Duddits Alien
Duddits manages to be a center Standing in opposition to Duddits' pure love is Kurtz, the general (?) in charge of containing the grayboys and their Ripley virus. His mission is to make it like they, both the aliens and his men, were never there. 'I Duddits' (defending humanity from ugly hostile aliens). I Duddits who saved Earth please like my page!
DREAMCATCHER(director/writer: Lawrence Kasdan; screenwriters: based on a novel by Stephen King/William Goldman; cinematographer: John Seale; editors: Raúl Dávalos/Carol Littleton; music: James Newton Howard; cast: Morgan Freeman (Colonel Abraham Curtis), Thomas Jane (Dr. Henry Devlin), Jason Lee (Joe ‘Beaver’ Clarendon), Damian Lewis (Gary ‘Jonesy’ Jones), Tom Sizemore (Captain Owen Underhill), Timothy Olyphant (Pete Moore), Andrew Robb (Young Duddits), Donnie Wahlberg (Douglas ‘Duddits’ Cavell), Campbell Lane (Old Man Gosselin), Eric Keenleyside (Rick McCarthy); Runtime: 136; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Bruce Berman/Charles Okun/Lawrence Kasdan; Warner Brothers; 2003)
“This version can lay claim to being another of King’s works that’s disastrous when put on the big screen.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Lawrence Kasdan’s (“The Big Chill“) big-budgeted Dreamcatcher is based on Stephen King’s 463rd novel written in 2001 and the first one written after he was run over by a drunken driver. It is a wintry science fiction horror thriller of 620 pages that is translated into a much too faithful and too abbreviated film version. It leaves out so many details as it’s scripted by William Goldman and Kasdan, that as a result the film seems incoherent. This only proves that a King novel on film is best when not translated in such a faithful way (think Kubrick’s “The Shining”!). This version can lay claim to being another of King’s works that’s disastrous when put on the big screen.
“Dreamcatcher” is a cheerless, awkward, and convoluted ‘save the world’ children-like adventure that is mistakenly directed for adults. The story involves humans battling aliens for control of the world. It is said of the one good alien, that “he’s too good to be human” (the film’s best line). “Dreamcatcher” goes from being a tale about four close bachelor friends with a strong psychic connection to one of trying to figure out why the animals in the woods are fleeing en masse. Then we’re thrown into a more muddled story with multiple plots involving a government U.F.O. cover-up conspiracy, a contagious fungus epidemic, alien bodysnatching, the air-bombing of an alien craft by a covert elite army unit, and finally to questioning the morality of warfare concerning the deaths of some citizens so the majority can live. The film tries in spots to be tongue-in-cheek and downright cheeky (lots of fart jokes), but never fully commits to that and instead plays it mostly for how wormy it can be.
Its incomprehensible story is just that. Alien worms emerge from human or animal carriers and immediately become gigantic shape-shifting razor-toothed creatures with the purpose of spreading their infection and/or getting into Boston’s Quabbin Reservoir and destroying the world’s population (Don’t ask me to explain that last ridiculous plot line!). The story as presented was too far-reaching a yarn to stay focused on any subplot, and it was too overloaded with a “Memory Warehouse” of free associations that turned out to be just so much a serving of squashed pulp.
The film clumsily intercuts its story from the present to the past. After it introduces us to the four best friends as wisecracking adults, it then goes into a flashback and tells about a courageous act they did 20 years ago as children. In the small town of Derry, Maine, the four youngsters rescued a retard (afflicted with Down’s Syndrome) nicknamed Duddits (Robb) from older teenager sadistic bullies, and he in gratitude gives them the power of ESP. Duddit’s supernatural presence is felt by the boys in their hunting cabin where they annually gather to share stories and life experiences. There’s a beaded basket hung in the log cabin which is meant as a protection from nightmares when they sleep and is called by them a “dreamcatcher.” Duddits becomes their fifth lifetime friend and his position is in the center of the “dreamcatcher.”
