Little did anyone know that when Bill Murray was denied the Oscar for Best Actor, he was going to take it out on the world by providing the voice for a computer-generated Garfield the Cat in "Garfield: The Movie," a cinematic concept that's about as timely (and commercially viable) as "Pet Rock: The Movie."

This film is a clear case of advances in computer graphics being an example of digression and not progression. While everyone figured that special effects, explosions, and space ships would look a whole lot cooler with more powerful computers, few could have predicted that computer-generating a cartoon cat would prove that none of those advancements was worth it. If we could erase the entire history of computer special effects -- even if it meant no "Star Wars" and no "Matrix" -- I would do it in a heartbeat if it also meant no "Garfield: The Movie."

I actually heard somebody used the term "inspired" when referring to the choice of using Murray's voice for Garfield. I would have preferred 85 minutes of listening to a cat trying to climb up a chalkboard. Murray's vocal performance is a combination of annoying and embarrassing. Though he's trying to play a cat with a huge ego, you can hear the echo of a "what have I done to my career" scream going on in the back of his mind.

Breckin Meyer plays John while Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Liz, a veterinarian and John's love interest. You'd have to attend a John Tesh concert in the middle of a Des Moines suburb to get more vanilla than that. Liz provides Jon with Odie (played by a real dog), which provides the movie with its plot, wherein Odie gets stolen by Happy Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky), a failed TV personality who sees the talented Odie as his ticket to the big time. Garfield decides to save Odie from Chapman's evil clutches.