Customer Reviews

Dreamcatcher (Widescreen)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(66)

 

 

We've all seen Hollywood ruin some of Stephen King's most engrossing novels, but we can't blame Hollywood too much for this cinematic disaster. Dreamcatcher is just a lousy story; it pains me to say it, as no one loves and respects Stephen King more than I do, but this has to be the worst story idea that ever came out of his usually brilliant mind. I'm ashamed to say I have yet to read the actual novel, but it seems pretty clear to me that -- assuming the novel actually tells a coherent story with King's usually impressive characterization -- it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to transform it into a good movie. The metaphors this film attempts to emulate die horrible deaths when removed from King's original pages, tempting the viewer to actually laugh at the way they are portrayed onscreen. If you thought Herman's Head was silly (hey -- I actually liked Herman's Head), wait until you how this film handles that whole mindspeak thing. The harsh, regrettable truth is that Dreamcatcher is just a thoroughly ridiculous movie.

We start out with four thirty-something, clearly weird buddies. Each possesses some kind of gift, such as the ability to read others' minds. I got the impression they were all some sort of test subjects in a black ops project during their youth. I was quite wrong about that, as they actually owe their uncommon abilities to their friendship long ago with a mentally challenged young man named Duddits. The guys all head out to a mountain cabin every winter to think about their good friend, yet none of them has apparently bothered to see or even speak to him in twenty years ' uh, OK. Back in the cabin, the guys have barely begun comparing their individual oddities and exchanging movie trivia when the snow starts to hit the fan. It begins with a couple of stranded individuals turning up with a nasty rash, and then, before you can say "I Duddits," our main characters find themselves smack dab in the middle of a mysterious military quarantine. Soon, they're fighting for their lives against nasty, slimy worms with more teeth than they can possibly need. The worms are actually aliens executing a master plan to take over the world, and -- wouldn't you know it -- Duddits seemingly tried to warn them about this twenty years ago. When Mr. Gray shows up about an hour into the film, you can consider the shark thoroughly jumped; from there on out, the whole story is just laughable.

Like others before me, I have to wonder why Morgan Freeman (the world's greatest living actor) signed on to this project. It's not like he had never had a chance to play a sort-of bad guy before, so I can only assume that he didn't read the script before signing the contract. Freeman is still good, of course (despite the odd fact that his eyebrows are huge for no apparent reason), as are his fellow actors, and I have no complaints about the special effects whatsoever (well, just one -- while it's snowing pretty good out there in the woods, there's never any falling snow to be seen in aerial shots of helicopters flying overhead). All of the wormy aliens look quite real, and there's a fair share of gore to be enjoyed on several occasions. Dreamcatcher's overwhelming problem is its story. For one thing, it never really tells us enough about that whole Duddits business -- or about the aliens, who have apparently been visiting Earth for at least a quarter of a century. And that thing with the toothpick? Well, you'll know what I'm talking about if you see the movie. And who drew up such a cumbersome alien invasion plan in the first place? Any sentient being could have gotten the job done in about five minutes -- with five tentacles tied behind his back, no less. And, just to repeat myself, what is up with these guys never taking a couple of hours to visit Duddits after they grew up? This is only the person who gave each of them extraordinary abilities, and they all go on and on about how much they love the guy, yet they'd rather drive up to a cabin in the woods every year and think about him than actually trouble themselves to visit or call.

Here's the bottom line: Dreamcatcher is just a painfully ridiculous movie.

This is one of the most insane unbalanced big budget b-movies ive ever seen.
Forget the premise and plot this is Stand By Me meets The TommyKnockers with a dash of the Dead Zone thrown in for good measure.
I saw this twice in the same day and laughed my way through it both times.
A near twin to the book the film never strays too far from the source material.
Great fun!!

BORING!!! This movie had a wonderful concept, and managed to scare audiences every scene, but there wasn't any action or scares in the first hour. For this Stephen King novel's adaptation, they had to have the best actors, best stuntpeople and the best writers. It's very thrilling and scary, but, I'm saying as a piece of educated advice: Don't Waste your time.

**1/2 out of 4

This is a good movie i dont care what anyone says. this is my favorite movie ever. I DUDDITS!

