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Created Apr 05, 2009 06:18AM PST • Edited Apr 05, 2009 06:18AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   If another Stephen King adaptation, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” can lay claim to having one of the most chilling bathroom scenes in film history, so to can “Dreamcatcher,” turning in an epic scene in the room wherein the door is so frequently closed to the horrors the genre can present. King himself speaks about the bathroom sequence — present in both the book and the film — on the DVD extras, suggesting he considered rooms in the film’s central cabin where the door was open or not, ultimately surmising at the end of it all that the bathroom door is the last one in a house to be opened. In this scene, one of the film’s alien beings, non-too-subtly nicknamed “shit weasels,” attempts to break through the toilet seat upon which Beaver (Jason Lee) sits, pausing every now and then as Beaver grasps for toothpicks splayed across the bathroom floors, the only things capable of calming his nerves enough to stay put. Every now and again the seat thumps against him as he begins to rise, so he must sit back down momentarily, allowing the shit-weasel another smash or two before desperately going for the picks once more. It’s the film’s single iconic sequence, coming equipped with two equally unpleasant cappers that set a standard the film otherwise fails to adhere to.

   For a portion of its runtime, “Dreamcatcher” threatens to be the latest sci-fi masterwork only to decline when attention shifts to Morgan Freeman’s ever-insane colonel and away from the more personal horror involving the group of friends whose presence in the film’s fictional Derry, Maine has greater links to an ongoing alien invasion than they could have ever believed. Starting out as being a people story akin to 1986’s glorious “Stand By Me” only to fall back on cluttered, unoriginal science fiction familiarities is a disappointing way for Lawrence Kasdan’s film to go, but not nearly as crushing to this visually immersive movie as some have claimed. “Dreamcatcher” may fumble somewhat, but it’s still a good movie.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Dual leadership of the cast falls upon Thomas Jane and Damian Lewis, the former essaying the sort of bland everyhero he’s beginning to master (look to another King adaptation, “The Mist,” for evidence of such) and the latter portraying Jonesy, the unwilling host to the mind-controlling Mr. Gray, the film’s lead alien, who confirms to Jonesy his plans to have his species infiltrate mankind. Jane is very good but Lewis has the more challenging role, so if Jane ultimately comes out looking stronger it isn’t necessarily representative of the skill applied by Lewis to his part. Besides them, Jason Lee and Timothy Olyphant round out the protagonist foursome, while Donnie Wahlberg portrays Duddits, a severely-disabled leukeamie patient the four main characters befriended as a kid and whose mysterious powers are themselves linked to the ongoing invasion, not to mention the powers strangely possessed by the four friends.

   Otherwise, Morgan Freeman goes into camp territory for a rare misfire performance as Colonel Abraham Curtis, who leads the military’s fightback against the invading aliens but is essentially hellbent on destruction. The focus on him should have been to a much lesser degree.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars OK 2.5

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.7

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 2.0

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Fantasy 4.2

22. Circumstantial Fantasy 4.2

23. Biological Fantasy 4.2

24. Physical Fantasy 4.2