Dr. Henry Devlin (Thomas Jane) is a suicidal shrink, Gary ‘Jonesy’ Jones (Damian Lewis) is a caring but troubled college professor, Pete Moore (Timothy Olyphant) is a sexually frustrated car salesman, and Joe ‘Beaver’ Clarendon (Jason Lee) is a friendly but too chatty carpenter with a habit of gnawing on a toothpick and who vaguely sees into the future. These pals are all unhappy because they feel the great power they were given is wasted on them, as their powers do not not enable them to necessarily save people as much as it makes them feel weird. They still regularly communicate with each other through their extrasensory gifts, and they snicker like adolescents over their adopted S.S.D.D. motto for their existence (“same shit, different day”).
The friends are alarmed when Jonesy walks like a zombie into the middle of the Boston traffic and is seemingly killed, but he recovers and when the friends meet six months later in the warmth of their hunting cabin Jonesy tells them he felt the presence of Duddits and sensed he was calling out to him a warning of danger. The limping Jonesy seems to be the alter ego of the author, whose hip was damaged after his accident.
Jonesy and Beaver are in the cabin waiting for Pete and Henry to return from Gosselin’s general store with supplies as a blizzard approaches. A frightened lost hunter (Keenleyside) with a serious looking red mark on his neck and a stomach that keeps growing is taken into the cabin, and in a thoroughly gross scene is shitting alien worms into the toilet. As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, there are passing army helicopters led by the mysterious Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman) warning the citizens in the area of aliens spreading an infection. It turns out Curtis has been secretly fighting aliens for over 20 years and has gone bonkers. Curtis tells his second-in-command Captain Owen Underhill (Tom Sizemore) that it’s best to kill everyone in the quarantined wooded area rather than risk an alien getting into the main population, even if most of those infected will soon recover. Curtis says he hates to kill fellow Americans, “Those poor suckers! They drive Chevrolets, they shop at Wal-Mart and they never miss an episode of ‘Friends.’ If we start executing them at 2, we can be done by 2:30!”
It finally takes the frail Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), now an adult wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball cap (Hey, sucka are you suggesting Beantown fans are retards!), to help Henry save the world after Jonesy’s body has been taken over by an extraterrestrial with a British accent.
Kasdan wrestles with the notion on whether to make this slime rendering of a horror tale campy or creepy or scary. He mixes scenes of trite pop-culture banter with scenes of a menacing undertone. It’s eventually run over by the film’s special-effects that splatter all over the labyrinthine script. The results are a highly lethal dose of crudeness and a vapid entertainment experience.
REVIEWED ON 3/30/2003 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
(2003) (Thomas Jane, Morgan Freeman) (R)
| Alcohol/ Drugs | Blood/Gore | Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude | Frightening/ Tense Scenes | Guns/ Weapons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate | Extreme | Extreme | *Heavy | Extreme |
| Imitative Behavior | Jump Scenes | Music (Scary/Tense) | Music (Inappropriate) | Profanity |
| Moderate | Moderate | Extreme | None | Extreme |
| Sex/ Nudity | Smoking | Tense Family Scenes | Topics To Talk About | Violence |
| *Moderate | None | Minor | Moderate | Extreme |
- QUICK TAKE:
- Horror: Four lifelong friends who share telepathic gifts must deal with what appears to be an alien invasion.
While apart in two groups, the men come across two individuals in the snow who simply don't seem right. That eventually leads to encounters with various otherworldly creatures that seem intent on killing or taking over their bodies and using them as hosts.
That doesn't sit well with Col. Abraham Curtis (MORGAN FREEMAN) or his right-hand man, Owen (TOM SIZEMORE), who've worked for years in a secret department of the U.S. Army dealing with extraterrestrial incursions on Earth. They and their team have quarantined an area around the men's cabin and are intent on not letting anyone or anything - human or not - from leaving the area and possibly infecting the rest of the world.
As the men try to figure out what's going on and avoid the alien attacks, they attempt to contact Duddits (DONNIE WAHLBERG) who may be able to help them, all while having to deal with the increasingly volatile and unsteady Curtis and the decisions he makes.
- WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
- If they're fans of anyone in the cast, adaptations of Stephen King novels, or like sci-fi horror films, they just might.
- WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R
- For violence, gore and language.
- CAST AS ROLE MODELS:
CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFOCurious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film.
(Note: The 'Our Take' review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).
