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This week's reviews: 'Catch,' Tyrese album, more
(PEOPLE) -- This week, PEOPLE.COM looks at the film "Catch Me If You Can," singer-actor-model Tyrese's album "I Wanna Go There" and "Benedict Arnold" on A&E . Movie review: 'Catch Me If You Can'
There's something about a man in a uniform. That's what Frank Abagnale Jr., the appealing rogue at the center of this enormously entertaining movie, counted on when he first donned a Pan Am pilot's suit and cap in 1964. Though he was only 16 at the time, the uniform conferred power and respect upon him -- enough so that hotel and bank clerks unquestioningly cashed the fake checks that the teen handed over, eventually millions of dollars' worth of them. When one clerk observes that Abagnale looks too young to be a pilot, the con man helpfully explains, "I'm a copilot." "Catch Me If You Can," inspired by a true story, is a pleasure from its zippy, animated opening credits right through to an end crawl telling us what became of the real-life Abagnale (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the FBI agent who tenaciously pursued him. The secret to "Catch"'s success is twofold: It lets us in on the tricks Abagnale used to pass himself off as a pilot (soaking Pan Am decals off toy planes and affixing them to fake payroll checks) and later, while still in his teens, as a doctor and a lawyer. And it builds a case for the whys, portraying Abagnale as a confused adolescent who was acting out after the breakup of his parents' marriage. Director Steven Spielberg displays a sure hand here, skillfully balancing the film's dramatic and comic elements. DiCaprio is first-rate, carefully building a portrait of a charmer at loose in the world but longing for a home. A buttoned-down Hanks is his usual reliable self. The revelation here is Christopher Walken, who uncharacteristically plays Abagnale's loser dad sympathetically, with grace and quiet resignation. Bottom line: A great "Catch" Music review: 'I Wanna Go There'Tyrese (J) After his 1998 debut proved that he was more than just a chiseled model, Tyrese went nowhere with his second album, 2001's "2000 Watts." But the singer-actor quickly gets back on track with this disc, which is about as solid as the buff body he flaunts shirtlessly on the CD cover. Focusing mostly on sensual slow jams in the vein of his earlier hits "Sweet Lady" and "Lately," Tyrese makes a convincing new-school R&B Romeo. While ballads such as "On Top of Me" and the title tune keep things between the sheets (sometimes in graphic detail), Tyrese also shows his sensitive side on tender love songs such as the first single, "How You Gonna Act Like That." His gospel-charged voice is strong throughout, and he brings a gritty realism to tracks like "All Ghetto Girl," written and produced by fellow soul man Joe. All the album is missing is that one killer cut to really take Tyrese there. Bottom line: Go for Tyrese TV review: 'Benedict Arnold'A&E (Monday, January 13, 8 p.m. ET) "If your great umbrage would care to meet my high dudgeon at 12 paces, I would be happy to entertain you at dawn," says hot-tempered Benedict Arnold (Aidan Quinn) to insolent Congressman Joseph Reed (Stephen Hogan) after they exchange unpleasantries. That's a mighty fancy way of challenging a fellow to a duel, but it typifies the high-flown dialogue in this sturdy drama about the infamous traitor of the Revolutionary War. The tone of the script, however faithful to 18th-century speech, can seem almost laughably fustian. Nevertheless the film will hold you because passion, intrigue and betrayal are never out of date. Quinn, in a stops-out performance, plays Arnold as an impetuous, egotistical warrior who feels ill-paid for his courage in the patriots' cause. After he falls for British loyalist Peggy Shippen (Flora Montgomery), she talks him into a change of allegiance that leads to a plot against his old friend George Washington (Kelsey Grammer). Though he sometimes appears to be posing for the dollar bill, the Frasier star shows surprising fire when Washington learns of Arnold's treachery. After all the flowery words, there's extra power in a mild profanity. Bottom line: Nothing revolutionary but worth seeing -- Terry Kelleher
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