Dreamcatcher Movie Review

October 09, 2003 | 11 Comments

I’ve never been a big fan of Stephen King’s books. The few I’ve been able to get through are decent, but his style just isn’t for me, just a bit too, well, wordy. I do like most of his movies and Dreamcatcher is no exception.

The movie is a bit hard to pin down, as it’s got two very different, but related, story-lines going. There is the whimsical, paranormal, very Stephen King-ish, childhood buddy thing, which I found very interesting. And then there is the cheesy, alien, shit weasel, invasion thing, which I thought was just kind of fun.

The thing is, these two story-lines have a hard time meeting in the middle. They’re intertwined, just not very well and I kept feeling like the movie had lost something there, rather than gained.

Some of the visuals are great, the snow scenes especially, but the special effects are average. Not that it matters much, they’re good enough to carry the story. The acting is alright, about what you’d expect, although I loved Mr. Gray. It’s fairly believable for this kind of movie.

I’m sure the book was much better, they usually are. My guess is there is much more to this story than the movie speaks to and I’m sure the different story-lines are explored in such a way as to better mesh for the reader.

All in all Dreamcatcher is a petty good flick, but probably more of a rental than anything else.

My rating: 3 out of 5.

Filed under: Review

Comments

1. patrick h. lauke said:

completely unrelated, i’ll grant you that, but…just finished watching “equilibrium” on dvd and just feel like shouting and raving about it anywhere i can…so…there you go. highly recommended…

Posted on October 9, 2003 05:29 PM | #

2. Jason said:

I thought the movie was pretty good as far as Stephen King ventures go (though I hated “IT” and thought it was a terrible screenplay). And you are correct in that the book, as in just about every King book-to-screenplay, has way more detail and underlying story than the movie could possibly cover. “Misery” is a good example; the movie was entertaining, held the story pretty well, but failed to cover the amount of detail that showed just how bad the villian was.

Lawrence Kasdan had a heck of a time putting this together, but I think he did a good job pulling the core elements that kept the story tangible, while still providing an entertaining movie.

I thought Jason Lee’s performance of Beav was exceptional (the many expletives were key), though Damian Lewis deserves credit for pulling off the Jonesy/Mr. Gray combination.

Posted on October 12, 2003 08:28 PM | #

3. evelyn said:

i thought the book dreamcatcher was one of the best books ever and i cant wait until the movie comes out in Ireland. Stephen King is the best writer ever

Posted on November 3, 2003 03:53 AM | #

4. James said:

Stephen Kings incredibly familiar mix of horror, suspense, and ever so-twisting storyboard, brilliantly come to together with his creation of Dreamcatcher.

Posted on November 15, 2003 11:53 PM | #

5. Adam said:

I thought this movie was really shite! Another stuffed up King story. What the hell was with that ending!!! Duddits was an alien whose parents didn’t realise when they gave birth to him?? It was like someone decided the movie had gone on too long and needed to end abruptly, so go and murder a brilliant story by arguably the greatest story teller alive.
Next time someone makes a King movie, get me involved and it won’t go wrong!

Posted on November 16, 2003 09:39 PM | #

6. Ivan said:

It was crap and my wife agrees. First thing we agreed on after we got married ;P

Posted on December 13, 2003 06:37 PM | #

7. Maverick said:

Now you are going to get the un-biased opinion of me. I am a person who is a big, big fan of Stephen King. I mean, he is a wonderful author and his ideas are awesome. My favorite movie by far is ‘the Shawshank Redemption.’ But I am also willing to put my foot down. See, I also believe the the ending was crap. But as far as the performances go, you could not escape the shear brilliance that was Jonsey/Mr. Grey. The story was descent and could have been better, but you just can’t bypass the acting genious of Morgan Freeman. And the special effect were also done quite well. Although I do believe that Stephen King should stick with real suspense/horror(like possessed cars and telekinetic children and the like) don’t try the alien thing again. It just doesn’t work for you. On a scale from 1-10, it’s worth seeing, but, not buying; I give it a 6.
If anyone els wants my opinion on anything els i will gladly give it. My e-mail address is: maverick77427@hotmail.com
thanx

Posted on December 18, 2003 02:18 AM | #

8. tj said:

This movie was one of the worst I’ve seen. The first half hour starts quite ok, but then the poor acting and series of sci-fi and action movie cliches will make you yawn (if not fall asleep) for at least an hour more. TERRIBLE !
So Morgan Freeman is no guarantee for reasonable movies as well.

Posted on February 1, 2004 11:59 PM | #

9. bobby said:

when a guy’s hand gun rings and he uses it as a phone, THAT is when you have to say to the director,”thought of doing any twilight zone movies latley?”
HORRIBLE FILM
cannot comment on the ending, at the point the dude talked into his gun as a phone, i though, one must be on crack to get this flick , rather, understand it!

Posted on April 20, 2004 06:36 PM | #

10. paula said:

I thoroughly enjoyed Dreamcatcher. Can you tell me who Stephen King was in the movie?

Posted on October 3, 2004 10:53 AM | #

11. Derrick Wright said:

hey i just got done reading Dreamcatcher after reading it for like 2 and a half weeks then i went to watch the movie and i wrote down all the differant stuff that happens in the book and movie and they are alittle differant but not much

Posted on April 21, 2005 06:21 AM | #