Dreamcatcher

Four psychic buddies on an annual winter retreat find themselves on the business end of a body-snatching alien invasion in this reasonably eerie Stephen King adaptation that is sunk by laughable metaphors, logical loopholes, implausible plot conveniences, and one very silly pivotal performance. Taken over by a three-foot-long extra-terrestrial tapeworm, a hollow-eyed actor named Damian Lewis is called on to have conversations with himself in a preposterously prim English accent as he struggles to regain control of his body while his consciousness is locked in a giant library--the metaphorical "memory warehouse" inside his brain. While the concept might have worked in King's novel, on film it feels like something from a bad children's story. Meanwhile Lewis's last living friend (Thomas Jane) joins forces with a rogue soldier (Tom Sizemore) from an E.T.-fighting military unit to track Lewis down before the creature inside him poisons a major city's water supply with a red fungus as the first step in a bid for world domination. Having clearly lost some complexity in its translation from the 600-plus page novel, Dreamcatcher reminds us that King adaptations done badly can become big-budget, B-movie blunders. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: Available in both widescreen and full screen versions, DVD extras include the featurettes “DreamWriter: An Interview with Stephen King” (7 min.), “DreamMakers: A Journey Through the Production” (19 min.), and “DreamWeavers: The Visual Effects of Dreamcatcher” (8 min.), as well as five “lifted” scenes (including the original ending), a cast/crew list, a trailer, and DVD-ROM features. Bottom line: a decent extras package for yet another disappointing adaptation of a Stephen King doorstop.] (R. Blackwelder)