generationofswine
Compared to the book, yeah, it stinks...but that's really only because it got lost somewhere in translation from prose to screen.Take it as it is, take it as a movie and its not half bad, the problem is that, once you leave the book behind what you have is an old fashioned B horror movie that is trying to sell itself in an era where B horror movies need the special effects of modern super hero movies and the basic plot of a Dick and Jane novel.And then, in many ways, it's just too expensive. It feels like a classic Drive-In horror flick, but it looks like a block buster. Tone down the budget by a few million and make it a direct to video movie and it would have cult classic status already...despite the people that actually read the source material.The acting is good, the special effects are too good, the setting is cool, but the plot hurts a bit and the fact that Duddits is Intellectually Disabled is inevitably going to put off more that a few viewers.Really though, what you have is a great B Movie Drive-In fair that somehow got an actual budget wot work with. And you could do a lot worse in this Post New Hollywood day and age.
Davis P
This is a movie adaptation of the novel Dreamcatcher written by Stephen King. It stars Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis, Jason Lee, Timothy Olyphant, and Morgan Freeman. It tells the story of childhood friends who go on a trip out into the snowy woods and come across a horrifying discovery. This film is not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting a weird but very interesting film about old childhood friends discovering this intriguing thing in the woods, what I got was something different than that. I got a film that really was not all that interesting. It was a movie with long stretches of very boring and uninteresting happenings. The aliens in the film that they come across are cardboard cut outs recycled from previous movies, they could've made them cool and mysterious, maybe reveal something we've never seen before, but no they decided to waste that opportunity. That truthfully is how I feel about this entire film, a big fat wasted opportunity. It could've been a thought provoking mysterious film, but instead it turned out to be uninteresting and disappointing. The acting is off and on, Freeman was good but other members of the cast were a little spotty, sometimes good and other times kinda laughable. 3/10 for Dreamcatcher. Just not worth your time.
Rainey Dawn
This film I enjoyed the character interactions between the 5 boys (young or grown) most off all - those scenes were the most interesting to me, more so than the actual alien scenes. This is NOT the greatest film based on a Stephen King book but it is an entertaining movie.The film is about one guy: a special boy, Duddits, that made friends with 4 other boys. Duddits gave the other boys special gifts. They have all grown up and the 4 boys, now men, have met in their private camp and they are still wondering about Duddits and the gifts given to them... wondering if these gifts were preparing them for something. This turns out to be the most horrible trip for all of them - something big about to happen.6/10
bkoganbing
Dreamcatcher is the story of one nasty alien invasion that's spawning up in the north Maine woods where four friends Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, and Timothy Olyphant have an annual guys get together for a hunting trip. In fact these aliens have tried a few times before and there's an elite military unit headed by Morgan Freeman and Tom Sizemore that's charged with keeping these large space worms off the planet.Experience has taught Freeman not to do anything by halves. He hears a report they've landed somewhere and he eradicates everything for miles around. That includes humans and the four hunters are in his radius.But as it turns out way back when they were kids they saved a mentally retarded young man from bullies. That random act of kindness proves to be their salvation as the four are given the power of mental telepathy. And the retarded young man played by Donnie Wahlberg as a grown man also proves to be their's and the world's salvation. I guess among other things Stephen King was trying to say you never know when a random act of kindness might pay great dividends. I'm agreeing with another reviewer who says that Dreamcatcher succeeds as drama, horror and even comedy. Check out the scene where two of the guys are trying to contain a worm inside a toilet bowl.Fans of Stephen King should like this film as well as others like me.
AD
