Review by Jay Pinkerton View This Trailer It's rare that I get to say this, so I relish it now: the trailer for Catch Me If You Can is actually pretty good. It expresses all the qualities you'd think would be bland and irritating in a film -- precocious Leo-teens; weathered Hanks-gumshoes; tepid family-rated games of cat-and-mouse -- in a surprisingly genuine and captivating way. With the help of a buoyantly upbeat soundtrack, which bounces around the trailer like a soul-jazz basketball, the movie manages to come across as pretty whimsical and fun. The trailer is well-paced, well-plotted and conveys its subject matter excellently. Given these sterling qualities, and adding in the complete lack of marbled beefheads jumping out of planes, sexy bimbos jumping into saunas, or explosions jumping out of gas tanks, I predict Catch Me will make all of eight cents at the theater. Anyway, I liked it. As for the movie, who knows? It might be garbage. Catch Me has an admittedly "contemporary adult comedy" feel to it -- this usually translates to a film being about as stimulating as hearing Kenny Loggins' Footloose while pricing lettuces in the produce aisle, in terms of emotional response from an entertainment medium. These are the kinds of movies people go to who've long since given up on edgier fare. I doubt anyone will attend a showing of Catch Me expecting to be any more blown out of their seats than they would be by Thirtysomething: The Motion Picture. For one, it stars Hanks, who is so closely imbedded in the comfort zones of every person in North America, you get the impression he could randomly key peoples' cars if he wanted to and still coast away on Everyman charm. And the plot, as told by the trailer, seems pretty light-hearted and inoffensive -- the kind of film you could take your grandparents to, and not be profoundly embarrassed by an unexpected Samuel L. Jackson monologue about eating out his girlfriend or something. Still, the plot as presented in the trailer is intriguing: I can imagine few able-bodied men who wouldn't envy Leonardo DiCaprio for the premise given to us here. He's young. He's impossibly good looking. He has great teeth. And he's pretending, with great success, to be a lawyer, a doctor and a pilot; three of the most interesting, high-paying jobs on the planet. His reward? Money and sex. Lots and lots of sex with lots of lots of young pretty girls. Did I mention he's still in high school? He's still in high school. All of seventeen years old, Leonardo's character is entertaining the sorts of fantasies that, in real life, you'd need millions of dollars and vast quantities of shit-dumb luck to accomplish. I can't imagine Leo had to act too hard with this one. Spielberg: "Pretend women throw themselves at you and you're obscenely wealthy, Leo! Action!" Leo: "Wait, wait. Where's my character coming from here?" Spielberg: "Your spacious Beverly Hills mansion, hung over, at noon, if today was any judge." DiCaprio: "Right, okay." Perhaps I should admit a slight bias here: I get irritated by Leonardo DiCaprio like most people were irritated by Stalin. So the fact that I didn't want to grab a rubber mallet and pound him into a wall-crack speaks volumes for the trailer's quality. While I'm laying it all on the table, I haven't really been impressed with a Spielberg film in a while either -- not since Indiana Jones beat the hell out of Nazis while hanging by his feet out of bi-planes. While some might rattle off the names Spielberg, Hanks, and DiCaprio as indisputable proof of this film's quality, I could easily return the serve with Hook, Bachelor Party or Romeo + Juliet. Nobody makes great films all the time. But I enjoyed the trailer and even entertained, however briefly, thoughts of seeing it. Catch Me seems innocently goofy, and didn't look like it took itself too seriously. This, to my mind, is a rarity to be treasured, given the kinds of Big Serious Movies Spielberg's been putting out lately. In conclusion: it's an excellent trailer, hyping what promises to be a fun movie. It won't make a dime. RATING: