In 1984, just a couple years after his breakout role in "The Right Stuff", a very young Dennis Quaid proved he could carry a fun little thriller called DREAMSCAPE. Gifted with strong psychic powers, Alex Gardner (Quaid) prefers to waste his talents on the horse track and an endless series of female conquests. Quaid is hilariously charming in the opening scenes, looking more like a skinny version of his brother Randy than I recall. Soon, Alex is dragged back to University to work with a former friend and Doctor, Paul Novotny, well played by Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist, Minority Report). Novotny has developed new technology that allows psychics to enter the dreams of others. Built to cure people's fears or sleep abnormalities, it's not long before shady government contractors come calling, led by Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) as Bob Blair. Kate Capshaw (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) is Jane, Novotny's right hand person and Eddie Albert is a long way from Green Acres as the President of the United States. The President is having a lot of nightmares about nuclear war, Blair seems to have a way to enter the President's dreams...what could go wrong? Quaid has a blast as Alex and the film really hits its stride when it starts popping the viewer into dreams and nightmares right alongside Alex. Part "Brainstorm" and part "Inception", the movie is a lot better when it focuses on fantasy and sci-fi then when it slips into vain attempts at political intrigue. David Patrick Kelly (Twin Peaks, The Crow) tears it up as a fellow psychic with a much darker heart than Alex. The special effects were state of the art in 1984, but look like a Saturday morning cartoon to today's eyes. Still, its a lot of fun in a Ray Harryhausen creature style and the set design holds up. Co-screenwriter Chuck Russell went on to write "Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" plagiarizing himself to the letter. It's a really clever concept and Quaid is having so much fun being surrounded by legendary actors Von Sydow & Plummer that its hard not to smile through the quick 99 minute running time. This seems ripe for a modern take with better special effects! As it is, DREAMSCAPE is an 80's treat with mild scares, plenty of action, a star turn by Quaid and some nostalgic visuals that come together to earn a B. How about that snake man!? How was that thing so scary 35 years ago?

Dream House stars Daniel Craig as a writer who leaves his job in Manhattan to move his wife (Rachel Weisz) and two little girls to their dream house in the suburbs. They soon discover that their new home has a violent history. I would say to give away more would be to give away too much, but the preview gives away major plot points, so I don't know why I am worried. Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts and director Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot) all refused to publicize the film because the studio wrestled away the final cut of Dream House. Maybe that explains how a movie with this much talent in front of and behind the camera can be this muddled, confusing and dumb. Poor Craig does some fantastic acting, but the story just collapses under the confusion of bad editing. An hour in, the plot takes a major turn and its more of an "oh brother..." than a "WOW I didn't see that coming!" Dream House is a nightmare.....D.

