Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

a_chinn This is one of those 80s movies I watched on VHS over and over again and dearly loved. Dennis Quaid plays a cocky young psychic who's recruited for a scientific study to enter into the dreams of another person. Their hope is to assist people experiencing traumatic nightmares by entering into their dream and helping them overcome whatever it is that is plaguing them. One such dream is a young boy experiencing nightmares about a "Snake Man" tying to kill him. According to this film's "rules," if you die in a dream, you die in real life. One psychic was already "lost" after going into the boy's dream. That sequence is one that was burned itself into my own young brain and was quite scary back in the day. Watching it now, it's still nicely scary and I also very much enjoyed the German Expressionist influenced production design elements of the nightmare sequence, along with the awesomely retro claymation Snake Man. But the main plot is about the president of the United States having nightmares about ending the world with nuclear war and those nightmares are influencing his real-life decisions. Now enter another cocky young psychic, an excellent David Patrick Kelly, who is (SPOILER ALERT) being sent by an evil Christopher Plummer into the dreams of the president and kill him, so it's up to Quaid to stop him. The battle between Quaid and Kelly in a surreal dream world remains suspenseful, exciting, and visually interesting, even if the special effects are wildly dated. "Dreamscape" was directed by underrated director Joseph Ruben, who also directed underrated thrillers like "The Stepfather" and "True Believer," and it was co-written by Ruben and Chuck Russell ("Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" and "The Mask"), so it's a smart talented group of filmmakers behind the camera. Also behind the camera is cinematographer Brian Tufano, who'd previously shot "Quadrophenia" who would later go on to shoot on films like "Trainspotting" and "Shallow Grave." Top all that off with a surprisingly strong supporting cast that includes Max von Sydow, Eddie Albert as the president, Kate Capshaw, George Wendt, Larry Gelman, Peter Jason, and Chris Mulkey, along with a fun synthesizer heavy score by Maurice Jarre, and you get a highly enjoyably retro 80s sci-fi film that's pretty hard to resist.

bwanabrad-1 Dreamscape.A generation before Inception there was Dreamscape. Quaid and other psychics are investigated by a secretive laboratory run by Novotny. The young Quaid has been involved with Novotny before and is wary of becoming a lab rat again, but because of his nefarious activities he is all too easily cajoled into joining the program. Through a computer link up in a controlled environment he is able with his special powers to get inside the mind of another person and influence their dreams. The program is not without risks however, and previous failures have had disastrous consequences, he is however able to save one particularly troubled boy from a terrible, recurring nightmare. Also involved in the program is the menacing Glatman, another psychic and from his demeanor, it is obvious that they will square off before the story is finished. Lurking in the shadows is a smarmy Bob Blair, played by the impeccably dressed Christopher Plummer, who runs the secretive yet powerful government agency that finances the program. This agency is so covert that even the CIA gives it a wide berth. His motives are sinister ones, he wants to develop the psychics into the ultimate weapon for the military, one that can assassinate enemies in their sleep, and leave no trace. He gets his chance to put his theory into practice when the president, racked by feelings of guilt over the atomic weapons threat, seeks help to overcome his nightmares. The basic premise of the story is a good one, but the script needed more much development, and some of the special dream effects look pretty cheap, quite amateurish even for when they were made, even without the use of CGI. Quaid plays Quaid, as cheeky and irreverent as ever. To keep under the radar of Novotny he has been misusing his psychic powers, becoming a hustler and gambler who has really only ever used his gift to stay one step ahead of the people he owes money to. He is not helped by having him parade around in some terrible 1980s fashions complete with Shaun Cassidy hair style. Max Von Sydow, is the serious scientist and humanitarian who runs the program investigating the mind powers, who wants all of those who are troubled in their sleep to benefit. While a young Kate Kapshaw ( looking very much like Julie Christie ), is largely wasted as the token female research assistant and all too obvious romantic interest. Plummer takes the acting honors here, as the immaculately groomed Blair, a shadowy and ruthless figure with his own agenda, who will let nothing stand in his way. Less impressive is David Kelly as the psychotic psychic Glatman, a character it is difficult to take seriously at any stage. Also obvious is the timing of this release on DVD. l admit l had never heard of this movie before, but you don't need to be a psychic to understand why it is being released now, to cash in on the interest generated by Inception. Unfortunately, even for the time it was made, it looks cheap and dated, even though it was a highly probable idea. It has also not aged very well, this is no classic, it looks very much a product of its time, although the president's nightmare scene, where Eddie Albert and Quaid ride a trolley car through the ruins of Hiroshima under a red filter is well done. This is the sort of film that makes you wonder what Hitchcock or the Wachowski brothers could have done with it even though this film is from the wrong era for either director.

