Catch Me If You Can (UK)

An good movie that provides enjoyable light hearted viewing. Basically, Frank Abagnale Jnr (Leo Di Caprio) goes on the run after his parents tell him they are getting a divorce. Hard up for cash, Frank commits a series of simple cheque forgeries that leads him to fraud himself as an Airline Pilot, A Doctor and A Lawyer. FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) is hot on his tail every step of the way but Frank manages to trick and elude his way every time.
The movie is very different to your standard Steven Spielberg film. First and foremost there are no special effects or stunning action sequences. There are virtually no breathtaking shots at all. This helps promote the realism of the movie and it is nice to see Mr Spielberg tackle something new for a change. The movie boasts great acting performances by Hanks and Leo.
Though the picture is reasonably clean and clear, some of the colours appear to be dull and washed out. This might have been intentional to make the movie look like the 60`s-70s. Overall the transfer is quite good and up to normal dvd standard. The sound also quite good although I didnt notice much use of the surrounds. The movie didnt warrant much use of the surrounds but it would have been good if a little more was used to fully benefit 5.1. There is a DTS track but I dont have DTS.
There is a reasonable set of extras full of featurettes covering the making of the movie and what really happened. Its decent viewing but not that interesting really.(you wont be missing much if you miss them).
Overall a great effort by Spielberg to put the story of Frank Abagnale on screen. Hanks and Di Caprio pull off good performances to engage us. Definetly worth checking out.

This film was very enjoyable, picture quality was good overall and the performances of Tom Hanks & Leonardo De Caprio were excellent. Recommended.

Introduction
Its certainly an interesting film. A boy/man who has enough confidence and charisma to talk people into believing what he says.

The Plot
It starts when Frank Abagnale Jr`s parents go through a divorce, and he has to decide which parent he has to live with. Given an impossible decision, he decides to run away instead, there and then.
Soon he is out of money, trying to pass off dud cheques, but finding it hard. Then he notices a Pam-Am Captain checking into a hotel, and the way the staff respect him. So he kits himself out with a new Pam AM co-pilots uniform through some fast talking, and there starts his adventure. Flying around the world pretending to be a pilot. He speaks the language, he doesn`t actually fly anything, just hitches rides on jump seats.
He has no problem cashing forged Pan-AM cheques now, and is getting to be a pretty good forger.

Soon things start to catch up with him, so he decides to become a doctor, then a lawyer, all following much the same tactics. With enough confidence and an authoritative air, he pulls it off.

Meanwhile, the FBI man assigned to cheque fraud is gradually catching up with him.

Steven Spielberg comments that it was a good film to make, after the rather darker pictures he had recently made (AI & Minority Report), both packed full of special effects and stuff. This was a much simpler film. There are no special effects, no lasers and no wild action. So in that sense I can see its probably good to get back to simpler stuff now and again and focus on the story.

Leo DiCaprio is very good in the role, and Tom Hanks plays the FBI officer well, though he is not on the camera as much as Leo. He is a very believeable FBI officer. The right combination of no humour and greyness - you can almost here "Just the facts Ma`am" everytime he`s on screen.

The Visuals/Audio
The visuals are pretty good, though shots as though its in the `60s. So lots of hats and suits in evidence.
The menus are all animated, with lots of xylophone backing. Maybe its my player, but I sort of object to being forced to wait while the menus playing out before being able to press play. THis is ok the first time, but quickly gets boring. So I`d rather we got animated menus with the selection present straight away . Some fiddlingwith the remote control required probably to skip over this (ok, rant over).

There is a 5.1 or a DTS track. I chose the DTS track, and though its mostly dialogue, I notice a few aircraft flying between the back speakers occasionally.

The Extras
Lots of extras on a second disk.
Steven Spielberg talks a lot about the casting and the filming in a making of documentary.
It`s somewhat better than the run of the mill making of.
John Williams talks a little about the music, with much saxaphone and xylophone much in evidence. Its his 30th film with Spielberg I believe.
The real Frank gives a quick history of what he did, how he did it and so on.
Pretty interesting stuff, apparently he has written a book about his exploits which this film is based on. Some interesting details about what he did. Such as during his doctor period, he faked the credentials and ran a team of doctors, to get himself out of a problem, planning on 3 weeks. He stayed for something like 9 months. Luckily he never had to actually do any emergency medical work.
The details about his capture and subsequent time in prison in various countries is enough to puncture the romantic notions of his life.
Some comments from an ex-FBI man who advised on the film is also included.
Summary
Certainly worth a watch, and the extras add some depth to the film. I think its one I will watch again.