Dreamcatcher (2003)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Lawrence Kasdan

Writers (WGA):

Stephen King (novel)
William Goldman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 March 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Four friends hung a dreamcatcher in their cabin. It's about to catch something it cannot stop.

Plot:

Friends on a camping trip discover that the town they're vacationing in, is being plagued in an unusual fashion by parasitic aliens from outer space.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Maine | Blizzard | Hunting Trip | Hunting

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Morgan Freeman	...	Col. Abraham Curtis
Thomas Jane	...	Henry
Jason Lee	...	Beaver
Damian Lewis	...	Jonesy
Timothy Olyphant	...	Pete
Tom Sizemore	...	Owen
Donnie Wahlberg	...	Duddits
Mikey Holekamp	...	Young Henry
Reece Thompson	...	Young Beaver
Giacomo Baessato	...	Young Jonesy
Joel Palmer	...	Young Pete
Andrew Robb	...	Young Duddits
Eric Keenleyside	...	Rick McCarthy
Rosemary Dunsmore	...	Roberta Cavell
Michael O'Neill	...	Gen. Matheson

Also Known As:

L'attrapeur de rêves (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, gore and language.

Runtime:

136 min | USA:134 min

Country:

USA | Canada | Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:14 (theatrical rating) | Malaysia:18SG | Portugal:M/16 | USA:R (No. 39706) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Canada:18A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:NC-16 (original rating) | Singapore:PG (edited for re-rating) | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Greece:K-17

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

Damian Lewis's alien character, Mr Grey, alludes to a poem while talking to Jones. The poem referred to is Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".

Goofs:

Factual errors: The call of a loon can be heard in outdoor scenes. The film is set in winter which is when loons would have already migrated south for the winter.

Quotes:

Colonel Curtis: Whose radio is that?
[upon hearing crashed aliens pleading for sympathy]
Captain Owen Underhill: It's not the radio, boss. They're putting it directly into our heads.
Colonel Curtis: There it is, gentlemen. Directly into our heads. This gives you an idea what we're up against. Now if anybody is thinking, "Why, those poor helpless little fools... all naked and unarmed besides their crashed intergalactic Winnebago. What kind of a dog, what kind of a monster... could hear that heartbreak and go in just the same?" Well, I'm that dog. I'm that monster. These mothers are as harmless as a fox in a hen house. And I'm here to kick some ass! Are you with me?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: 'Dreamcatcher': Unraveling the Nightmare (#10.5)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

Always in My Heart

So-so

Plot heavy--TOO heavy--horror sci-fi film about 4 friends (Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis) in the Maine woods squaring off against disgusting killer aliens and the Army led by Morgan Freeman and Tom Sizemore.

The film is well-directed by Lawrence Kasdan and well-acted (especially by Jane, Lewis and Olyphant) but there's too many plots going on and the movie rambles on for 135 minutes. I did sit through the whole thing, but I was never really involved or interested.

On the plus side, the special effects are great; the aliens are slimy and disgusting; the attack scenes are brutal (and bloody) and I LOVED the way Kasdan visualized Lewis' mind.

Still, the film has too many plots to handle and it's constantly loosing its focus. Not terrible or unwatchable, just disappointing.

I give it a 6.