Yeah, I know it's a flawed film, I mean, I caught it one night, LATE at night, on cable TV when I was a kid. HBO to be specific and at an hour reserved for only failed and low quality films.

In other words, I found it at a place where movies go to die. The equivalent of the bargain box at a toy store.

But, I liked it. It wasn't the usual thriller and that's saying a lot given that thrillers, like action movies, all have relatively the same plot. They tend to be like the Harley Davidson store crowd as in they all dress the same and claim they are rebels.

Cat Chaser was something different. The plot stood out. Peter Weller did as best a job he could. The cast did as best a job as they could.

It was just, the director didn't really know what to do with the script, which was, I learned, (thank you IMDB) based on an Elmore Leonard novel...and that sort of says it all.

The writer, Elmore Leonard, isn't exactly a literary great. He has an irritating vernacular. BUT, he also has a talent for creating unique characters and unique settings and situations and stringing them all together into a coherent plot.

Leonard is a pulp writer, but he was a pulp writer that was original in his approach to just about everything and his stories are a pleasure to read.

And, when, like this one, they are adapted to the big screen, that uniqueness carries over. Even in a bad film, as this one was--albeit a bad film with good acting--it becomes a story that you haven't really encountered before and you won't encounter again.

So give it a watch, it's Elmore Leonard, you aren't seeing a great film, but you are going to see a story you haven't encountered before, and to me, that alone is worth 10 out of 10 stars.

Don't rate it on it's cinematic prowess, watch it for the plot, it's new, it's original, and, even if its badly done, we need a lot more of that, especially now, when almost everything we see is exactly like almost everything else we are seeing.

Cat Chaser had a fair amount of promise from the start. Its director is the maverick Abel Ferrara who was responsible for such transgressive movies as The Driller Killer and The Bad Lieutenant, while its story is sourced from a novel by crime genre master Elmore Leonard. It has an interesting cast which has Peter Weller in the lead role, with a very good support. Charles Durning turns in the best performance as a sleazy sidekick. Tomas Milian is the chief baddie but looks almost unrecognisable from his days as an icon in 70's Italian movies. Kelly McGillis puts in a very uninhibited performance that includes a fair amount of full frontal nudity and a tough scene where she is abused by Milian. Frederic Forrest also stars, although his character doesn't really have a lot to do other than fall in swimming pools.

Despite the good personnel Cat Chaser lacks a certain overall impetus. Its story feels more than a little bit confused at times. The whole plot-line involving Weller's character travelling to the Caribbean to revisit a girl who saved his life years earlier is, to put it mildly, under-developed. It really could have been removed with no damage to the film in the slightest. I think the tales of the film being heavily re-edited by the studio would explain the somewhat haphazard cut of the film we have. The hand of Ferrara is only occasionally felt, most notably in a couple of shocking scenes. The aforementioned sequence involving McGillis is one, the other occurs later on where two men are stripped naked and shot to death. Both are pretty shocking for sure.

Although you have to think this movie should have been better, it's overall a decent enough flick.

"Cat Chaser" is an uninspired and confused novel knock-off which doesn't equal the sum of its many talented parts. The film involves romance, lust, greed, murder, deceit, etc. but comes off flat, one dimensional, and lacking the passion of its plot. An okay journeyman B-flick which should have been better but still has its moments and might satisfy the needy couch potato.