Adapting Stephen King books for the screen can be a tricky and/or unmanageable task. King writes massive novels, filled with plenty of characters that are often put on a collision course with each other and at least a couple things to scare his constant readers. I’m a huge King fan. “The Stand” is my favorite book of all time and “It” is close behind. But King’s books rarely become good films. For every “Shawshank Redemption” or “The Shining”, there are four “Firestarter”, “Thinner” or “Maximum Overdrives”. When DREAMCATCHER came out in 2003, it inspired hope for a new classic. The book was stuffed full of genre bending themes, the screenplay was adapted from King’s book by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, The Princess Bride). It’s directed and co-written by Lawrence Kasden (The Empire Strikes Back, Body Heat, Raiders of the Lost Ark). The result is never less than interesting, but often askew, leaving you hungry to ponder just how good it COULD have been with all this talent. Four young boys bond with each other as they come to the defense of a mentally challenged boy they nickname Dudditz. Dudditz rewards them with a very powerful gift that haunts and serves them through the years. Now adults, the friends decide to hold their yearly get together in the snowy woods of Maine. Henry (Thomas Jane), Beaver (Jason Lee), Jonesy (Damian Lewis) and Pete (Timothy Olyphant) barely get their weekend started when a sickly and very gassy stranger wonders into their cabin and proceeds to give birth to the most interestingly disgusting alien creature since the chest-burster in “Alien”. The orifice this giant gross thing decides to come out of somewhat sets the tone for very dark humor that played well on paper, but just plays revolting on screen. The special effects are first rate though. Unfortunately. This is not something you necessarily need to believe you are seeing. The friends are split up and begin using their gift with each other to plan an escape and a warning for the rest of the world. At this point, the film pivots from a “Stand By Me” friends film to a full on alien invasion story. Morgan Freeman is a Colonel who is either a military mastermind or a raving lunatic. Tom Sizemore is his right hand man, Owen, who is either a loyal soldier or a man watching his mentor lose his mind. In another tonal shift, we literally see inside Jonesy’s mind as he seeks through stacks of memories and history to find a way to attack the body shifting alien presence. The sound design of the film is excellent. The voices inside Jonesy’s storehouse of a mind as the alien being begins to invade him through his friends mental connections are spooky, clever and well done. The boys discover that Dudditz, now all grown up (and well played in what could have been a very insensitive performance by Donnie Wahlberg) has a role to play in the invasion event. Lewis is terrific, Lee is a blast, Freeman emotes like a beast and Sizemore is, for once, not the craziest dude on screen. There are some great scenes in the film. The animal exodus, the strangers in the road, the boys friendship in the flashbacks. But oh my, there are some real problems here too. The book was able to play out the scenes in which Jonesy tried to hide things in his mind from alien telepathy with style and suspense. When those scenes are translated so literally that our hero is dumping ledgers into a wheelbarrow and running them around a circular library looking to hide them, I’m afraid the translation to film is somehow too literal and too obscure at the same time to carry any emotional weight. Kasdan and Goldman are two of my favorite film writers in the world. King is one of my favorite authors. On paper, this should have been the greatest King adaption of all time. Sadly, it rates as a fascinating failure. Not without laughs, not without suspense, but devoid of coherence, DREAMCATCHER needs a filter and suffers without one. I highly recommend the novel. Alas, the film version only gets a C.

With distinct "Ghost" vibes and enough decent chills to carry the journey, 2002's DRAGONFLY is a solid vehicle for Kevin Costner. Costner is driven emergency room doctor Joe Darrow, whose physician wife is killed in a tragic third world accident. Escaping rebels in a South American country, her Red Cross bus plummets down a cliff side, submerging into a raging river. Costner is angry, bitter and sinks himself deeply into a 24/7 work schedule at the hospital. When his late wife's former child cancer patients begin bringing back messages from her after near death experiences, Joe is forced to question his agnostic attitude toward the afterlife. With a distinct 'Sixth Sense" vibe and Costner giving it his all, Director Tom Shadyac (The Nutty Professor, Ace Ventura) makes a convincing leap from comedy to drama. Joe Morton (Terminator 2: Judgement Day) is a concerned but formidable hospital administrator, Kathy Bates (Misery) is Joe's caring next door neighbor and Susanna Thompson (Tv's NCIS and Timeless) is very good as Joe's wife Emily. L. Scott Caldwell (Rose from TV's "Lost") steals every scene she's in as the head nurse of the Children's Oncology ward. She absolutely nails the part, as does Linda Hunt (The Year of Living Dangerously, Silverado) as a nun banned from the hospital for her study on near-death experiences. Her quiet scene with Joe in the chapel is one of the best parts of the film. Costner owns this kind of part, serving as the every-man you root for as his world starts to fall apart. The scenes with the young patients are creepy, as is a late night "visit" from the other side. The last twenty minutes stretch all credibility and the good will the film builds up, all in service of a no-doubt heartfelt ending. I liked this when I originally saw it. I FELT it having lost Kristin four years ago. The reactions to grief and longing for one last contact with a lost loved one played much more powerfully than they did the first time. DRAGONFLY never quite soars, but occasionally takes flight with style and some goosebumps. It gets a B.

