Dreamcatcher (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer Interviews-Cast-Dreamwriter: An Interview With Stephen King Featurette-Dreamweavers: The Visual Effects of Dreamcatcher Deleted Scenes-4 Alternate Ending Teaser Trailer Listing-Cast & Crew DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	128:15
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Lawrence Kasdan
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Morgan Freeman Thomas Jane Jason Lee Damian Lewis Timothy Olyphant Tom Sizemore Donnie Wahlberg
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	James Newton Howard

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, During closing credits

    Dreamcatcher is the latest in a long line of films to be based on books by prolific author Stephen King. As his fans, and countless many others would know, most of his novels tend to be based on horror with supernatural themes, as well as the fundamental struggle of good against evil.

    This particular story is based on  the book of the same name, released in 2001. It concentrates primarily on the friendship between four men in their 30s; Henry Devilin, played by Thomas Jane (The Thin Red Line); Beaver Clarendon, played by Jason Lee (Vanilla Sky); Gary Jones, played by Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers); and Pete Walker (Timothy Olyphant). These four friends have been linked from childhood through a telepathic connection with a boy, Duddits Cavell, whom they met when they rescued him from the hands of bullies.

    The four friends are in the midst of a hunting trip in North-Eastern USA (aren't all King books set there?) in the mid winter when the four encounter strange happenings out there. They first rescue a man who they find wandering lost in the woods. When he's back in their cosy cabin, it appears that all is not well with him. He claims to have been lost from the previous day and then starts emitting raucous and elongated burps. These burps are soon followed by similarly loud and unpleasant noise from his other end. Sound appealing? There is a reason for all this, which is made apparent quite soon. That's when the real trouble begins...

    Directed by Lawrence Kasdan (Accidental Tourist, Silverado, The Big Chill), this film was widely panned by both critics and audiences alike when it was released on the big screen just a few months ago. I remember being reasonably impressed by the 'look' of the whole production, but was let down a little by some of the dialogue and remember thinking that, as often happens, much that was critical in the book wasn't transferred to the big screen version. However, in my opinion this is perhaps King's worst novel to date, as the entire second half of the book was a boring, overly long description of the pursuit. Thankfully, this part was better handled in the film.

Video

    The transfer on this disc is really very good, as you would expect of a very recently made movie.

    It is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, which is its original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture is sharp throughout, though perhaps not as razor-sharp as I would have imagined. This might have been inherent in the source material. Shadow detail is just right at all times. There are numerous scenes either indoors, or in low light outdoors, for which there is sufficient contrast to make out relevant details. There was slight grain visible against the bright sky at 25:21 but not in other scenes.

    Colour was used wonderfully throughout this film. The cinematographer, John Seale, an Australian who has done Perfect Storm, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and The Talented Mr Ripley, has used colour effectively throughout this film to depict 'actual' flashbacks and internal views of the 'mind', as well as the blue-tinged cold weather shots which come up very beautifully indeed. The colour is never oversaturated nor was there any trace of colour bleeding.

    I couldn't spot any positive or negative artefacts throughout the entire film, again perhaps unsurprising given that it was very recently released in cinemas. There was no aliasing, and only very mild cases of possible edge enhancement, such as at 5:58.

    There was one subtitle track available and this was in English. It appeared to be about 90% accurate to the spoken dialogue and was well timed.

    This was a dual layered disc but I could not spot the layer change, so it must have been well positioned as my player usually pauses for 1/2 a second or so on layer changes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Matching the good video transfer is a superb soundtrack. There is only one soundtrack on offer, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 384Kb/s.

    The dialogue is clear at all times, even during the frequent action sequences. Dialogue appeared to be in sync with the actors' lip movements.

    The music, by James Newton Howard (Signs, Vertical Limit, Unbreakable), suited the on-screen action wonderfully at all times. It varied between quiet and suspenseful, nostalgic and even militaristic as the scenes required.

    This was a great soundtrack for surround channel usage! The rear speakers were used almost constantly throughout the entire film. Particularly good examples included thunder at 9:58, traffic noises moving across the rear speakers at 11:43, the helicopter rotor blades and 'flyby' around 38:27, and gunshots going into the right and left rears at 113:00.

