Dreamcatcher (2003)I know I've already done several movies that started out as books (or short stories or, in one case, an introduction to short stories) but I thought I'd start giving them a place of their own. Besides, it was one of the first signs, in my opinion, that Hollywood was becoming bankrupt when it came to original ideas. Now making movies out of classics, such as Gone With The Wind can be argued as being just as or more important than the book itself. That may be true. But especially today, more and more movies are not only coming from books, but comic books, old television shows, and (gulp) children's board games (a little Battleship anyone?) because, frankly, Hollywood sucks. And what they don't get from these, uh, reliable sources, they simply remake from a previous version.
Last summer my hubby broke his leg - badly. He had to have surgery and I spent a lot of hours in the hospital. I grabbed the first paperback off my shelf I saw. It was Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, a paperback released in 2001. It had been sitting there unread for who knows how long. I got about 2/3 through it before my hubby got out of the hospital. The book is 879 pages long. And they tried to make a little longer than normal movie out of that. If you remember The Stand, it took eight hours worth of TV time to tell that one. And they did a pretty good job. Here they are taking a book worth probably two or three movies, and cutting and cramming it into one. Needless to say it comes up lacking. I highly recommend if you want to watch this, read the book first, you'll get a better story, and you'll know more of what's going on in the movie.
To try to give an overview of the book would be very long but a lot better. Unfortunately, this is the movie. The plot: Four childhood friends discover a mentally handicapped kid named Douglas. Douglas cannot talk very well, he tells them his name is 'Duddits'. This relationship is very important in the book but is only briefly mentioned in the movie and that's a shame. Through their new friend they somehow gain certain telepathic powers, which continues with them through to adulthood..jpg)
We have Henry (Thomas Jane), Beav (Jason Lee), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Jonesy (Damian Lewis). Each year they have a sort of reunion in a hunting cabin in Maine. They unfortunately have not kept in touch with Duddits over the years, but they do think about him a lot. They make plans but the day before they were to go, Jonesy thinks he sees Duddits across the street and without thinking, walks into traffic and suffers horrific injuries, his heart stopping several times. He somehow quickly heals and six months later they remake their plans and all get together for the hunting trip in Maine.
In the cabin hangs a dreamcatcher that they got from Duddits and they all regret not keeping in touch with him. As they get their supplies packed away, Jonesy and Beav go hunting. Jonesy almost shoots what he thinks is a deer but his vision clears and he sees it is a man. Both bring the man to the cabin. He is extremely sick and confused. He burps and farts constantly and it is so foul and loud the men don't know whether to laugh or throw up. Windows get opened quickly. They put the sick man to bed as they notice his abdomen becoming bigger and bigger despite all the 'gas' apparently escaping him.
Okay this is already getting way too long. Bottom line, aliens have landed and are spreading a red type of spore everywhere in this part of the forest and the sick man has it. It produces what they call... uh a type of worm with large teeth, eating you inside out. Meanwhile the other two men are picking up more supplies but on the way back there's a woman in the middle of the road and they crash and flip the car (can't anybody drive in these damn movies?). You guessed it, she's got the 'worms' too. With more burping and farting. Pete stays with her while Henry goes for help.
Still getting too long, sorry. During all this the military, having known about this stuff since the 1940's have already scrambled and prepared to eradicate the aliens. They are also not above getting rid of any human that might have come into contact with them either. As fast as that red spore spreads, I couldn't really blame them for that. They are led by Curtis (Morgan Freeman) who has long ago lost his marbles hunting down real and imagined aliens (fun to see Morgan play a nutjob instead of the smooth, suave roles he usually plays). They prepare to basically bomb all of Maine if they have to. They might. They do manage to bomb the spaceship itself and quite a few of the 'grey people' before the ship self-destructs, taking more than a few soldiers with it. Curtis is pissed and even more determined to kill basically everything in sight.Because of the invading 'worms', Beav dies first. Jonesy lives, but Mr. Grey (don't ask who or how) invades his body. For the rest of the movie he talks in two voices (Mr. Grey has a British accent for some reason) which is quite annoying on film, better explained in the book. Mr. Grey captures Pete who can sense direction of anything or anywhere (a human GPS) but since Pete knows it is no longer Jonsey, he refuses. Jonesy, or rather the Grey Man eats him. Don't ask how, I don't have the foggiest. Henry escapes but is captured by the military as part of their 'net' bringing in everyone within a certain radius. He manages through the gift Duddits gave him to get a soldier named Owen to not only free him, but drive him to Duddits. Somehow he knows that Duddits will have the answer to this whole mess.
Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg) is dying of cancer. He is weak, needing constant medication, but he is glad to see Henry and sad because he 'knows' what happened to his other friends. Henry tells him (somehow Jonesy mentally gets a message to him) that Mr. Grey is on his way to a reservoir in order to send the spores into the water supply. Duddits says, in his way, one worm destroys the world. They know they have to get there fast. Curtis intercepts them in a helicopter and tries to gun them down, but in the end the helicopter takes a hit and he goes down in flames. Owen dies, but Henry and Duddits run to stop Jonesy - err I mean Mr. Grey before he lets the spore loose.Hold on to your credulity kids because at this point it gets ripped up pretty good. While Henry manages to kill the worm that is crawling toward the entry to the reservoir, the alien leaves Jonesy's body to destroy them. Duddits then (Don't ask why or how or huh?) changes into an alien form himself. Sigh. Just typing that sounds really REALLY dumb. Duddits and Mr. Grey battle and both explode in a cloud of dust which, to keep to the book title I guess, briefly looks like a dreamcatcher. Jonesy and Henry... well, we're not told what they do next, but this movie was 136 minutes long, so you don't really want any more explanation.
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