Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Gordon-11 This film tells the story of a drug addict who sings in the street to make ends meet. One day, a stray cat enters his life, and his life is never the same again.It is a heartwarming story of a man who is given a second chance in life. It is an inspirational story that tells people that anyone can achieve a better life. When he says to the doctor that the cat has shown him what life is like in the other side, it is rather profound. The cat provides the little push for him to move out of the mess and into a meaningful path.Though it is a little sad for me to see that people supported him only because of the cat. His singing is the same before and after the cat, so I can conclude that his second chance really is given by the cat. I hope people can actually give second chances to people even without the presence of a cat, as there really is enough love and care to go around. We can show people who needs second chances that they are loved and cared for as well.

TxMike My wife and I watched this at home, streaming via Netflix. It starts off a bit slow, we were unsure where it was going, but once Bob came into the story it all picked up. All-in-all a really worthwhile movie, highly recommended.It is a story of a real London busker who got into drugs and was having a hard time navigating through life. He was a reasonably talented songwriter and singer, usually somewhere in London with his guitar. Playing for small change, hoping to buy a meal at the end of the day, and finding a place to crash the night on the cardboard he stashed for the purpose. Luke Treadaway plays the main character, James.Helped along by Joanne Froggatt as Val, the social worker, James is given a rough little apartment to stay in and regular methadone treatments to help him kick his drug habit. One day he hears a noise, thinks it is an intruder and it was ... a ginger colored cat that slipped in through an opened window. James tries to find its owners, to no avail. He tries to shoo the cat away, but can't. So he keeps him and names him Bob (played by the real Bob the Cat). What follows is a heartwarming account of how being responsible for Bob, and having a companion, was key to James being about to kick his habit and turn his life around. With Bob on his shoulder they attracted bigger audiences and got bigger tips. Eventually a newspaper article leads to a publishing house arranging, with a ghost writer, to have James write his story and the book became a best seller.Good movie! And Bob does such a good job.

jimbo-53-186511 James Bowen (Luke Treadaway) is a homeless man who's recovering from drug addiction and, in order to try and get by, he makes his money by busking in Covent Garden. After suffering a relapse, James is given one last lifeline by his drug counsellor Val (Joanne Froggatt) whom manages to acquire him some accommodation on the proviso that he cleans up his act. However, James' rocky road to recovery begins with the most unlikely of packages in the form of a stray cat named Bob...Sometimes it is the simplest of films that are often the most effective and A Street Cat Named Bob is a good case in point. What we effectively have here is the story of a young man who has made some bad choices in life and is desperate to sort his life out and get clean. When a stray cat is introduced into his life this gives him something other than himself to focus his attention on and he basically chooses to put the cat before himself which of course makes him an endearing character - in spite of him being a recovering drug addict.The other thread to the story is James' developing friendship with Betty (Ruta Gedmintas) which basically gives James an insight into what a normal existence could be like; one gets the impression that he probably hadn't had too many healthy influences in his life for quite some time up till this point. The friendship played out between Gedmintas and Treadaway is sweet and the pair have a wonderful, easy-going chemistry about them.One of the main standout points in this film is Luke Treadaway who takes us on this emotional journey as the real life James Bowen in wonderful fashion - his commitment and dedication is evident on screen and he is never less than 100% convincing (this is made all the better when you remember that he probably spends half of the film talking to a cat).As good as this film is I think it's fair to say that it has one or two weak spots; the thread with Bowen's parents seemed to be clumsily thrown into the story without much real thought or development and I couldn't help but feel that the film wouldn't have been any different if they weren't mentioned at all? The screenplay is also a bit safe and clinical; for example in its early stages virtually every problem that Bowen encountered was able to be resolved without too many issues yet in the latter stages of the film everything seems to go wrong for him despite his best efforts to get his life on track. I can only assume that this approach has been employed to make the picture more dramatic, but it does render some aspects of the picture to be somewhat unbelievable. The same approach seems to have been adopted with Bowen dealing with his drug addiction making the narrative feel slightly uneven at times.Still this is a very good film that is funny, heart-warming, uplifting and inspirational and just goes to show that anyone can turn their life around if they have the desire to do so. In spite of some of its weaknesses, it is still a film that's brimming with both positivity and likability.

poe-48833 A STREET CAT NAMED BOB hits all the right notes (unlike, say, THE SECRET LIVES OF PETS, which could've gone a long way toward bridging the Understanding Gap that exists between Pets and their Persons but DOESN'T). I've seen this kind of thing in Real Life: my wife rarely communicates with other Human Beings, but introduce her to a cat (kittens, especially) and she's a different person; the Change in her character is truly remarkable. I, myself, have learned more than a little about Empathy from a succession of Furry Friends. (In the documentary UNLOCKING THE CAGE, lawyers argue that Animals have some Basic Rights; that they're sentient and have feelings and their own languages- and they're Right: anyone who's ever gotten to know an animal can attest to that.) (Not all animal stories have happy endings: across the street from me lives a 19-year old psychopath who strangled two kittens and buried them in his back yard. The police uncovered the bodies, which he then placed in the middle of the street and set afire. A week later, at 4a.m., he set fire to an automobile in his own back yard, then set my recycling bin on fire. If ever an animal needed to be put in a cage... Another not-so-happy local story: an animal hoarder had 30 kittens on her property. The authorities rounded them all up and promised to "put them down" by this past Monday- yesterday- if they weren't adopted. I haven't seen nor can I find online a follow-up story. I can only assume the worst...) A STREET CAT NAMED BOB is a tale well worth the telling, and a ride definitely worth taking.