Violence consists of various extraterrestrials attacking and/or killing humans, often with extremely bloody, gruesome and gory results (particularly regarding the parasite-like worms using human bodies as hosts before they're 'hatched').
Some of that material and related scenes of monsters could be rather disturbing, suspenseful or even scary to some viewers, although much of it is tinged with macabre black humor. Some lethal human on human violence is also present, while a man is graphically hit by a car and another vehicle crash is present.
Meanwhile, various characters have varying degrees of bad attitudes, while some characters drink. If you're still concerned about the film and its appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home who may be interested in seeing it, we suggest that you take a closer look at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content.
In some theaters, a short, computer-animated film, 'Final Flight of the Osiris,' follows the end credits (and contains 1 'f' word and 1 use of 'damn' and 'Oh my God'). During it, we see a blindfolded man and woman sparring with swords (more for foreplay than malice as they end up slicing off parts of each other's clothes). We then see her in something like a tube-top and then thong panties (we see rather realistic views of her bare butt cheeks which the man checks out by lifting his blindfold - the woman later does the same when she apparently cuts off the man's pants, but we don't see any nudity on him).
After that fantasy style sequence is done, some action and suspense follows as various octopus-like robots chase after a ship (with guns on the ship shooting and destroying those flying things). As a woman tries to enter the Matrix and warn others, the octopus-like robots continue their attack and finally break in and kill one woman inside. The ship is then apparently destroyed and the imagined version of a woman in the Matrix is also dead (with some blood on her face).
- People drink in a bar where Beaver has a beer as well as a shot of liquor.
- One of the guys refers to Kiefer Sutherland as 'Reefer' Sutherland.
- All four guys drink beer.
- Pete drinks a beer while a passenger in a vehicle.
- Pete drinks a beer and we then see that he's had quite a few (by the empty bottles around him).
- Curtis pours himself some liquor, drinks it, and then pours more for himself and some for Owen.
- A car suddenly slams into a man crossing the street (in a graphic fashion) and he's severely injured and bloodied.
- We briefly see young Duddits in a flashback and he has some blood and bruises on his face.
- In a flashback, we see some blood on Duddits' face while some bullies pick on him.
- We see a man with some blood on his face. After Beaver helps him into their cabin, the man repeatedly and loudly belches and farts (out of his control) and we hear all sorts of intestinal rumbling sounds. Beaver and Jonesy then react to the smell. We later hear a similar farting sound from a woman.
- Pete has some blood on his face after a truck accident.
- When Beaver and Jonesy return to check on a man, they discover blood all over the cabin, leading to the bathroom. They then burst through the door to find the man sitting on the toilet with blood everywhere (including on him). They hear something drop into the toilet and then push the man off it (he's dead and his butt is very bloody).
- A man is very bloody while fighting with a large parasite-like creature that bites off several of his fingers.
- The various parasite-like worms are slimy and covered in goo.
- An alien's head appears to explode with a bloody mist floating around.
- We see photos of victims with red marks and/or blood on their faces.
- Curtis holds a gun while making a subordinate swear that he's telling the truth about letting some potential carriers go. The man does so, but Curtis then shoots him in the hand with bloody results (and we see blood on the wall and on a towel Curtis uses to wipe the floor).
- We see blood on the back end of a dead woman and see a bloody trail leading away from her.
- We see Pete's urine stream as he writes a word in the snow with it.
- A guy has blood all over his face and neck.
- Henry returns to find that a bloody crust has covered most everything in a cabin.
- We see animal and alien body parts in the back of a truck that an alien makes a dog eat.
- We see some blood on the ground around dead people (as well as their blood-soaked clothes).
- A man has some blood down the side of his face.
- A man is bloody and there's blood around him in the snow after he's been shot.
- A man shoots at one of those parasite-like worms. After it lands and swallows part of his gun barrel, he shoots again and the creature explodes.
- The various aliens have extreme cases of both for killing humans and/or taking over their bodies.
- We hear that a student was caught cheating on an exam.
- We see some bullies picking on Duddits (they're trying to force him to eat something after having stripped off all of his clothes down to his underwear). They also refer to the four main friends as 'girls.'
- A young character uses the term 'retard' several times.
- Curtis has apparently gone off the deep end and unnecessarily endangers the lives of others. He also shoots one subordinate in the hand (thinking he's lying), and shoots and kills another.
Dreamcatcher Duddits Alien
- Scenes listed under 'Violence' and 'Blood/Gore' might also be suspenseful, unsettling or scary to some viewers. Beyond the gore, however, much of the 'scary' material is presented in a macabre, funhouse sort of way, meaning people will have varying reactions to it.
- A man puts a handgun to his head as he prepares to commit suicide (seen from behind him and as the camera pushes in closer to him). The sudden ringing of his phone stops him.
- Beaver and Jonesy witness a massive animal migration in the woods and wonder what they're running from.
- Henry and Pete slowly approach a seemingly dead woman who's kneeled down in the middle of a snowy road in the woods. She then suddenly moves and startles them.
- Beaver and Jonesy tend to a man in their cabin whose stomach has started to extend at an alarming rate (we also see it move from within). When they return to check on him, they discover blood all over the cabin, leading to the bathroom. They then burst through the door to find the man sitting on the toilet with blood everywhere (including on him). They hear something drop into the toilet and then push the man off it (he's dead) and then hear whatever landed in the toilet moving around. Beaver slams the lid shut and sits on the toilet as whatever is inside it tries to get out (which nearly knocks him off the lid). He tries to keep it down, but also reaches for a toothpick on the floor (to pacify him) while Jonesy looks for tape in the shed. As Beaver reaches out for the toothpick, the thing inside the toilet nearly bucks him off the lid and then finally does so. He then has a close encounter with what looks like a gargantuan tape worm with a vertical mouth filled with sharp teeth. It grabs him and he fights with it, resulting in him being bloody. It then bites off some of his fingers, knocks him backwards and grabs his face (we hear more sounds of it attacking him).
- Jonesy then tries to hold the door shut as the creature tries to get under and through it (we see its teeth marks impaling the door from the other side). The doorknob then comes off in Jonesy's hands and he has a close encounter with a huge alien behind him (we first see his reaction looking at it and then see it).
- Curtis holds a gun while making a subordinate swear that he's telling the truth about letting some potential carriers go. The man does so, but Curtis then shoots him in the hand.
- We see one of the above parasite-like worms slowly making its way toward Pete in the snow. He's unaware of it until it grabs him in the crotch while he's urinating.
- A monster tries to get into Jonesy's office and is seen through the peephole at the door.
- Henry returns to find that a bloody crust has covered most everything in a cabin. He then slowly makes his way through the cabin where he encounters one of the large parasite-like worms guarding its freshly laid eggs. He then shoots and kills that creature and prepares to torch the eggs. However, he then sees that other eggs have already hatched and small parasite-like worms then come crawling after him and up his pants. He ends up crushing many of them and torching the others (and ends up setting the cabin on fire as well).
- A minor part of the film deals with the young boys finding a missing girl (we see the posters for her disappearance) in a well or long vertical pipe, and then lowering themselves in to save her.
- A monster chases after a man in his library and he just manages to elude it.
- Curtis nearly shoots a subordinate as he leaves (we see the view of his scope).
- We see the movement of worms inside a living dog.
- A helicopter gunship opens fire on a man on the ground who fires back at it with his machine gun. The man on the ground is hit (and later dies), but he manages to hit the chopper that eventually crashes and explodes, presumably killing its pilot.
- People try to stop an alien as well as a small worm from getting into a water supply system.
- A large alien creature comes out of a man and then attacks another man, seemingly impaling him in the chest with its large 'arm.'
- Handguns/Machine guns/Hunting Rifles/Attack helicopters (missiles and machine guns): Carried and/or used to threaten, wound or kill people and aliens. See 'Violence' for details.
