Reviews

DREAMCATCHER is the most recent in a long line of terrible Stephen King novel adaptations. Usually, this would mean that Stephen King himself had a hand in the film. However, he had nothing to do with this bomb, so I did expect a lot more, considering that it was directed by Lawrence Kasdan (THE BIG CHILL and SILVERADO) and written by William Goldman, who gave us BUTCH CASSIDY, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN, and THE PRINCESS BRIDE. The script consists almost entirely of inane, expository dialogue leading us from one painfully absurd situation to the next. The situations and set-ups are so absurd, in fact, that the parts that are supposed to be terrifying and thrilling are simply asinine. That alone would be bad enough, but there are several other ridiculous events going on simultaneously at any given time in the film. I guess Kasdan thought if he continuously jumped around among several sequences, no one would be able to stop and realize how bad the movie is. WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD! I haven't read the book, but what gets me is that the story in the movie has nothing to do with a dreamcatcher, the Indian device that hangs over a sleeper and "catchers" bad dreams. It has nothing to do with the supernatural, but rather, is about an alien invasion that follows no line of logic. If these aliens have been around for 20+ years, according to the colonel, played by Morgan Freeman, and it only takes one little vermiform creature to contaminate a city's water supply to start the destruction of mankind, then how inept must these aliens be to have failed in this simple task in that amount of time? And what did the main characters have to do with all of this, aside from befriending Duddits? What is Duddits and was his only purpose in life to kill Mr. Grey, a giant alien worm at the very moment he's about to destroy the world? Maybe the book expands on all of this, but the movie certainly does not.

American Eagle Christian High School is a seemingly squeaky clean, almost hip, institution with well-meaning teachers and students dedicated to their beliefs. Mary is one of the many straight-laced girls "living the life" with her best friend, Hilary Faye, played by Mandy Moore, and her perfect blond-haired, blue-eyed boyfriend, Dean. All is well in her world of isolation until Dean reveals that he thinks he's gay, she has a divine vision in her swimming pool, and then sets out to save Dean's soul by sacrificing her virginity to him. That foundation of her entire belief structure is suddenly comes under attack from all sides.

Saved is a film walking a line between spoon-fed satire and intelligent social commentary.

When we witness the girls target practicing at a place called the "Emmanuel Shooting Range" where the motto is "An Eye for an Eye", subtlety is obviously not the primary goal of the filmmaker. However, the relationships between the main characters are not black and white and that they do seem to struggle with their own beliefs and the attitudes toward others.

The script by Brian Dannelly is not brilliant, but is witty on a college freshman level. He is asking Ethics 101 type questions but is smart enough not to try and answer them all. He is attacking fundamentalism but not faith itself and he gives us characters with a little depth.

The film takes an unwelcomed turn toward embarrassing clichés with its climax taking place at the big prom dance for the 'final confrontation'. Quite a tired scenario. However, when the prom includes a very pregnant teenage protagonist, the baby's gay father discovering the product of his deflowering, and music from a band called God's Light playing in the background, we can see that this ain't a typical teen flick.

The satire is often biting, but is forgiving of those it targets.

Not a 'must see', but will probably spark some good post-movie discussions