moonspinner55 Dennis Quaid, self-confidently impudent and smirking, plays a young psychic who is enlisted by scientists to telepathically link his mind with a series of patients who are suffering troubled dream states, sending him down the very same wormhole as the dreamer; this is merely training, however, as a very important subject--no less than the President of the United States himself!--is in need of some dream therapy, though there may be a saboteur or two in the mix. Predictably written and directed fantasy, with several cardboard supporting characters adding little to the mix and a production which fails to live up to expectations. The villains are exposed too early on, and there's no mystery or wonder in the dream sequences. Still, Quaid is a surprise; moving easily through this unconvincing scenario (which should be over-the-top but never gets up enough energy to bring itself there), the actor slips around corners and into forbidden rooms like a teen detective from a comic book. Quaid holds his own with acting stalwarts such as Max Von Sydow and Christopher Plummer, and emerges as a happily-horny hero who's not above a little dirty pool. ** from ****

Christopher T. Chase Less an outright "horror" film than a sci-fi/fantasy actioner, DREAMSCAPE gets the score it does from me for reasons of fondly-remembered nostalgia, and because of its strategy of making up for the super low-budget special effects by front-loading the movie with some of the best actors ever assembled for an indie project like this. Dr. Paul Novotny (FLASH GORDON'S Ming, Max Von Sydow) has developed an extraordinary system that allows psychically-gifted subjects to enter the subconscious minds of other subjects and actually affect the shape and the outcome of their dreams, (hence the title.) His most gifted subject, Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is the one he wants to work with the most. But it seems Alex abandoned Novotny's experiments some years ago, in favor of using his gifts to play the ponies AND the "honeys."With a little "friendly persuasion" from the project "facilitator", the sinister Fed Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer, still shaking off his SOUND OF MUSIC image), Alex comes reluctantly 'back into the fold', where Paul Novotny's associate, the curvaceous Dr. Jane DeVries (Kate Capshaw, the future Mrs. Spielberg) makes the prospect of participation a lot easier for Alex.Once on board, Alex immediately butts heads with the only other psychic who has successfully navigated the "dreamscape," the sociopathic Tommy Ray Glatman (David Patrick Kelly from 48 HRS. and THE WARRIORS), a very disturbed - and disturbing - individual who would seem a very unlikely candidate to be allowed to go stomping through somebody's head. Things become a lot more clear and sinister when Alex has a "chance" encounter with horror author and conspiracy theorist "Charlie Prince," (George Wendt in a very different role from 'Norm' on CHEERS.) I guess when Stephen King saw this movie, he must have taken this character as a sign that he had truly 'made it to the big time.'Charlie explains the situation to an already suspicious Alex: it seems that the President (Eddie Albert) has been having some vivid and horrifying nightmares about a nuclear holocaust, and his dreams have influenced his decision about what action to take at an important upcoming summit with the Russian government (yeah, THAT is how old this flick is, folks.) So, do the math. It isn't very hard to figure out what Blair and Glatman's connection is with Dr. Novotny's experiments, or that it's really important that Our Hero Alex steps up his game to stop them.So, yes, DREAMSCAPE obviously cribs from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and even some parts of THE TERMINATOR. And the special effects, considered state-of-the-art in '84 are more than state-of-the-hokey now. (With all the newly advanced CGI technology, maybe it's time to dust this one off for a remake.)But the casting definitely works as everyone (particularly Kelly) deliver some strong, believable performances, and there are cameos by some familiar genre favorites, (Chris Mulkey, Kelly's co-star as part of the TWIN PEAKS ensemble, and John Carpenter favorite Peter Jason just to name two). And there you have it. For what it's worth to those who saw it decades ago (like Yours Truly), DREAMSCAPE still holds some entertainment value. For those who have never seen it, it's an interesting example of '80's indie film-making, and a chronicle of how far effects and makeup work have come since.