In 1987, Dan Aykroyd eerily channeled Jack Webb in a comedy screen adaption of the classic 1960's/1970's TV cop show. Jack Webb was always ripe for parody with his straight laced, fast patter, monotone "Just the Facts, Ma'am" approach to law enforcement. Aykroyd stars as Friday's nephew Sgt Joe Friday (the third?) revolted by the laid back, lax approach of his new partner Pep Streeback, played for plenty of laughs by a young and incredibly likable Tom Hanks. Joe and Pep are soon drawn into a conspiracy that appears to reach the top levels of politics and the police force in the City of Angels. This puts them at odds with their boss, Captain Bill Gannon, with Harry Morgan reprising his role from the original series. Christopher Plummer plays a smarmy TV preacher, Dabney Coleman is a porn king who bears a strong resemblance to Hugh Hefner and Alexandra Paul stars as the Virgin Connie Swail, a love interest for Joe who is caught in the conspiracy. Hanks and Aykroyd are having a lot of fun playing off of each other throughout and Aykroyd is so spot on, so perfect in his impression and attitude that you can't help but laugh. The screenplay wonders way off track, at least a third of the film falls flat on delivering laughs, but our dynamic partners deliver every time they're on screen. Pep taking Friday to a strip club for a great cup of coffee is laugh-out-loud funny, as are Hanks steady string of young women at his apartment and Friday's reaction. We'll shoot straight with Friday and give him a B- thanks to two great comic actors giving it their all.

It's always fun to go into a film with an expectation it's going to be schlocky and being surprised by a cast and writing that elevate the material and deliver beyond your expectations. DRACULA UNTOLD is one of those pleasant surprises. Prince Vlad (Luke Evans) has ruled over a peaceful land for years, surrounded by a loving wife, son and citizens. The visually riveting opening of the film shows us that Prince Vlad spilled a lot of blood to gain that peace, but the current times are idyllic. When the Turks arrive and demand 1000 young men as soldiers, Prince Vlad finds himself at odds with the Turks leader and boyhood friend Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) and the peace is shattered. Vlad is suddenly in a position in which victory can only be negotiated by bargaining with the demonic Master Vampire cursed to remain in the nearby mountain. What follows is an interesting spin on the Dracula legend that we all know, but twisted "Wicked" style to reveal hidden motivations and heroism that paint our Prince Vlad in a very different light than Bela Lugosi's traditional Count. Both Evans (The Hobbit Trilogy) and Cooper (Captain America) are terrific and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones' Tywin Lannister) brings power and elegance to the Master Vampire role. It all plays much better than it sounds and it goes many places I didn't expect. The conclusion is especially intriguing. Universal is rebooting their classic monster films and this is a strong start. Fans of Francis Ford Coppola's terrific 1992 version will note that this film either rips off or pays tribute to some key styles of that film, but its done so well, I'll call it a tribute. What a pleasant surprise. Much better than it has any right to be, DRACULA UNTOLD has some stylish bite and gets a B.

Francis Ford Coppola sinks his teeth into a horror classic and comes up with a modern gothic thriller bearing historical weight in 1992's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA. Working with screenwriter James V. Hart, Coppola holds pretty close to the source material while bathing it in every visual trick up his sleeve. Gary Oldman gives one of his best performances as Count Dracula. The opening prologue shows us his origins as Vlad the Impaler (as brutal as it sounds) as he loses the love of his life, forsakes God and becomes the undead. Flash forward to Britain, where Dracula has purchased a castle and begins his influence over the citizens of London. Winona Ryder is very good as Mina, who bears a striking resemblance to Dracula's love Elisabeta (also played briefly by Ryder). Mina and her best friend Lucy are soon under the spell of our legendary vampire. Mina's fiance, Jonathan Harker is the attorney assisting Dracula in purchasing his London castle and the scenes in which we first see Dracula meeting Jonathan in Transylvania are among the film's best. Oldman is creepy, haunting and unrecognizable as the ancient undead. Oldman's movements in these scenes, secretly licking a straight razor with Harker's blood, entering the room with a shadow behind him that has a mind of it's own, cackling a sinister laugh, are all disturbing in the best possible way for a horror film. Coppola uses every ancient special effect, matte painting, model and camera trick in the book to give the film a classic look with a modern flair. Wojciech Kilar's music score is powerful and scary. Great supporting performances by Tom Waits, Billy Campbell and Cary Elwes add to the film, but two actors threaten to derail the film. Keanu Reeves as Harker is all wrong, with a inconsistent English accent, flat acting and an expression like he just wondered in from "Bill & Ted's Transylvania Adventure". The usually excellent Anthony Hopkins turns in a manic, over-the-top interpretation of Professor Van Helsing. His maniacal laughter and strange emotional disconnect seem like a mash up of Jim Carrey and Rooster Cogburn, Vampire Hunter. Overall though, the film survives these two performances and rises into the ranks of the best horror films of the past 50 years. Oldman alone lands this film an A. He is fantastic in every scene. Whether he is old, young, warrior or giant demon bat, Oldman IS Dracula.

