Dennis Quaid Movie:

		List Price: $9.99		Label: Image Entertainment Salesrank: 43851 Released: January 4, 2005
		Our Price: $7.11
		Used Price: $3.49
		MPAA Rating: Unrated Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 06/03/2005

Dreamscape Reviews:
Sci-fi action played out like a mind-bender with only average results
2009-12-20 - From the premise to the cover everything thing about this movie on the outside just speaks of an epic. The cover especially has an Indiana Jones quality that adds to these expectations. Unfortunately, the movie never reaches such epic levels and falls into a series of boring discussions and lack-luster action-sequences.

The general plot goes like this: Alex Gardner, a very very young Dennis Quad (gotta say that was a shining point of the film, even if his performance was so-so), is a psychic that gets wrapped up in this dream study funded by the government. The scientists, including Kate Capshaw (Willy from Indiana Jones...thankfully she's more low-key in this), have created a way for telepathic people to wire themselves into dreams. Of course the evil government guy has more nefarious plans for the project and that's where the general tension of the movie lies.

Ah yes the 'tension' of the movie. Well my biggest complaint of 'Dreamscape' is that all the acting and thus action seems really flat. This is most prominent in the dialog. Almost everything conversation is between only two people who are standing still with the camera at the same distance. Don't believe me...just try tracking this throughout the movie (if you do end up seeing this). The best example is during the final part, when the tension has supposedly mounted, an actor gets out of the car and just stops to talk to the bad guy. These talking scenes are about 90% of the movie and are delivered with only some gusto.

This movie is classified as a type of mind-bender but the realistic environments (even the dream worlds weren't that crazy) and normal camera angles didn't quite give me that test-of-the-human-psyche experience. Sure everything is discussed and delivered nicely, but the plot doesn't really deviate from what it originally set out to do. I think that's really what kinda bored me about the movie, it was a sci-fi action plot delivered like a mind-bender.

To be honest the movie wasn't god-awful and I can see why others would enjoy it, especially if they had seen it back when it originally came out in 1984. 'Dreamscape' probably won't entertain the eyes of the younger generation and only be appreciated by fans of 80's cult-style movies.

Dreamscape Revisited
2009-09-14 - This movie came out in 1984. I have been wanting to see and own this movie again for years. Had a copy on Beta but no longer have a functioning Beta player. Ordering old movies (on DVD) online has not always been the greatest experience especially with respect to quality. Apparently, in many cases, either the DVD was made from a VHS copy of the movie or a VHS recording of the over the air presentation. Finally found it from a source I could trust ... Amazon.com! Apparently remastered for DVD, the quality is excellent and it is a joy to watch! - John Dodd

Lucid Dream adventures...
2009-03-28 - Alex Gardner was born with certain "talents" - a telepathic genius - able to manipulate the conscious mind. But it is not until he is approached with an offer to further parapsychology that he learns just how profound his abilities can fathom.

Living a life of mundane concerns*, at the behest of Dr. Novotny {Max Von Sydow}, he returns to his former life engaging in psychical research to further the efforts of the mind to tap the abyssal subconscious, projecting into others' dreams, in what is essentially the practice of Lucid Dreaming, what some of us have already mastered. With the aid of a 'dream machine' situated in the 'dream chamber' {"Who's your decorator, Darth Vader?"; it is a nice chamber!}, which merely regulates bio-functions, it begins as a form of therapy, witnessing patients' fears, such as the man who suspected his wife of cheating {including with his brother, a priest, and... even you... Fakuda...?}; and the construction worker with bathophobia {fear of falling from high places}. The reality of the situations amaze Alex, who thereby dedicates his skills full into the project.

Upon reaching REM sleep state, each dream sequence is quite a remarkable spectacle {whose ingress, incidentally, very much resembles the I-Tunes visualizer}, with amorphous transmutations in light and sound surrounding until full presence is achieved.

Then he meets Bob Blaire, whose innocuous first introduction belies his true character as sinister mastermind, and later Tommy Glatman, a psychopathic dream killer obsessed with Martial Arts movies who actually murdered his own father. Blaire runs a top-secret organization within the CIA whose nefarious influence is all-pervasive. The two work in tandum and plan to assassinate the President {Eddie Albert**} in his dream by whatever imaginative scenario, utilizing dream weapons to achieve that end, which results in various stress and shock related maladies in "dayside" state. That is the ultimate idea herein - to cause reactive effects in which a kill in the dream results in the actual demise of the dreamer IN ACTUALITY.

Through entering the dream of an attractive female Doctor with what is essentially an incubus visualization, Alex eventually learns to project without the use of the machine, by merely stilling himself in a quiet, gloomy environment, initiating controlled breathing techniques {sounds familiar...}, he sharpens his senses enough to subsequently confront a serpentine creature known as 'The Snakeman' {a boogie-man archetype and Glatman's fearsome "totem"} who has invaded a boy's dreams. From within a haunted house on a stormy night, down a twisting staircase into an inferno of horrors, the two battle the snake beast in a fantastical scene reminiscient of white knight verses dragon. Although in the dream world, anything is possible.

After the sad execution of Novotny ordered by Blaire, Alex and Tommy square off in The President's nightmare wherein the one with the greater imagination, cleverness, and willpower prevails. The Snakeman manifests again, and through a very shrewd apparition, the President is saved.

Demon hounds, a snake monster, nuclear zombies, sudden scares, cloak and dagger scenarios, secret government conspiracies, a motorbike chase, and horrific environments fill this dreamscape of nucleic creation.

__________________
* Seems he was betting on the horse races and runs afoul of some bookies who want in on his continual success, and otherwise was also concentrating his efforts on carnal pleasures. The question remains - there is no reason why he could not continue to pursue his fleshly interests while also contributing to the project.
** Whom you may remember as portraying Dr. Samuel Richards in the film 'The Devil's Rain', and probably more recognizably as Oliver Wendell Douglas from 'Green Acres'.

Dreamscape
2006-11-04 - I had seen this movie about 10 years ago and I really enjoyed to see it again in a reasonable price