Dreamcatcher (2003)

Better Than Expected

This film is much better than most of the reviews claim. I do not know when it became "cool" to hate Stephen King's work, but that is the sense that I get from the negative reviews. This film is a nice spin on the "alien invasion" theme. Pay attention and don't get too lost in the "visual metaphors" that run through the film. Any true fan of sci-fi will enjoy this film. Recommended! June 17, 2008

Dream or Nightmare Catcher?

Warning: spoilers. Hmm, interesting. Morgan Freeman's E.T. hunter is a crispy critter, burned out from chasing E.T.s for 20 years until what would drive normal human beings insane, like the sight of an extraterrestrial, is taken for granted by him. Hmm, the government agent walks through the quarantined citizenry and tells them that everything is okay and that things will be resolved shortly and then turns around and plans for them to be eliminated. Hmm, a branch of military operations that is above all laws, disguises its identity, and answers to no one, having something to do with Blue. Hmm, the alien hunter should have quit after what happened in Montana? What the hell happened in Montana and why wasn't there anything in the news about it? Hmm, E.T.s carry a waterborne virus that infects and spreads and multiplies and shows up as a skin rash and flatulence but only grows to full force in half the populace, or, eat something that looks like red meat and your belly will bloat up and you grow a huge worm. Hmm, E.T.s can read and impose their will over human minds, mimic voices, insert false memories, read our memories, manipulate what we see and hear---what if we have already been invaded but haven't realized it because the aliens make us think we are living a normal life? Hmm, ister gay is afraid of someone who has been institutionalized and written off as being deficient. Hmm, as a boy Duddits was tormented by heartless bullies who were from privileged families and who were genetically superior. All this happens in the snowy back roads where hunters and snowmobilers go to vacation---if it could happen there it could happen anywhere. If you can make sense of all this, then you know and understand: I Duddits! June 17, 2008

WOW! As hilarious film fiascos go, DREAMCATCHER is anything but SSDD!

From what we've heard, quite a bit of Stephen King's DREAMCATCHER was lost in the translation from the page to the screen; but not having read it, we were free to enjoy the movie as a creature feature involving, among other things, slimy, toothy worms that issue forth, in a crescendo of blood and gas, from their victims' recta. There hasn't been this much tension generated in an `Aliens Have Come To Take Our Planet' movie since HOWARD THE DUCK! (Although we had to wonder what director Lawrence Kasdan - who made such high-toned dramas as THE BIG CHILL and THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST - was thinking about as he set up the scene with the alien in the toilet.)

Get ready for Bad Movie delirium as four friends (Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, and Timothy Olyphant) head up to a remote cabin in snowy Derry, Maine, as they've done every year for the last twenty years. The area, it so happens, is under paramilitary quarantine; rogue commander Morgan Freeman is trying to isolate and destroy a vicious race of galactic visitors, though decades of E.T. hunting have left him a few pennies short of a dollar. This is a heartening return to villainy for Freeman - let's not forget his breakthrough role as a heartless pimp in 1987's STREET SMART. But 1987 was a long time ago, and Freeman, working against dozens of noble past performances, just seems more irritable than usual.

The four guys have telepathic gifts, passed on to them by Donnie Wahlberg, a mentally challenged kid they once saved from bullies. (Don't ask). Sometimes these gifts manifest themselves in interesting forms, as when Damian Lewis "calls" Thomas Jane on a handgun borrowed from ambivalent soldier Tom Sizemore. In what immediately became one of our all-time favorite mainstream forays into the surreal, the gun actually rings, and Jane chats away into it. And if you want first-class deadpan comedic genius, check out Sizemore's blandly inflected response after the call is done: "Give me back my gun."

We also enjoyed Jason Lee's nervous-tic characterization as Beaver, who scoops peanut butter out of the jar with his finger and is never without a toothpick between his teeth; while sitting on that toilet lid to keep the alien confined, Lee must reach perilously to the floor for one of the few spilled toothpicks not floating in anal gore. Call us crude - but you just have to LOVE a scene of suspense built around fallen toothpicks and a toilet monster.

It all eventually collapses under a barrage of exposition. Perhaps King's book explains why the alien who takes over Lewis's body is known as Mr. Gray and speaks like John Cleese, or what happens to all the alien-infected people quarantined in Derry, or why the recesses of Lewis's mind look like an overstuffed library archive (complete with X-rated fantasies filed by year).

Adaptations of Stephen King novels are often more MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE than CARRIE - but despite King's convoluted original, what's most insane about this awesomely cack-handed crazy salad, is that seasoned screenwriters like William Goldman (MISERY) and Kasdan are responsible. In fact, the more we think about this loud, confusing, cheesily enjoyable movie, the more we have to read King's book. (Just please don't tell us it doesn't have any toilet monsters.) April 12, 2008

I should have just read the book

Dreamcatcher wasn't a horrible movie but maybe if I had read the book I would have gotten a better feel for the film. The film is long and drawn out and never really expalins what's going on. Jason Lee's performance is what saved the film for me. Kudos also go to Thomas Jane who just appeared in the vastly superior The Mist. I guess I will read the book and then view the film again. I would say the film is for die hard King fans only. April 1, 2008

Dreamcatcher

Ive been watching alot of King movies lately and I must say this has to be one of his worst films. The movie is a mess and I could hardly tell what was going on half the time. He takes elements of some of his best work and weave it into this story but it doesnt work. If you want to watch a King movie about four friends watch the timeless Stand By Me. If you want a movie about friendship and a little horror mixed it, watch It. This movie just plain sucked. February 17, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...