Dreamscape! Horror? Perhaps. Bad Movie? For Sure!

No one is safe as the United States Government plans to do battle on the subconcious level using an army of pyschic dream assassins! YES! Not even the back of the video box is exciting as what I just wrote.....and for good reason, because the movie itself doesn't even come close to being that cool!

Dreamscape offers up an impressive cast, which includes Dennis Quaid who plays Alex Gardner, the legendary Max von Sydow as Dr. Paul Novotny, Christopher Plummer as Bob Blair, and the amazingly versatile (and way underrated) David Patrick Kelly as the evil Tommy Ray Glatman. Mrs. Speilberg herself, Kate Capshaw also provides the love interest for Gardner in Dr. Jane DeVries.

Alex Gardner is a young talented psychic, who is squandering his amazing abilities betting at the track. He is convinced by his mentor Dr. Novotny, to take part in some experimental research based on dreams. Gardner, skeptical at first agrees, and learns about the process they call dreamlinking. A new process being developed by the government to help alleviate the nocturnal abnormalities of sleep deprived individuals. Dreamlinking connects a pyschic to the person with sleep problems via electrodes, and they both enter the dream state, however, the psychic becomes a visitor in their counterparts dream. After his first taste of the program, Gardner is immediately hooked and joins forces with Dr. Novotny (Sydow) and the lovely Dr. DeVries (Capshaw) to help these people.

Gardner however, is not the only one capable of dreamlinking. Tommy Ray Glatman (played brilliantly by David Patrick Kelly), prior to Gardner's arrival, was the only psychic capable of creating a dreamlink, and the dream research projects number one pet. Obviously threatened, the pair become instant nemesisesisseess's. Bad Movie Knight Note: You may not know the name, but you know the face. David Patrick Kelly is probably the most famous, non-famous guy in Hollywood. He's practically perfected the bad guy role in movies, having played such characters in The Warriors, 48 Hours, Commando (he was Sully....remember Ah-Nuld saying "Sully remember when I said I would kill you last?"), The Crow, Last Man Standing, and The Longest Yard. His career has spanned nearly 3 decades.....and I think the man kicks some serious ass as a bad dude.....so he deserves this particular Bad Movie Knight note!

Alex Gardner helps a young boy to fight his demons (in the form of a giant walking cobra) and forever purge his mind of his nightmares. Afterwards, he goes to visit Dr. DeVries, who is asleep in her office. Rather than leave and visit later, Alex takes a chair, and attempts to dreamlink to her without the use of the electrode setup. He is successful, and proceed to bang Dr. DeVries in a train car in her dream.....dreamlink becomes dreamrape! Nice! DeVries wakes up and is understandably pissed off until Gardner explains that he linked to her without the apparatus.

While Dr. Novotny's and Dr. DeVries dream research is for the benefit of mankind, Bob Blair (Plummer) the Head of Covert Intelligence for the government has alterior motives for the project. Using Tommy Ray as his test subject, he trains him to become the world's first dream assassin. Tommy Ray's first victim is one of the sleep patients at the research clinic, who mysteriously dies during her dreamlink with him. Blair's ultimate plan is to assassinate the President of the United States, who is troubled by his own nightmares, which for the record are cool as hell.....his dream is him riding on a subway car through a post apocolyptic, freshly nuked Washington D.C. Fucking Sweet eye candy!

Dreamscape reaches it's pinnacle as the President of the United States is brought to the clinic to help with his nightmares, and Tommy Ray Glatman, and Alex Gardner enter his dream to do battle. Gardner to protect the President, and Tommy Ray to assassinate him, set in the holocaust dream world provided by the Commander in Chief. FUCKING SWEET!

While the special effects are a bit dated in some scenes, the concept and story are top notch. Dennis Quaid usually delivers a solid performance (even in Jaws 3D) and as I said before David Patrick Kelly rocks the house. Kate Capshaw, while generously covered in clothing is still pretty hot, and almost provides the Patrick Swayze like sexiness for the film.....almost. Dreamscape may not satisfy Fletch's requirements, and standards necessary to be a Horror movie.....but to him I say, go fuck yourself. It's a decent bad movie, horror or not asshole.

Hamlin Grade: 5.5

Timothy Dalton is the one true James Bond,
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