A young psychic on the run from himself is recruited by a government agency experimenting with the use of the dream-sharing technology and is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of the U.S. president. A government funded project looks into using psychics to enter people's dreams, with some mechanical help. When a subject dies in his sleep from a heart attack Alex Gardner becomes suspicious that another of the psychics is killing people in the dreams somehow and that is causing them to die in real life. He must find a way to stop the abuse of the power to enter dreams. my best friend has mentioned this movie to me several times in the past 15 years, but i just barely caught it on amc. i can see how the snakeman scared him as a little kid. it's quite fantastic and i think the concept of dreams has a lot more of an effect when we're kids.<br/><br/>so this flick has what i think is a pretty cool concept: joining people in their dreams. it sort of reminded me of flatliners what with all the unreal imagery and the possibility of dying for good under the gas if you're not too careful.<br/><br/>anyway, i'm actually really glad they didn't attempt to make the special effects too non-cheesy looking (maybe they did, i dunno). the dreamscape sequences themselves look a little cartoony which i think enhanced the idea that we were in someone's dream. i think it would be easy to laugh at 'em, but i found the effects quite effective (except for one-on-one with the snakeman).<br/><br/>but the music! the music! eeegah! it sounded like an 8-year-old practicing minor scales on that hockey keyboard from 'strange brew' (incidently why didn't max von sydow simply crush the heads of those pansy government agents?).<br/><br/>all in all the crazy visuals carried the fun concept (7/10). Mild spoilers in plot description; be warned. A government funded project looks into using psychics to enter people's dreams, with some mechanical help. When a subject dies in his sleep from a heart attack Alex Gardner becomes suspicious that another of the psychics is killing people in the dreams somehow and that is causing them to die in real life. He must find a way to stop the abuse of the power to enter dreams. An excellent cast and an interesting premise to back it up. A little bit dated here and there (Horrendous 80's score, bad blue-screen work among other things.) but there is a little suspense and some nice special effects (The snake man was great, either in stop-motion or man-in-suit form) and a fun climactic battle make this film an enjoyable, exciting low-budget effort. 8/10<br/><br/>ABOUT THE DVD: great DVD treatment courtesy of Image entertainment. The film is presented in 1.78:1 animorphic widescreen which is generally a impressive transfer for the films age, despite a few grainy scenes but generally the blacks are solid and skin tones fine. Audio is fine too, with a reasonably stimulating sound that packs at least a little "Umph". We get a nice amount of extras, including a special effects test reel, a photo gallery, and a commentary by the writer, producer, and effects artist. Despite the age of the people on this commentary, it's a surprisingly energetic commentary and these people have a lot to say. My rating for the DVD: 8/10.
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364 weeks ago