Review of "Dreamcatcher" (2003)

"Same sh*t, different day."

I was really into this movie...for a short bit. The beginning of "Dreamcatcher" has a very good feel to it that is sadly cut off mid-way. A group of childhood friends meet out in the woods for an annual get-together, and some scary sh*t happens.

I loved the bathroom scene (except for the fact that Jason Lee died over a toothpick) and that the aliens are called "sh*t weasels." Like I said, the beginning had its merits. Then, the military comes in and kills the movie. I can't take Morgan Freeman seriously with those eyebrows, and Tom Sizemore is a completely wasted character. Did they have to get Tom Sizemore? I think Sizemore is way above this. Some other characters that were wasted were Jason Lee's and Timothy Olyphant's. Did they need name actors to play these roles? I don't think so. These guys have talent, and none was needed for these roles.

Some of the best King flicks are notorious for having two parts: the childhood part and the adult part. The childhood segment is always expected to be great, like in "It" and "Sometimes They Come Back". The scenes where our heroes were kids are horrible in "Dreamcatcher". I hated them. In fact, I hated everything that happened after the military came in...except for two things. One: I did enjoy the cool sound effect every time Mr. Grey put his hood on. I don't know exactly how that works, but I really want it to happen for me. Two: I also thought the guy being trapped inside his own mind was interesting, and was something I had never seen before.

Other than those two small factors, the rest of the movie is terrible, with the climax being the capper. Sizemore's character is on foot, wearing a black outfit, surrounded by snow, and going up against a chopper with a fully loaded mini-gun armed only with a handgun. He brings the chopper down, too. If you don't see the error here, you need to be slapped. And Duddits (played by Donnie Wahlberg) turning into an alien? What was that all about? I was told that's not at all what happened in the book.

But when has any movie been exactly like the book? It would be nice if more Stephen King movies stayed closer on the source material. Why does everyone feel that they can improve upon his stuff? He's Stephen f*cking King! You can't make it any better. He's the King of Horror for a reason: millions of readers love his novels. Why change things? I don't understand it. Skip Dreamcatcher.