A fun, atmospheric guilty pleasure from 1979, DRACULA features Frank Langella bringing his portrayal of the count from Broadway to the big screen. Langella is great as the legendary blood sucker, playing him more as a hypnotic seducer than a violent attacker. Kate Nelligan (Eye of the Needle) is very good as the strong willed Lucy, engaged to Jonathan Harker, but intrigued by Dracula. Laurence Olivier continues his active streak of many seventies film roles as Professor Van Helsing. He occasionally seems to be channeling his portrayal of a rabbi in "The Jazz Singer" but other than those lapses is very good and believable in the role. Donald Pleasance rounds out the cast as Dr. Seward, purveyor of the insane asylum in which a lot of the action seems to take place! During Dracula's seduction of Lucy, I thought "this looks a lot like a James Bond title sequence!" and sure enough Maurice Binder is noted as "visual consultant". There are enough classic vampire moments, Langella's performance, John WIlliams music and great shots of the English countryside to keep this moving along nicely. The scenes in the passageways under Mina's grave are especially well done. A fun, romantic spin on the Dracula legend that shows enough bite to earn a solid B.

DR NO started it all on the big screen for 007 back in 1962. This was the smallest budget film in the James Bond series, but the producers make it look pretty rich! So much to like about this first Bond flick, starting of course with Sean Connery's debut. Connery nails it from the first scene to the last, with the perfect blend of toughness and humor that no one has been able to match in the role. Favorite moments: Connery's "Bond, James Bond" uttered the first time you see him on screen, Ursula Andress rising from the ocean in that legendary bikini, Wiseman's Dr. No who set the tone for every Bond villain to follow, Monty Norman/John Barry's James Bond theme, Bond battling the tarantula in his bed, beautiful Jamaica locales and Jack Lord (pre-Hawaii Five-O) as Felix Leiter. He was so cocky when they asked him back for "Goldfinger" that he demanded a HUGE pay raise and lost the role....and went on to become Steve McGarrett! DR NO is really enjoyable, nostalgic and a solid A- to kickoff my favorite Film Series!

