Rating: 
Summary: Dreamcatcher
Review: Bad acting and cardboard characters aside - the profanity in this movie is nauseating. It's pretty bad when you have to buy the DVD so you can use the guardian filter just to watch the movie.
Rating:
Summary: I Dudditz, You Jane.
Review: You know, I can remember when the name Stephen King was associated with words such as "scary", "horrifying", and "suspenseful". Then he got hit by a car and those words changed to "stupid", "insipid", and "God-awful". All three of those latter words could be used to describe the film "Dreamcatcher", a movie so bad I can scarcely tell where to begin. Maybe it's the fact that this horror movie is full of more flatulence than "Blazing Saddles". Maybe it's because the world is saved from destruction by a forty-year-old retarded alien with leukemia. Maybe it's because said alien carries a childs lunch box and heroically yells "I Dudditz!" before vanquishing his foe. I'm not sure. But here's the plot, just so you don't think I'm being unfair. Out in the middle of a snowy place, four friends were enjoying a weekend away from the hassles of modern life when suddenly things go awry. Two of these friends go out for supplies while the other two stay at their log cabin and happen upon a wounded hunter stumbling through the forest. They take pity upon him and bring him back to their cabin where he starts farting up a storm. No, I'm not kidding. After passing enough gas to inflate a barrage balloon, the hunter lies down to get some sleep. He goes to the bathroom to resolve his gastro-intestinal woes and discovers that he has given birth to a small alien who then eats one of the occupants of the cabin. Thankfully, the alien is much more civilized and can contain his own gas. Anyway, the other guy who's still alive (played by Damian Lewis of "Band of Brother" fame) gets posessed by this alien who, oddly, has a posh British accent. Meanwhile the other two schmucks are involved in a bad car accident, survive, and discover yet another fart factory who quickly squirts out another alien that kills off one more friend. And then there were two. At this point we learn that the area that all of this is happening in has been quarentined by a covert anti-alien task force commanded by Morgan Freeman and Tom Sizemore. Both actors put just enough effort into their roles to ensure that they get paid. It looks like the world is going to end when one of the friends (it's hard to remember their names because they're so cardboard) realizes that their old retarded buddy Douglas is the key to warding off full scale alien invasion. Thankfully Douglas (who pronounces his name "Dudditz") lives nearby and, after packing his lunchbox, joins the heroic crew off to battle the poot-inducing menace. A battle takes place in which Dudditz (played by Donnie Whalberg) stikes a Superman-like pose, extends his arms, and bellows "I Dudditz!" which apparently is the magic word to turn yourself into a stupid-looking alien. Thus the world is saved and you've wasted two and a half hours that you can never get back. I'll end with a plea to all Hollywood types out there to please offer better work to former castmembers of "Band of Brothers". Now that "Boomtown" has been cancelled, they need good work, not Tabasco-inspired trash like "Dreamcatcher". Oh, and Mr. King? Please take a sabbatical or something to help bring back the firey genius you once posessed. And if it doesn't happen, take a well-earned retirement. Just put the pen down! For the love!
Rating: 
Summary: How do I not compare this film to the book?
