Free Great Movies Review
The best parts of Dreamscape (1984) are definitely the dream sequences. Dream manipulation must've been in the air in 1984, as A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was released a few months after Dreamscape. Freddy Krueger stole this movie's thunder and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is superior in every way, but Dreamscape is still a sci-fi thriller worth watching. Dennis Quaid plays a psychic who's hired by dream researchers to enter patients' dreams during REM sleep. The researchers are led by Max von Sydow and Kate Capshaw. While the dreams are the visual highlights of the film, these sequences are few and far between. Outside of the dreams, we're left with a routine political thriller plot to follow. The President of the United States (Eddie Albert) is having nuclear war nightmares and wants to sign a peace treaty. His hawkish assistant Christopher Plummer is plotting to have him killed by a dream assassin played by the always delightful David Patrick Kelly. Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer are too similar as actors and their scenes aren't riveting. Dennis Quaid is pursuing Kate Capshaw as a love interest and they have more chemistry. The dream climax between Quaid and David Patrick Kelly is very impressive. Dreamscape does capture the potential for entering elaborate nightmares and killing people in their sleep. Director Wes Craven would do much more with this concept in A Nightmare on Elm Street and all the sequels that followed.