I just saw this movie last night, and I don't get why there are so many negative reviews up here. I thought it was well-filmed and well-acted, with the possible exception of whoever played Henry. I kept thinking he sounded like the doctor guy from the spoof "Airplane." ("Not war, water! Mr. Gray wants water! And don't call me Shirley!") Beav (Jason Lee, I think) was hilarious, though, despite his weird toothpick obsession. Morgan Freeman wasn't bad, I guess. He reminded me of an inept Hannibal Lecter with eyebrow toupees.
The movie/plot/character development was all interesting and true to the book. It really wasn't scary, more action/adventure, but I didn't mind and most viewers probably won't. I figure the reason most people watch or read horror anyway is because they like seeing people who are worse off than themselves, and this flick had that in spades. (Giant intestinal parasite, anyone? No? How about some evil Space Truffles or whatever the fungus thing was called?) Its high point was the relationships between the characters, something King has always been really good at portraying.
Anyway, this movie was fun and good for a Friday night. I'd recommend it. Enjoy!

I won't be the first to write on the schizophrenic mess this film is, but having squirmed my way through this film I need to 'exorcise' the ill feeling it gave me.
I've had a firm belief that, beyond "Carrie['76]", "Salem's Lot ['79]" and "the Shining ['80]", all other Stephen King film vehicles are basically the same - churned out with the same flimsy mysticism that chokes his already portentious prose. "Dreamcatcher" is the culmination of so many illogical, half-baked 'Stephen King-isms' that you have to wonder, does Stephen King need to get out more? The latter day adaptations of his films (and that horrid "Kingdom" debacle on TV) only confirm that his stories are better left where they came from- a preprogrammed computer which only requires slight name / location changes and... voila! A new bestseller.
Yuck.

Alright first of all I have to admit, I am a huge Stephen King fan, I absolutely love the way the man writes, he just seems to draw me in like no other author can do. However when it comes to his work being presented on the screen I am usually not impressed (except for The Shining of course)

However I enjoyed Dreamcatcher, now unlike other reviewers I will not be posting spoilers, I find the story to be very interesting, compelling and at time scary.

I think if you like a good sci-fi thriller with a lot of comedy, if you like Stephen King, I suggest you definitely check this movie out, you, in my opinion, will not be disappointed

However I don't really think this movie is too scary, as a matter of fact most of the time I was laughing out loud, not because the movie is bad but because there is some hilarious dialogue in the movie, especially Jason Lee as "Beaver" is phenomenal, granted you have to like his sort of humour but if you do you are in for a treat (think a tamer version of Jay and Silent Bob as the character he represents)

Starts good, but fall on it's face past half of the movie. Definitely another Stephen King film. Never again.

Well, if you've seen the trailer, you expected a decent horror/sci-fi movie. However, this movie belongs in the 'horrible movie' genre. I cant believe Morgan Freeman was in such an awful movie. My biggest pet peeve in movies is when characters do something stupid, and in this movie, you might have the stupidest character in history. Yes, I'm talking about the toilet scene. Basically, there's blood everywhere and some crazy alien thing is trapped underneath the toilet lid by some idiot. If i was the alien, I would have just come out the back of the toilet and bit the idiot's head off, but apparently, the alien knew this guy was an idiot, so it waited for him to do something stoopid. Idiot proceeds to drop his toothpick onto blood-filled floor and then reach for toothpick while maintaining some of his weight on the toilet. Gawd what an idiot. About 15 minutes later I was asleep after some unbelievable bad helicopter scene. At least Regal Cinema had comfortable seats.

At least the alien creatures are interestingly conceptualized, designed, and sufficiently fierce.

This movie takes more than a few narrative liberties with the source novel, but still manages to be worth a look. I caught it twice one weekend on pay cable, and it was creepy and interesting enough to sit through all the way.

There are the standard "you gotta be kidding me" lapses in logic, mainly courteous of Stephen King's truly out-there mind (plus any contributions by screenwriter Goldman in his attempt to get the novel down to a manageable filming length). We've come to expect those from horror/sci-fi films based on nearly unfilmable King novels.

But at the end of the day, the whole thing is watchable enough.

Disregard all the one and two star reviews. This film is not the crap-fest that others make it out to be. It has production value, earnest actors, cool and creepy creature effects, and a story just interesting enough to keep you watching.

Watch our for worms and weasels, though.