Dreamcatcher Movie Review:


Before I start telling you about the horror thriller Dreamcather I want to talk a bit about how crazy big movie executives in Hollywood can get.

Instead of just having your name checked at the entrance to the screening and going to see the film, this time you are asked if you have any electronic devices such as cell phones and pagers. If the answer is yes then you are told to go back to your car and leave those gadgets behind otherwise you wont be allowed to see the film.

To make sure you abide by their rules they put security guards with metal detectors to check every person coming in the theatre where the movie is playing.

You probably can imagine the kind of lines and irritation this causes as it feels like you are moving an inch per hour.

Furthermore, as the movie is playing, there is a security person in the theatre walking around with some kind of night vision scope looking at the audience.

The reason for all this silliness is supposedly some people at these screenings have been taping illegally a number of their new releases and putting them on the internet before the studio has had a chance to place them out in the theatres.

It felt as though the security was tighter than if the president himself came to see the film without anybody being informed prior to the event.

Even with all that going on, people still managed to get in unchecked and so this all exercise was a big waste of time except for the security guards who felt like big shots. Also let us not forget the studio executive/s responsible for this fiasco whose ego ballooned astronomically thinking he is saving the film industry and will be promoted soon.

So this long movie starts over thirty minutes late. Luckily you all didnt have to go through all this absurdity.

With that out of the way, lets talk about the film. Dreamcatcher is based on Stephen Kings best-selling book. It revolves around four long time friends played by Jason Lee, Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis and Timothy Olyphant who go on a hunting trip in the Maine woods and get caught in a big snow blizzard.

These four friends have extra sensory powers that they got as kids when they saved a mentally disabled youngster from being humiliated and beaten up by some bullies.

Now as disturbed adults stuck in this storm they must fight and win against vicious aliens with very sharp teeth and bad attitudes. If they dont the world will supposedly be destroyed.

Plus they have to work very quickly since the military is planning to kill a bunch of innocent civilians to get rid of infestation from outer space.

Dreamcather is very gory and crude. Except for the alien leader, the other extraterrestrials are slimy weasel snake looking grotesque creatures that usually hatch inside a human and come out in a very bloody way out the buttocks.

While it does have it scary moments mostly coming from tried and true sound effects and quick cuts that director Lawrence Kasdan uses a lot, the film is slow and mostly un-involving.

It is like you are watching Aliens mixed with like a Friday the 13th film. Basically you have seen it all before!

Dreamcatcher may give you a few jolts but it is nothing to write home about.

There was a short animated teaser based on the Matrix after the movie that had great effects but a dull story.

Gil Benzeevi

Horror-meister Stephen King takes another stab at science-fiction with a tale about aliens among us. With an unpredictable director like Lawrence Kasdan at the helm of the film it could be anywhere from the brilliance of the first two “Alien” films to the idiocy of Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 from Outer Space”.

“Dreamcatcher” refers to the Native American charm that wards away nightmares while its owner sleeps. Four childhood friends, Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee), reunite for their annual weekend in a hunting cabin. The foursome reflects back upon their lives and their unbelievable encounter with a “special” friend named Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg).

When a half-frozen hunter stumbles into their camp, Jonesy and Beaver try to nurse the hunter back to health. Unbeknownst to the guys, an evolving evil is swelling within the hunter that is surely to seal their fate.

Meanwhile Henry and Pete encounter a woman with the same symptoms as the hunter and the whole situation could be connected to a contagion sweeping the surrounding area. Military officials Col. Abraham Kurtz (Morgan Freeman) and Capt. Owen Underhill (Tom Sizemore) have been summoned to contain the contagion before it spreads. What do the woman and the hunter have to do with the contagion? And furthermore what does all this have to do with an alien presence?

“Dreamcatcher”, the film jumps all over the map as it seems to suffer primarily from a massive identity crisis with way to many characters. Where the previous Stephen King theatrical adaptation, “Hearts in Atlantis”, had to little characters this one has double and in some circumstances triple the amount of characters it needs for this film’s running time. You can plainly see that this should have been one of those giant multi-night King mini-series adaptations not this two-hour version.

The film is non-linear in its execution which makes it hard to follow. For most of the film you have to scratch your head to follow what is exactly going on. Why is this connected to this? How does this element meld with this part? Where or what exactly do all the people come from that the army rounds up? Does Kurtz know more than his dialogue allows? The largest question you will probably ask yourself is, “did I miss something or is it just me?”

There are some scary and brilliant horror elements in the film like the infamous “bathroom” sequence. The sequences that did make sense and when the film allowed itself to be purely horror or sci-fi were quite enjoyable. There just wasn’t enough of those to really warrant devoting yourself to care about anyone.

