Customer Reviews
A genius who excelled at crime - By: LXIX, 10 Dec 2008 
Catch Me If You Can is a wonderful story & is partly based on the true life antics of Frank Abagnale Jr, a youth who ran away from a broken home & found his callingin cheque fraud & professional deception.
Starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks & Martin Sheen this film is a quick & entertaining 2 hours & 15 minutes. The score, by John Williams, is also atmospheric & captures the mood of the movie.
During his criminal career, Abagnale Jr somehow managed to cash over $4 millionin dud cheques and, more bizzarely, successfully passed himself off as an airline co-pilot (with PanAm), an A&E doctor (in Georgia) & an assistant state prosecutor (in Louisiana).
This film actually has many funny moments & the scene when Frank (Di Caprio) deceives the hotel hooker out of $400 is a classic.
Overall, a very good film & well worth watching.
Tickles the Funny Bone! - By: C. Clayton, 25 Aug 2008 
Catch Me if You Can by Steven Spielberg is about a young man who was a brilliant master of deception. It is based on the real life exploits of Frank Abagnale, Jr. who successfully passed himself off as a teacher, a pilot, a doctor & a lawyer all before he reached his 21st birthday! He did thisin the late 1960's.
Frank Abagnale, Jr. used disguise & deception to get away with his antics. He passed off bad checks to finance his expensive life by targeting drone like people. He stole the bulk of the money from corporations.
Masterful performances by both Leonardo Dicaprio as Frank Abagnale, Jr. & Tom Hanks as his pursuer make this an enormously entertaining & light hearted movie that tickles the funny bone.
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
Amazing film! - By: Film King 365, 24 Jun 2008 Just one word...AMAZING.With very good acting from Tom Hanks & Leonardo DiCaprio as always. Frank Abagnale Jr.(DiCaprio) is a young con man livingin Americain the 1960's, who steal's over $1,000,000 from the goverment, on his trail is veteran FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Hanks) willing to go to any lengths to bring Abagnale to justice. Steven Speilberg did a great job with this film. Good Job!
excellent true story - By: Stampy, 26 May 2008 Leonardo Di Caprio (Gangs of New York) stars as Frank Abagnale Jr, a young man who runs away from home & successfully becomes a con artist, getting involvedin different professions whilst FBI agent Carl Hanratty tries to track him down.
Based on true events, this crime drama shows the extraordinary events of Frank Abagnale as he travels around forging cheques & becoming a teacher, a lawyer & a doctor & it is all quite remarkable that all these events really took place & is watching just for that fact.
Di Caprio is again on top form as Abagnale & does well to become accustomed to the significant central role & portrays the con artist as sophisticated, intelligent & interesting to watch & his reactions & quick witted dialogue make the character a joy to observe. The charm behind the character is very good & is also quite funny, giving the plot & the protagonist depth & an emotion we can identify with.
Tom Hanks (Cast away) is equally impressive as Carl Hanratty, the FBI agent who is trying to track Abagnale down. Sensitive & intelligent, Hanratty has a massive task on his hand to catch the con artist, & the film justifies the crime & thriller genre by anchoring a strong meaning between the two protagonists. I personally would have liked to see more of Hanrattyin the film, given the character more depth but the fact that we just see the professional side of the agent gives him strong realism & a less clichéd approach.
The plot & the dialogue are excellent, very consistent. The film does take a while to get going & the use of flashbacks & jumping through time can get a bit messy but otherwise it is a sharply written crime drama with two great characters, not to mention Christopher Walken who was Oscar nominated for the portrayal of Abagnale's father & is one of the best true stories ever written for the big screen.
8/10
Slow Beginning Redeemed by the Second Half - By: Mark Baker, 24 Apr 2008 Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) had an easy lifein New York during the 1960's. He was the only child of his parents & his father (Christopher Walkin) made a decently living from owning a store.
All that came crashing down around him when the IRS came calling demanding more money. As things got more & more dire, his mother (Nathalie Baye) filed for divorce. Suddenly forced to choose between his two parents, Frank took off instead with the clothes on his back & a checkbook with a balance of $25.
Even though Frank was only 16 at the time, he was also brilliant. He quickly figured out how to cash checks for more then he had. That led to forging checks, which led to taking jobs as a pilot, a lawyer & a doctor, all without even a high school diploma.
But things weren't all fun & games. FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) was on his tale. Can Carl catch Frank?
The movie starts out rather slowly. Watching Frank begin his life of crime is only interesting for a little while, but it takes much longer then it should.
Once Carl really gets into the picture & the two start their cat & mouse games the tension really picks up. And it is hard to know who to root for, Frank to get away or Carl to capture him. The two actors do a great job of making their characters real & sympathetic.
The movie is based on a true story. Since this is Hollywood, that means take with a shaker of salt. But it is still interesting to think of a teen really being able to pull this off. Naturally, with the advent of computer banking & added security, he'd have to work much harder to even think of pulling all this off today.
This movie starts as a slow character study but builds into a chase movie with heart. It's not a movie to rush out & watch, but if you are interested, give it a whirl. Odds are you'll be entertained.
