Well I am pleased to see that the trailer for "Catch Me If You Can" is finally up on the web so I can see it. For those of you who haven't heard me ranting and raving about how excited I am about this movie, it's based on the real life adventures of Frank Abagnale Jr., the youngest man ever to make the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List... for, of all things, check fraud. In the 60s, Abagnale was the best con man around, passing millions of dollars in bad checks before his 18th birthday. It was all chronicled in the autobiographical book "Catch Me If You Can," which I picked up a couple of years ago when work on the motion picture was just beginning to get off the ground. I was enraptured with this book. Honestly, it was one of the funniest and most fascinating books I'd ever read. It was written with a sly wit and charm of an experienced thief or a roguish magician, and yet, you always felt like part of the curtain was being pulled back for you so you could gain some insight. It was a "Behind the Magic" book for a con game. I've read the book a few dozen times over since I picked it up, laughing all the time I'm reading it each time. What makes the whole thing even funnier is that eventually Abagnale went on to work for the FBI and is now the leading consultant on fraud as well as a highly ranked consultant on white-collar crime. But during his time as a criminal, Abagnale impersonated an airline pilot, a doctor, a professor and an assistant district attourney.

Now, I've lauded the book, but why would you want to go see the movie? Well, it's got this Leonardo DeCaprio fella who I'm told is quite popular with the ladies playing Frank himself, and Tom Hanks playing the FBI agent on the trail of him. Add in Christopher Walken playing Abagnale's father. Not enough yet? How about I throw in Steven Spielburg directing? Sold yet? It opens Christmas day and I'll probably see it a day or two later, and more than likely more than once. I loved "Minority Report" and while I'm not generally a big DeCaprio fan, he's not a bad actor and I'm willing to give him a shot. As long as they stick fairly close to the book, the movie should be both hysterical and insightful.

Wanna see the trailer? It looks fantastic... Catch It If You Can Here...