmy. Eventually the two come to terms with each other and learn to actually not only like each other but realize there may be something more in the offing. Guttenburg plays Jimmy as a sad sack with little or no likable characteristics. The character is supposed to merely be the victim of a series of bad incidences. He's feeling pretty low. Unfortunately, Guttenburg's Jimmy is morose and not likable at all. Also, he wears this tragically unattractive facial expression throughout most of the film that is supposed to pass for sadness - not an emotion that is one that Jimmy is really dealing with - it's more deeply felt than just that. The fellow who plays the robber is at least refreshing in his role, though I feel that he's playing it a bit too light heartedly. (You see, I've directed the stage version of this play). This is the role that Sal Mineo was playing at the time of his murder - I doubt that the talented Mineo would have played him quite as flippant on the whole. My last, and probably biggest qualm with this film is that Guttenburg has chosen to avoid the entire subject of the romantic involvement that happens with Jimmy and the Robber. Heck, they end up in bed together at the end of the play! This is a subtle piece of characterization that happens as Jimmy realizes that maybe he's been going at things in his life all wrong. Instead, Guttenburg plays this as though the two men, although one is gay, simply become friends. Since one of the men is laid face down and naked from the waist down (in the play - not in this film) on the kitchen sink for most of the action, it is doubtful that a simple friendship is all that would come out of this encounter. It is also doubtful that anything truly meaningful with come of the encounter, but it is likely that somehting poignant and life changing will come of it for Jimmy. THAT is the message that the play provides. It is NOT the message that the film gets across. I love this play and the book on which it was based. I don't love this film - and I really wanted to.
Rating: 
Summary: See it as an homage to a gifted writer, if nothing else
Review: PS YOUR CAT IS DEAD was almost as important a book and play as CATCHER IN THE RYE when it was created in the 1970s. For those legions of us who loved both book and Kirkwood's own adaptation as a play, this new film, for all its flaws, conjures up many great memories and many sad elegies. The film is in the hands of actor/director Steve Gutenberg and his touch is just too heavy handed to do the work justice. As is often the case, when the main actor is also the director and worse, when the character acted is prone to extremes of behavior, then who is left to tighten the reins on the over all piece? Gutenberg takes practically the whole movie to make us care and warm to him, so whining, screaming and self-indulgent is his portrayal. The best part of the film is the very sensitive work of Lombardo Boyar as the burglar. He manages to touch on almost every aspect of this complicated character and is never less than entertaining and sympathetic. Despite the shortcomings of this film, author Kirkwood still shines as a sensitive observer of the human condition, of the panorama of sexuality, and as master of the short quip. It is to Gutenberg's credit that he dedicated this film to Kirkwood and to Sal Mineo (both deceased now) who played the burglar in an early form of the play. THAT brings back a lot of memories worth holding.
Rating:
Summary: See it as an homage to a gifted writer, if nothing else
Review: PS YOUR CAT IS DEAD was almost as important a book and play as CATCHER IN THE RYE when it was created in the 1970s. For those legions of us who loved both book and Kirkwood's own adaptation as a play, this new film, for all its flaws, conjures up many great memories and many sad elegies. The film is in the hands of actor/director Steve Gutenberg and his touch is just too heavy handed to do the work justice. As is often the case, when the main actor is also the director and worse, when the character acted is prone to extremes of behavior, then who is left to tighten the reins on the over all piece? Gutenberg takes practically the whole movie to make us care and warm to him, so whining, screaming and self-indulgent is his portrayal. The best part of the film is the very sensitive work of Lombardo Boyar as the burglar. He manages to touch on almost every aspect of this complicated character and is never less than entertaining and sympathetic. Despite the shortcomings of this film, author Kirkwood still shines as a sensitive observer of the human condition, of the panorama of sexuality, and as master of the short quip. It is to Gutenberg's credit that he dedicated this film to Kirkwood and to Sal Mineo (both deceased now) who played the burglar in an early form of the play. THAT brings back a lot of memories worth holding.
Rating:
Summary: Someone needs to apologize to James Kirkwood
Review: This was a pitiful and painful adaption of a really great book. It could have been a really wonderful movie, in different hands. I'd seen Steve Guttenberg on a talk show quite a while ago discussing his having made this film, and was really looking forward to it. I'm sorry now. Within an hour of watching this dreck, I was curled up with the book again - just to put the shine back on the memory. Please, save yourself the time and money... but the book - NOT the movie.
Rating:
Summary: NOT funny and very unpleasant
Review: Unlike the reviewers who had read the book and perhaps thereby gained the strength to stick with this lugubrious film, I came upon it naively at Blockbuster. I want to disclose at the outset that I couldn't watch the entire DVD and had to turn it off after about an hour, so maybe I missed something profound. I suffered miserably through the first hour hoping that it would redeem itself, but the principal character is so thoroughly unpleasant, both in the way the part is written and the acting, that it was sheer torture. The supporting cast was more appealing, but the pace of the film was excruciatingly slow, the attempts at humor repeatedly fell flat, and since nearly all the action took place in the main character's apartment, the result was unrelieved claustrophobia. All of which left me with a whopping case of renter's remorse -- life is too short to waste watching films like this, even if you live to 100!
Rating:
Summary: NOT funny and very unpleasant
Review: Unlike the reviewers who had read the book and perhaps thereby gained the strength to stick with this lugubrious film, I came upon it naively at Blockbuster. I want to disclose at the outset that I couldn't watch the entire DVD and had to turn it off after about an hour, so maybe I missed something profound. I suffered miserably through the first hour hoping that it would redeem itself, but the principal character is so thoroughly unpleasant, both in the way the part is written and the acting, that it was sheer torture. The supporting cast was more appealing, but the pace of the film was excruciatingly slow, the attempts at humor repeatedly fell flat, and since nearly all the action took place in the main character's apartment, the result was unrelieved claustrophobia. All of which left me with a whopping case of renter's remorse -- life is too short to waste watching films like this, even if you live to 100!
Rating: 
Summary: Three stars because the original was fun
Review: Wow, being a lesbian, I really appreciated this film. I understood the problems the characters went through. It touched my soul in a way no other movie could. Thank you for giving me the courage to come out to my parents! EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!
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