Kasdan tries desperately to be clever with his characters but he should have decided which he wanted to come off as 2-dimensional and what others were the main ones of his film. I felt that it really wasn’t solely the director’s fault because you can plainly see huge chunks missing in making it an understandable story. This film is a pure example of a novel-adaptation that has been diluted into an insane running time.

(2.5 of 5) So Says the Soothsayer

Side Note: This film is accompanied by an animated sequence that is supposed to be a glimpse at the forthcoming “Matrix” sequels. The animated sequence was conceived by the same technicians as the nice-looking-box-office-bomb “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”. The look of the 11 minute short is impressive as the team’s previous feature but there is so much flipping, spinning and explosions that you really have to look hard to understand how the short sets up May’s “Matrix: Reloaded”. The sad thing is that with this sequence and trailers the whole “Dreamcatcher” experience runs pretty near 3-plus hours.

Dean Kish

Dreamcatcher is a film based on the novel by Stephen King that begins with some interest. Unfortunately, the film turns into just another silly, bloody, and aliens wanting to take over the world horror film. The story opens with four childhood friends, who have telepathic abilities, venturing off on hunting trip to their remote cabin in the woods. Henry (Jane), Beaver (Lee), Jonesy (Lewis), and Pete (Olyphant) are each successful men that lookout for one another by the use of their telepathic gifts. Just as the audience begins to get to know the four friends, a very ill hunter stumbles along into their cabin. The hunter actually has a slimy alien trapped in his body and once it is set free, the four friends are pulled into a battle against some crude aliens to save the world. A hard-nosed Colonel (Freeman) and his right hand man (Sizemore) join the fight as the film turns into a long, gory, and dim alien/horror story.

Lawrence Kasdan is a filmmaker and screenwriter that is talented. In his earlier years, he wrote The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). He is a small town guy that has moved into a style of writing more character driven pieces like Grand Canyon (1991) and Mumford (1999). Kasdan teamed up with veteran "Stephen King" screenwriter William Goldman to adapt and direct Dreamcatcher. The script itself has terrible dialogue, hardly any suspense, and a lot of predictability. There is some brightness that is shed on the four friends through the first thirty minutes, but once the aliens and commandoes arrive the film hits rock bottom. I haven't read the novel by Stephen King, but I have read many of his other novels. It is very hard to capture everything that King does with his stories into a two-hour movie. In fact, the best King adapted film, The Shawshank Redemption (1994) was one of his short stories and the film was still two and half hours. King is a writer that doesn't hold back gore in his books, but his characters are always well rounded. In which, I began to like the four friends in Dreamcatcher, but the audience doesn't really get to know them. Also many holes are visible, which include questions pointed towards the character's childhood and the alien "Mr. Gray". Kasdan does some cool things with the snow in the film, but his direction mostly seemed like B-horror material. The aliens themselves are nasty little computer-generated worms with many teeth. The big alien, "Mr. Gray", is just larger and smarter than the little ones. Kasdan uses many quick swipes with his editing in the second half of the film, which is a trick he learned from George Lucas. Overall, it seemed like the book had too much depth and detail for Kasdan and Goldman to make into a two and half hour movie. Maybe they should have thought about producing a week-long television series based off the novel.

The acting cast is comprised of male actors with no female lead. Damian Lewis is an upcoming talent that was in HBO's Band of Brothers mini-series. In Dreamcatcher, he plays Jonesy, who is the friend that's body gets taken over by the alien "Mr. Gray". As Jonesy, Lewis is forceful, especially in the scene when he sees "Mr. Gray" for the first time. However, as "Mr. Gray", who is an alien with an English accent, Lewis nearly overdoes it. Thomas Jane does better than he has in the past with his role as Henry, and Jason Lee is plugged in mostly for light humor as Beaver. Morgan Freeman arises halfway through the film and plays an aging alien killing colonel that calls everyone "bucko". Freeman is a lot better than what he delivers as Colonel Kurtz, and the terrible dialogue doesn't help his wrinkled performance. Lastly, Tom Sizemore shows up with Freeman as another straightforward commando, which is a role that he has been typecast in before.

Dreamcatcher is a film that had some interest, but lost it about forty minutes into the film. Once the aliens and Morgan Freeman arrive, the film becomes just another bad horror movie full of clichés and predictability. Like I said before, perhaps the film would have been better if it had been broken up into a four part miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel. Past King adaptations of his big books like It (1990) and The Stand (1994) were pretty good television mini-series.

Report Card Grade: D+

03/24/03
by Joseph Tucker

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