 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Dreamcatcher - 3/21/03 - R - 136m
Damian Lewis
- Jonesy
Morgan Freeman - Col. Curtis
Donnie Wahlberg - Duddits
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Screenplay: William Goldman & Lawrence Kasdan
Based on a novel by Stephen King
JEF
Yet another movie to add to this years long list of red light ratings.
I hope this trend changes soon. This movie came from the mind of Stephen
King. What was he thinking when he wrote this one? Before the movie Lyn,
and I were talking about some of our Favorite King movies. I have to say
one of my all time favorite horror movies was from a King based on his
book called “Salem’s Lot”. I was rather young when I
saw it on TV, but it really freaked me out at that age. I admit it is
a cheesy B-Movie, and the book is much better than the movie.
So back to Dreamcatcher…
Storyline: Short version no spoilers…
A handful of guys with paranormal powers help save the world from alien
invasion.
Longer version with minor spoilers…
A handful of guys in their late twenties or so, are buddies from childhood.
These guys have certain “powers” that were given to them via
“Duddits”. When they were kids, Jonesy, Beaver, Pete and Henry,
helped a mentally challenged kid from a couple of bullies. This kid was
named Douglas Cavell, but because of his speech impediment it sounded
like “Duddits”. In return for helping him, Duddits gives each
boy a special gift, or power. They can all communicate with one another
telepathically, and at times can read other people’s minds. One
character also has an ability to wave his finger around in circles, and
find things. These guys get together on a yearly basis, and head up to
a cabin in the backwoods for some hunting. While on this hunting vacation,
an alien space ship crash-lands, and begins a plot to take over the world.
Wow, it even sounds stupid as I write this little synopsis.
What can I say about this movie?
The storyline was so completely far fetched, that it was almost entertaining
like watching a comedy. The dialog was extremely forced, and hokey especially
the military dialog between the various soldiers, whose job it was to
quarantine and eliminate the alien threat. Which also brings me to the
point of Morgan Freeman who played Col. Curtis. The man in charge of the
rouge military branch know as the “Blue-boys” responsible
for keeping America safe from the aliens. Morgan Freeman is a talented
actor… how did he end up in this role?
I was keeping my mind occupied while watching this movie by trying to
find similarities with other sci-fi movies. There were some obvious clues,
which were (I hope) intentional. These similarities could be called a
tribute, or a rip-off. I would have to think that an established writer
such as Stephen King would not stoop to ripping-off these other movies,
so I’ll have to assume they were done as a sense of tribute. The
largest similarity was with the movie Alien; the cat’s name was
called “Jonesy”, it had baby aliens that burst out of a man’s
stomach. I also noticed extreme similarities to a movie I once saw called
“The Puppet Masters” (Thanks to Lyn, for finding the title
of this movie!) Also, not to be confused with the B-horror movie “The
Puppetmaster”. In “The Puppet Masters”, with Donald
Sutherland, these slug-like aliens would attach themselves to a human
host, and then were able to control them, using mind control. Then, because
I picked up on these similarities I kept looking for more, these may be
far fetched, but still… Morgan Freeman had BIG bushy eyebrows, which
reminded me of the character in Dune. A few other movies that came to
mind were “The Thing”, “Independence Day”, “Powder”,
“The Shinning” and of course the “The X-files”.
At one point, I could have sworn that I heard the sound effect of a door
opening and closing from the classic “Star Trek” series.
I went into this movie knowing that a lot of people did not like it. But
I had thought sometimes with horror or Sci-Fi movies, you can’t
always go by what other people think. But… I admit, they were right.
This was a poor excuse for a movie.
Jef
Here's
what Lyn thought...
PS> those of you who didn’t get my tagline, it
was a reference to a character from the cartoon “South Park”.
PSS> Oh, I almost forgot… as part of the hook to get people to
see Dreamcatcher, they added an 11 minute animated short for the upcoming
movie called The Matrix 2. This was not a preview, but rather a computer
animated short movie. These 11 minutes were the best part of going to
see Dreamcatcher. Mini-review: A fantastic example of
the next level of computer animation. Although still not perfect, especially
in the facial expressions, and some of the physical movements, but a big
jump in quality in comparison to the flop “Final Fantasy”.
Actually, I think, the same people who worked on Final Fantasy may have
done it, but I had heard that because of the movie’s poor return
at the box-office, that the company had gone out of business. Regardless
it was incredible animation. The attention to detail was terrific, and
the characters seemed to have a real mass to them, rather than appear
as 3-d puppets. This was just a glimpse of the storyline, for the new
movie The Matrix 2, and I can’t wait til this movie hits theatres
in May.