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Dreamcatcher, the newest film to be made from a Stephen King novel, borrows from a lot of different genres – action, horror, science fiction, thriller. This is good if it means there’s something in it to please everyone; but in this case, it just means the film is all over the place. It tells the story of four thirtysomething friends who, twenty years before, saved another boy (named Duddits) from bullies. In the process, Duddits passed special powers on to each of them. Jump to the present and the men are all unhappy, struggling with their lives and their powers which, rather than helping them, just make them different. When they reunite for their annual stay at a hunting cabin in the Maine woods, they encounter further peril; they get caught in a blizzard and an alien invasion, plus have to outsmart psycho Army wackos sent to wipe out the aliens. The film is part Alien, part Signs, part Stand By Me, part The Thing – and none of it works. Despite a stellar cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Tom Sizemore and Jason Lee, the screenplay is just too convoluted and sometimes outright corny – not something that you’d expect from Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (All the President’s Men) and writer/director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill). In the end, instead of feeling like you’re watching a good dream, you may feel like you’re in the middle of a nightmare. |
However, Warner Bros. is giving you an extra reason to go to this
unspectacular film: it is screening an only-in-theaters film short
from the 9-short series The Animatrix before the film.
The Animatrix expands on the story of the 1999 sci-fi thriller
The Matrix and provides additional information useful to
know before seeing the next Matrix film – Matrix Reloaded
– due in May. This 11-minute short is called Final Flight
of the Osiris and tells the story of the crew of another ship
of freed humans who discover vital information about what the machines
know of Zion (this all makes sense if you are familiar with The
Matrix). The short is all computer-generated animation and
is excellent. Given the film it’s packaged with, it’s
not a must-see before May, but it does add to The Matrix
lore and is a great warm-up for Reloaded!