Review: Well, ok - I can't. But before I start, I'll try to just review the film on its own merits. The ride is suspenseful in many places, the computer-generated visuals are very, very good, and the plot is sufficiently complex enough to keep most folks entertained. The trouble is, they had to hack so much of the plot in order to keep the movie to a reasonable time period, we've lost so very much in the translation. Doh, I'm talking about the book already. Ok, back up.As the film opens, 4 life-long friends all phone each other in short periods of time, each one sensing that something's amiss, and they're all thinking of their childhood friend, a Down's Syndrome boy named Douglas ("Duddits" "Dudds" as they all call him.) One such phone call interrupts a suicide attempt by a friend, and another call issues a warning to a different friend. "Be careful," says Beaver to Jonesy. "Of what?" Jonesy inquires. "I wish I knew," Beav responds. Moments later, Jonesy is hit by a car, and gravely injured. The film picks up 6 months later, at a hunting lodge in the woods where they have gathered for the last 20 years. A huge, beautiful dreamcatcher hangs in the living room, and is a symbol representing the five friends and their special bond. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn how the four boys met Duddits and became his best friends, and how he imbued them with special gifts. The flashbacks are very similar to "Stand By Me," as King notes in the interview, and Jonsey's injury mirrors King's own after he was hit by a van while walking. Back to the story, as two of the friends (Pete and Henry)leave the lodge to go pick up beer, things being to go horribly awry. Jonesy nearly shoots a man who claims to have been lost and wandering in the woods overnight, and takes him in to give him shelter and food. The man's stomach is enormous, and he has the worst case of gas ever recorded. Pete and Henry nearly run over a woman sitting in the road, and flip their truck many times as it leaves the snowy road. Pete breaks his leg in the process, and Henry must go for help alone. Things go downhill for the men from there. The hunter and the woman are both infected with alien larvae, which burst out in a most unpleasant manner, and are armed with razor-sharp teeth and a grasping, sharp tail. Jonesy becomes infected with the alien "birus," a reddish dust-like substance which is how the alien race procreates. As all of this is happening, we begin to meet the military personnel stationed in the area. As it happens, a huge mothership crashed nearby the cabin, and the whole area is under quarrantine. I can't go into any more of the plot without revealing far too much, so I'll go back to the book. The ending is suspenseful, though not as suspenseful as the book's. Further, the screenplay writers sacrifice far too much in the translation from book to film - the magic of the journey is almost entirely lost. The first 20 minutes are quite true to the original text, and then everything takes a big left turn, and in my opinion, not in a good way at all. Duddits isn't just a special boy, he's got an entirely other purpose that had nothing to do with the original story. We don't hear much of the internal dialogue between Jonesy and Mr. Gray, the alien possessing his mind and body. Several key elements have been eliminated or changed, and it all comes down to this - the story is much more shallow and compact, and in the end, it feels like we've missed a lot of the story. Turns out, we have! While most of the basics are true to the book, the details are gone, and the stuff they did change is just...ick. Doesn't work, at least not for me. I highly recommend the book to anyone who enjoyed the movie, as it will give SO much more detail and back-story, and is minus the incredibly hokey ending "plot twist." The book is magical, the movie is mediocre. Entertaining, interesting, and surprising ... just not "WOWSERS." Make sense? As for the movie, it's not something I'm likely to watch again, but I did enjoy it for the most part. The DVD extras are good - there's an interview with Stephen King, some behind-the-scenes footage, some deleted scenes (with alternate ending) and a very funny outtake involving Henry and Duddits, in which Donnie Wahlberg (Dudds) breaks character after Thomas Jayne (Henry) goes off-script and interrogates him in a ridiculously funny way during an urgent moment. I wish there had been more outtakes like that. :-) I suspect this is another case of a brilliant King story hacked to death to make it "fit" into preconceived notions of what people want to see, and in the process of doing that, they gutted the story so badly that we don't come to care for the characters very much. Alas.
Rating: 
Summary: Stand By Me goes Sci-Fi
Review: Don't buy into all the negative reviews. I loved this movie and know plenty of people that really enjoyed it too. Dreamcatcher will stand the test of time. Many people will hate this movie because it does not stay on target of the genre type that its poster suggests. Dreamcatcher is also one of the most faithful reproductions of a Steven King novel to date. Dreamcatcher is actually better than what it should have been. King in writing Dreamcatcher actually managed to give us a different take on the alien mind while at the same time inserting plenty of "been there before, bought the T-Shirt sci-fi elements". King decided to focus on the following points for his novel. These are also translated onto the screen. - Alien induced telepathy.
- A human mind with some thinking alien qualities.
- Aliens who infect to spread.
- A long term alien agenda in human form. Dreamcatcher plays out on certain fronts with stereotypical characters for mainstream audiences but also contains elements that are purely original in design and execution. This film is weird, and some will hate that, but if you like to see an alternative take on an already beaten-to-death theme then you will love Dreamcatcher. If you are not a sci-fi fan and Dreamcatcher is one of the only sci-fi movies you have seen recently then you will probably be bored by it and not like it at all. In short if you want to watch a standard King movie that is very good then watch Stand By Me or The Shawshank Redemption. If you want to see a movie about things from outer space with lots of action then watch Aliens or Independence Day... but if you want to see a film which takes the Alien genre and plays with it to produce something with very original themes on an "out there" bend then take Dreamcatcher for your trip. It is certainly better than most direct-to-video sci-fi releases and is damn bit more experimental than most Hollywood mainstream flicks. The scene with the alien groups in the snow is totally warped and extremely memorable. This is going to be a cult classic some day in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Bad adaption of a so-so Stephen King book
Review: Hey I love Stephen King as much as the next guy, but DreamCatcher will certainly never be praised as one of his all time greatest works. It was barely OK. The movie starts off pretty good and true to the film. But after a half hour or so it takes on a story of it's own. The last 20 minutes is so rushed you'll feel like you missed something. You did, read the book. Morgan Freeman (how does he end up in all these movies?) does a good job, but even he is getting to be boring by playing the same character over and over again.
Rating: 
Summary: uh?
Review: This is not your average stephen king movie. the only reason i give it 2 stars is because it had a really good start, but went down hill after that. if you like wierd alien movies then check it out. but slimy eel looking things coming out of animals butts is really not what i find scary.
Rating:
Summary: Excruciatingly cheap story, surreally bad film...
Review: I thought they dont make'm that bad any more. "Dreamcatcher" easily qualifies as one of the worst films in recent time and how anyone could give this more than 1 star is absolutely beyond me.
Story in summary: aliens invade mother-earth while a group of telepathic humans attempt to save us all. All? Not the audience.
The aliens are wormlike creatures that reside in intestines (a theme used i dont know how many times in the past) and which come out- preferably- from toilet...bowls to attack their victims. As for the humans in the film, most of them act like they've been part of a massive lobotomy experiment.
Wait. Does this sound funny? Apologies if it does because no, it's not even funny. This film can take on some of the worst b-movies out there and still come out on the losing side. It's not funny, it's not suspenful, it's not anything really.
I havent read the book, but i'd really like to know what Stephen King thinks of his material being butchered systematically like that because as more experienced movie buffs know this is not the first time. As for some reviews saying that this is a "slick" version of an X-file episode, well, I'd say that people who claim that are definately not fans of the classic TV series. Any episode of the X-Files, even the not so good ones, is light years ahead in quality from this cinematic disaster. I was lucky enough to see it for free, and even so, I only could endure it for about an hour. After that, the stop button experienced untold glories.
Two words: avoit it.
Rating:
Summary: I thought Stephen King was scary
Review: I haven't seen many Stephen King movies and I've only read a couple of his books, but I have to say that this is the weakest offering of those I've read or seen. It unfortunately is just not scary. As many other reviewers have alluded to - there is plenty of blood, crude flatulence jokes, and a decided lack of suspense. I think the most exciting aspect of a horror movie - particularly one that is not awash in gore is the uncertainty. The suspense of not knowing what exactly is going on. The movie started off with this uncertainty - four friends with some type of ESP powers and a strange young boy that somehow connects them. At first, I was really into the movie. Then they brought the aliens in, a deranged military "boss" (there is no saluting and no titles in Blue Group! - what crap). After what I felt was a strong beginning - the movie degenerates into camp. No real good chills. Just a lot of blood. If you're a Stephen King fan, I'm sure you'll add it to your collection. Otherwise, I'd recommend taking a pass.
Rating:
Summary: a disappointing deary dull thriller
Review: the movie takes a while for it to come into gear but when the alien invasion starts the characters start to use these telepathic powers that they got when they were kids, the movie is probably my least favourite stephen king movie and not something you would watch over and over again, the movie drags on alot and really isn't set out properly to fit in with the story in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Movies like this do not come along very often
Review: Wow. Just watched Dreamcatcher and I dont really know what to say. Simply one of the goofiest movies ever created. If I even attempted to write a basic synopsis of the plot, it would take like 3 full pages. That's not important though, because you should only watch this movie for the sheer absurdity of the film-making. The writing is so ridiculous that I was actually wondering how many takes were wasted because the actors would start cracking up mid-line. Morgan Freeman has made a career out of doing give-me-my-paycheck-and-get-me-the-heck-out-of-here movies, but even he looks visibly embarassed during this one. They also decided to give him eyebrows that would make John Madden gape in disbelief. When an alien takes over one of the main character's body, we find out that aliens apparently have a british accent. I'm not even kidding. I could go on and on, but if you're the type of person that enjoys movies that are so inexplicable and incompetently made that they are hilarious, I dont want to ruin any more for you. If you are one of these people, I highly recommend a rental.
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