Two out of Five stars
Running time: 82 mins

Disappointing sequel that starts well but quickly wears out its welcome, thanks to increasingly unfunny gags, irritating characters, occasionally dodgy 3D effects and constant, tedious dialogue.

What's it all about?
Directed by Brad Peyton, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is a sequel to the 2001 hit about a war between cats and dogs being waged under the noses of unsuspecting humans. Diggs (voiced by James Marsden) is a disgraced San Francisco police dog who finds himself recruited into the top secret Dog Intelligence Agency in order to help veteran agent Butch (Nick Nolte) stop evil genius Kitty Galore (Bette Midler) from taking over the world.

However, this time around, the dogs get help from an unsuspected quarter in the shape of feline super-agent Catherine (Christina Applegate), despite the fact that cats were all evil in the first movie. There's also an annoying, jive-talking pigeon sidekick (Katt Williams), while the humans (Diggs' partner Chris O'Donnell, Kitty's magician owner Jack McBrayer) barely get a look-in.

The Good
The film starts well, with an inspired and enjoyable 3D credits sequence in the style of the James Bond movies, complete with Shirley Bassey singing Pink's Get the Party Started. Similarly, the first twenty minutes or so are inventive and amusing with several good sight gags, notably Kitty Galore's Joker-like origin flashback.

In addition, the voice cast acquit themselves nicely, though Katt Williams's increasingly desperate channelling of Eddie Murphy's Donkey from Shrek is extremely irritating and you have to feel sorry for Roger Moore, being forced to voice a character called Tab Lazenby.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the film quickly squanders its early promise and degenerates into constant, tedious dialogue in an attempt to cover up the fact that nothing much is actually happening on screen. The film also lacks the charm of the original, since most of the animals are heavily animated this time round as opposed to the clever blend of effects and live-action footage in the first film.

On top of that, the 3D effects are occasionally dodgy and the film also feels weirdly dated, with references to films (The Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator) that will be wasted on its target audience and are unlikely to amuse dragged-along adults.

Worth seeing?
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is an uninspired, poorly directed and badly written sequel. In fact, given that the original film's audience are now almost ten years older, they should have just re-released the first film.