    Like the surrounds, the subwoofer got a mighty workout during the course of this film. It was used to support effects, such as explosions, but also to add 'eeriness' to the music in some scenes. Examples of subwoofer use for effects include the (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) spacecraft explosion scenes around 82:00, and for effective use with music listen to the opening credits sequence, such as at 1:20.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailer - Warner Brothers' Movie World

    Short commercial for the Gold Coast's Movie World which is placed rather annoyingly at the very beginning of the feature and cannot be skipped.

Trailer - (2:24)

    Original trailer for the film, presented at 2.35:1 and 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround sound. This does a good job of making the film appear more suspenseful and spooky that it actually turns out to be.

Dolby Digital Trailer - Rain

    Seems somewhat shorter than I remember in the past.

Interview:  Dream Writer (7:28)

    Appears to be excerpts from an interview with Stephen King, presented at 1.33:1 and with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround sound. Clips from the film are presented at 2.35:1 letterboxed.

    King talks about how he came close to losing his life when hit by a car while out walking one evening. He recounts the difficulties using word processors after that. He also covers the influences behind  his book, Dreamcatcher, and provides interesting insights into his thought process for this story. Interestingly, he also mentions the similarities between aspects of Dreamcatcher and his earlier work, Stand by Me ("The Body").

Featurette - Dreamweavers, the Visual Effects of Dreamcatcher (8:14)

    Presented in 1.33:1 fullframe with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround sound.

    An interesting pastiche of interview segments with Lawrence Kasdan and various key personnel of the visual effects crew. They talk about the creation of many of the great visual effects used in Dreamcatcher, such as the (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) alien worm, and the battle scenes. There is some 'behind the scenes' footage but I felt this featurette should have been longer.

Deleted Scenes and Original Ending  (13:53)

    A collection of 4 scenes that were deleted from the final release, as well as the original ending. These are presented in 2.35:1 letterboxed format with what sounds like mono sound. There is the option to play all, or select individual scenes.

    All these scenes are presented in reasonably good quality, and with visual effects included, which means that they were removed/replaced fairly late in the process. I felt that some, but not all, of these scenes would have helped link some of the story elements better, had they been left in the final cut.

    The original ending was somewhat less dramatic and perhaps more poignant, or sentimental, than the version eventually used. It was quite a different type of ending and was perhaps a further indication of the confused thought process behind this film.

    The R1 version of Dreamcatcher has been released in separate "widescreen" or "full screen" versions. They both appear to have the same extras as the R4 version. So unless you're really keen for the "full screen" version, the R4 release is the best.

    Kasdan and his crew have made a film that has some lovely cinematography, great camerawork, nice special effects and good editing, and combined that with good use of sound to produce a technically brilliant film. However, this is not completely enough to rescue a film that seems burdened with too many plot sub threads which don't link as neatly together as they do in the book. Kasdan, or perhaps the producers, didn't seem to be able to make up their minds about whether this was going to be a typical Stephen King type horror/supernatural thriller, or an all-out (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) earth vs the invaders film in the vein of Aliens. There was also some embarrassingly 'gung-ho' dialogue, such as around 54:00, as well as slightly wooden acting by some of the principal cast, including Morgan Freeman, although I guess to some extent he had to make do with the script he was given. He plays the role in his usual way, virtually exactly the same as he played his roles in Se7en, Kiss the Girls, or Deep Impact. Except for the eyebrows.

    The result of all this is a somewhat mixed bag of a film. It's a great looking and sounding film which in some ways I felt  was actually better than the novel upon which it was based. The director and cinematographer have used some interesting techniques to depict potentially confusing elements such as multiple 'personalities', internal thoughts, flashbacks and mind reading.

    The presentation on this DVD is marvellous. The visual and audio quality is superb, which is understandable given the very recent vintage of this film.

    The extras are reasonable, though I'm sure there'll be a Collector's Edition, perhaps with Director's Commentary track, and maybe even a DTS soundtrack.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall