Movie Thoughts: 10 Lives (2024)

• Released: January 20, 2024
  
• Directed by: Christopher Jenkins
• Running time: 1 h 28 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A cat named Beckett dies and reincarnates into various animals in order to help his owner and stop an evil professor.

My Thoughts

It was a Friday afternoon and I had five hours time to kill while waiting for some people, so I figured I might as well visit the cinema and see any random movie that vaguely interested me. I ended up choosing this one.

I didn't particularly have high hopes going in because it looked kind of goofy and childish and yeah, it is. But it's also kinda good-ish? Not terrible for sure. I honestly enjoyed myself more than I initially expected.

The story is simple: Beckett the cat dies and tries to be reunited with his owner. In Heaven he's allowed to be re-incarnated nine more times into various animals, and while he eventually reunites with his beloved Rose, he soon starts to uncover a plot by Rose's evil professor to kill all bees and replace them with mechanical drones only he can produce. Beckett now has to both help Rose and stop the professor. 

It's a solid plot and honestly it kind of works. Sure, it's not without its occasional silliness or writing hiccups (like why did the villain hire two vegan henchmen to destroy the bees from Rose's project? That's just asking for trouble), but overall they made it work. The movie also has some fun comedy (though there's also plenty of unfunny or cringe-worthy jokes, not gonna lie) and where it really excels is that it can be pretty heartwarming.

Yeah, this movie made me surprisingly somewhat emotional near the ending. It's just so rewarding to see Beckett live life after life and die time and again and each time all he tries to do is help his beloved owner. And then finally we get to see him as a cat again, he reunites with Rose briefly, but then he dies again while saving her and goes to Heaven. As if this wasn't already heart-wrenching enough, a few years later after his "final" death he is allowed to be reincarnated into a cat one more time on Earth, and he ends up being adopted by Rose's daughter and is also re-united with Rose herself. It's just a pretty sweet ending even if the rest of the movie is decent at best. So even if I don't like all of this movie, I really can't hate it because of the emotional ending.

I do have to criticize how, when Rose almost drowns, it's Beckett who has to save her and not her boyfriend. I think it was established earlier in the film that he couldn't swim, but at least he could've dived into the water and held onto the wood of the pier while reaching for Rose. That way he didn't have to swim and Beckett wouldn't have had to save Rose alone, which ended up causing his "final" death as he drowned.

So yeah. Is this a very good movie? No. But is it a decent film? Honestly yes. Sure it can be a bit cringe-worthy and silly from time to time but it has some funny humor, good line deliveries and a few genuinely emotional scenes post-climax. So far from perfect, but I do consider this a pleasant experience overall. I'm glad I saw it even.