Dreamscape - Fuga nell'incubo

For 1984, this is a good sci-fi movie. I remember watching its as a kid. I was scared for days of the Snake Man in the movie. Having watched it recently, I noticed that it had naturally lost the terror that it instilled when I was a child. Despite this, it brought back foggy memories and allowed me to analyze and enjoy the film on an adult level.

The story concerns a project that allows telepaths to enter into the dreams of others. Inside these dreams they are able to help/harm the individuals from/with their nightmares. Dennis Quaid plays a young Alex Gardner who possesses the gift of telepathy. Under the study of Max Von Sydow and Kate Capshaw (forgot how attractive she was), Alex enter patient's dreams and tries to help them. But with this ability, there are others that would use it as a weapon. When the President (Eddie Albert) begins having haunting nightmares, can someone help him escape his dreams before its too late?

Dreamscape delivers some of the eighties creativity and originality that we can only hope for in today's movies. Take out the gore and grotesqueness of "The Cell" and you could say this movie was its inspiration.

The idea is fantastic. Can you imagine being able to get into other people's dreams, watch them, interact with them. The problem is, the plot is inconclusive and becomes kind of a TV movie along the way. It would make a fantastic remake with a stronger cast and director. However, movies about dreaming are always scary because they touch on something so close and yet inexplicable to all of us. I saw recently a short movie from Italy entitled "Xchange" which is the closest to this one in terms of innovation insofar as the subject is concerned. Not an easy area to tell a long story about. Dreams are often used as omens or hints of psychological discomfort in movies. Instead, it would be great if they could be regarded as something different: a world of their own, a parallel state of mind no less real than real life itself. Someone should redo Dreamscape!

It will earn your respect as a film and you will be intrigued, but not a film you'll write home about.

Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is a psychic, he is in tune with his subconscious, once involved with the studies of Dr Paul Novotny (Max von Sydow) he is now an outcast, trying to live off the grid. He survives by gambling, his ability to predict horse race winners, makes this line of work easy pickings, accept there is a gang of thugs on to his abilities and want a cut of the pie.

Whether Alex is rescued or not is up for discussion, but he is whisked off to a campus and persuaded to work once again under his protege Dr Novotny in a project funded by the government. This project is to enter people's dreams, they then have the ability to alter the dream, curing night terrors etc. Something sinister is lurking though, otherwise we wouldn't have a movie.

Despite its obvious flaws, it is quite a solid flick and would be enjoyed by any sci-fi enthusiast. The cast are brilliant including Kate Capshaw as the beautiful Jane DeVries, David Patrick Kelly as the creepy Tommy Ray Glatman and a host of other names you'll recognise, Christopher Plummer, Peter Jason, George Wendt and Eddie Albert.

I might be a bit harsh to say the writing is bad, but there are enough kinks in its armour to say so, the flow is definitely off, whether this is due to writing or editing I don't know. It is a very good story, and it is as if there was a much bigger plan, but maybe money or something else got in the way of executing exactly what was wanted, it felt like it had lost 30 mins in the middle somewhere. All in all, a good watch.

Cheese moment: Not the cheesiest of films, but it has its moments. The scene when he is being chased by the govt agents, they are on foot while he is on a motorbike.

Psychic Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is recruited for a government-funded institute. In it psychics are able to get into peoples' dreams and interact with them. However one subject dies while in this state and Alex realizes something is wrong. And the President (Eddie Albert) is going to visit the institute for some nightmares he is having...

I enjoyed watching this but realized, after it was over, that it didn't make a whole lot of sense and there were plot holes left and right. Still, it moves quickly and the dream sequences themselves were lots of fun. This was also the second PG-13 rating ever released. It was cut to get that (a sex scene between Quaid and Kate Capshaw was almost completely dropped) but there were some complaints about the amount of violence (none of which was cut) that was allowed in. By today's standards though it's not that bad.

Quaid is good--he's young, handsome and not taking any of this seriously. Max von Sydow is very good as the head doctor of the research. Kate Capshaw is pretty terrible as his assistant. Christopher Plummer seems to be proving he can say his lines without moving a muscle in his face. Albert is lots of fun as the President and David Patrick Kelly almost runs away with the movie as Tommy Ray Glatin.

So a quick, fun little movie. Just don't think about it too much.

Excellent cast heading up this Fantasy/Horror film with excellent early F/X (seems amateurish to today's standards). The reason I love this film so much is that it spotlights the subconscious and its hidden agendas. It's a classic war between good and evil. The plot is solid, and it's a real headgame when you think about the dream world as another realm completely. Great chemistry between Quaid and Capshaw, and Sydow delivers his usual solid performance. Excellent conclusion!