A classic Steven Spielberg film starring Leonardo DiCaprio is available to stream on Netflix – and it’s already soaring up the UK charts.
Catch Me If You Can, released in 2002, is a crime-comedy film that stars Leo alongside Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Amy Adams, and Martin Sheen.
The semi-autobiographical film is based on the story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a security consultant and alleged conman who pulled off a number of heists as a teenager.
Hanks plays FBI agent Carl Hanratty, who is tasked with tracking Abagnale down as the game of cat and mouse between the two eventually goes global.
While his story is heavily disputed these days, Abagnale’s tales of crimes he apparently committed had the interest of movie bosses as early as 1980.
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Spielberg signed on to direct the film in 1997, coming off the back of the success of Schindler’s List and the first two Jurassic Park films, including The Lost World.
This week, Catch Me If You Can arrived on Netflix and is already at number three on the UK movie charts – with the film apparently proving perfect for some viewers in the run-up to Christmas.
That’s because several of the film’s scenes are set at Christmas and because the soundtrack prominently features Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song, otherwise known as Merry Christmas to You.
On Reddit, user DangerzoneDuffman argued that Catch Me If You Can might ‘secretly’ be one of the greatest Christmas films of all time – it was also released on Christmas Day in America.
‘For the real deep Christmas cut tell people that your favorite is 2002’s Catch Me if You Can… every time [Leo and Tom’s characters] speak it’s on Christmas Eve, a fact the film points out.
‘Each of these moments are filled with both strong Christmas aesthetics and powerful connections to the themes inherent in Christmas.’
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film boasts a whopping critic score of 98% based on more than 200 reviews, with its Top Critic rating still standing strong at 90%.
The critics’ consensus, formed by consolidating the majority argument in each of the counted reviews, refers to the film as ‘an all-time classic’.
Is Catch Me If You Can a Christmas film?
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Yes – I watch it every December
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No – stop trying to force it
Casual viewers are also huge fans of the film, with the Rotten Tomatoes audience score currently sitting at 89% based on more than 250,000 user ratings.
On the movie review website Letterboxd, Catch Me If You Can sits at a solid rating of 4.0 out of 5.0, based on almost two million scores from users.
The film is also available to watch for free on ITVX, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video, but the free version of the film will be interrupted by adverts.
Catch Me If You Can received two Oscar nominations, in the categories for best supporting actor and best original score, but lost out in both of them to Adaptation and Frida.
However, it did win a Bafta, as well as two Critics’ Choice awards.
Catch Me If You Can is available to stream on Netflix.
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