I'm a huge fan of Alexander Payne's work. He's brought us retirement comedy/drama with "About Schmidt", wine infused dramedy with "Sideways" and a masterwork on grief in "The Descendants". His biggest budget film is his largest disappointment, 2017's DOWNSIZING. It starts off well. Matt Damon is Paul, married to Audrey (Kristen Wiig) and stuck in a routine job and a routine life. When scientists develop the perfect technology to shrink humans down to about 5" tall, massive new communities are built where your $50K becomes millions and you can live like a king. A very small king, but a royal nonetheless. Damon jumps in and the film is brilliant to look at, with perfectly coiffed miniature neighborhoods and every mini luxury you can imagine. But once inside, Paul soon finds himself on a new path, downsizing once again into an apartment complex with the craziest, wildest European neighbor upstairs, Dusan. Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) is the best thing in the movie as Dusan. He's decided life is one big party and it begins to rub off on Paul. But the film takes a turn halfway through, an unsuccessful one toward a have and have not story, mixed with a heavy handed save-the-planet message that slows everything to a crawl. You cant blame the cast. Hong Chau (Inherent Vice) is fantastic as Vietnamese dissident who's found herself miniaturized down to a maid. She is fantastic, hilarious and heartfelt. She delivers every line flawlessly. Udo Kier is normally a manic presence on film, but he shows real wit here as Dusan's sidekick. Jason Sudeikis (We're the Millers, Horrible Bosses) is a lot of fun as well. But the film burns out its promising start, slowing down and getting dumber as it wraps itself in politically correct messaging that would have been superb in smaller doses. Apparently we masses have to beat over the head. It's too bad. Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor still provide terrific dialogue to consider. Payne seems overwhelmed with the budget and special effects. The combination has somehow also shrunk his normally superhuman ability to tell a powerful, personal story. Damon is fine if predictable as Paul. He feels shackled by the flip flops of the narrative and the small personality of Paul, who never quite has the moment of awareness you are hoping he'll experience. The film bombed at the box office as word of mouth killed it out of the gate. In this case, popular opinion was full size and on target. I'll look forward to whatever film Payne decides to make next and give this effort a tiny little C.

1973's DONT LOOK NOW was a huge hit, a sexy supernatural thriller set in Venice that boasts a young Donald Sutherland as a art historian and preservationist and the beautiful Julie Christie as his wife. In the opening scenes of the film, they lose their young daughter in an accidental drowning in a creek near their home. John and Laura (Sutherland and Christie) are working quietly in their countryside home when John suddenly has a vision of their daughter in the water. He rushes to her side, but is too late. The film flashes forward to Venice, where John is now working on an ancient chapel and Laura meets some neighbors, one of them a blind woman who professes to have visions of her own. Soon, John is seeing glimpses of a young girl in a bright red coat in Venice, the same coat that their daughter had on when she died. The little girl is always just out of reach, or too far away to catch up to, but the sighting increase. The rest of the mystery is best left discovered on your own, but sadly in this case, the stylish pieces of the mystery are more intriguing than the bloody, muddled conclusion. Director Nicolas Roeg (Walkabout, Performance) has visual style to spare, but the special effects are so heavy handed by today's standards they really weigh the film down. This is a very adult film and has long part of film legend for the love scene between Christie and Sutherland that many have said was not acting. Like many films of the early seventies, it is pretty frank and bold and likely could not be made today. Spooky but NEVER scary, interesting but NEVER fully engaging, the film is in the end, all wet, which considering the Venice setting, is somehow appropriate. We'll give it a shrug and a muddled C.

1973's DONT LOOK NOW was a huge hit, a sexy supernatural thriller set in Venice that boasts a young Donald Sutherland as a art historian and preservationist and the beautiful Julie Christie as his wife. In the opening scenes of the film, they lose their young daughter in an accidental drowning in a creek near their home. John and Laura (Sutherland and Christie) are working quietly in their countryside home when John suddenly has a vision of their daughter in the water. He rushes to her side, but is too late. The film flashes forward to Venice, where John is now working on an ancient chapel and Laura meets some neighbors, one of them a blind woman who professes to have visions of her own. Soon, John is seeing glimpses of a young girl in a bright red coat in Venice, the same coat that their daughter had on when she died. The little girl is always just out of reach, or too far away to catch up to, but the sighting increase. The rest of the mystery is best left discovered on your own, but sadly in this case, the stylish pieces of the mystery are more intriguing than the bloody, muddled conclusion. Director Nicolas Roeg (Walkabout, Performance) has visual style to spare, but the special effects are so heavy handed by today's standards they really weigh the film down. This is a very adult film and has long part of film legend for the love scene between Christie and Sutherland that many have said was not acting. Like many films of the early seventies, it is pretty frank and bold and likely could not be made today. Spooky but NEVER scary, interesting but NEVER fully engaging, the film is in the end, all wet, which considering the Venice setting, is somehow appropriate. We'll give it a shrug and a muddled C.