- Phrases: 'F*ck me, Freddy' (nonsexual), 'Oh f*ck,' 'F*ckers,' 'F*ck you,' 'Who the f*ck are you?' 'Bite my bag, m*therf*cker,' 'Johnny f*cking Appleseed,' 'Same sh*t, different day' (also written as SSDD), 'You don't know sh*t,' 'Where's the cat? What cat? The cat that sh*t in my mouth' (a quote from a movie about having bad breath in the morning), 'Bullsh*t,' 'Who gives a sh*t?' 'Eat sh*t and die,' 'Holy sh*t,' 'I must be getting too old for this sh*t,' 'Some kind of sh*t is going to hit the planetary fan,' 'C'mon you d*ckweeds,' 'Don't be a p*ssy,' 'Bite my bag,' 'Hell no,' 'Take a leak,' 'Piss off,' 'Fat ass,' 'Moron,' 'Let's kick their asses,' 'Bitch in a buzz saw (or something close to that), 'Turds,' 'What the hell?' 'Broad' (woman), 'Shut up,' 'Bastards,' 'Freaked out,' 'Kick some ass,' 'Schmucks' and 'We don't have time to screw around.'
- A man puts a handgun to his head as he prepares to commit suicide (but he doesn't).
- Beaver repeatedly eats peanut butter out the jar with one finger.
- Beaver gives 'the finger' to a passing helicopter for not helping.
- We see Pete's urine stream as he writes a word in the snow with it.
- The sudden ringing of a phone in a tense scene might startle some viewers.
- A car suddenly slams into a man crossing the street.
- A seemingly dead woman reaches out and grabs a guy.
- A person suddenly comes back into the picture.
- Sudden music might startle some viewers in a quiet scene.
- An extreme amount of suspenseful and ominous music plays in the film.
- None.
- At least 25 'f' words (4 used sexually, 3 used with 'mother'), 25 's' words, 5 slang terms using female genitals ('p*ssy' and 'tr*m'), 4 using male genitals ('d*ck' and 'c*cks*cker'), 8 damns, 4 hells, 3 asses, 2 craps and 6 uses of 'G-damn,' 5 of 'Oh my God,' 3 each of 'God' and 'Jesus Christ' and 1 use each of 'Holy God,' 'Jesus' and 'My God' as exclamations.
- While there's no sexual behavior or sexually related nudity, some viewers may find that the sexually related dialogue warrants a 'heavy' rather than 'moderate' rating.
- Beaver suddenly announces that he got 'blown' last night after picking up a woman at Bingo. He says they went back to her place and it turned into a 'pretty nice f*ckeree' and more sexual talk ensues including that regarding Beaver having chronic erections (with slang about that such as 'Blue boner harder than a Louisville slugger for twelve hours'). Beaver also states that there's 'tr*m' at Bingo.
- We briefly see young Duddits in his underwear in an imagined flashback (in a nonsexual context).
- We see a visualized look at Jonesy's memory library where we see a label that reads, 'Jerk off fantasies' and they're broken down into different age groups (but we don't see any of them).
- In a flashback to when the four friends were kids, we see them going to a warehouse where one of them claims is a picture of a girl's 'p*ssy.' We later see a picture/poster on the wall of a woman with her legs spread (but she's wearing panties).
- We see a dead man's bare but extremely bloody butt.
- Peter mentions that a creature 'tried to bite my d*ck off' and then adds something about his ex-wife wanting or trying to do that as well.
- Curtis mentions that if hadn't been for his dedicated work, Owen never would have experienced his first 'jerk off.'
- None.
- There's some talk about a miscellaneous character's mother being dead and the man feeling guilty about that.
- Extraterrestrials.
- Telepathy and other supernatural powers.
- The mentally challenged.
- A man puts a handgun to his head as he prepares to commit suicide (but he doesn't).
- Henry's gun accidentally fires into his wall (after he contemplated suicide).
- A car suddenly slams into a man crossing the street (in a graphic fashion) and he's severely injured and bloodied.
- In a flashback, we see some blood on Duddits' face while some bullies pick on him.
- After suddenly spotting a woman kneeling in the middle of the snowy road, Henry swerves to avoid her and his and Pete's truck then crashes and flips over many times, somewhat injuring them.
- We see that an alien creature has killed a man (with bloody results) and then later a woman (from hatching from within them).
- A man is very bloody while fighting with a large parasite-like creature that bites off several of his fingers. It eventually kills him.
- Curtis holds a gun while making a subordinate swear that he's telling the truth about letting some potential carriers go. The man does so, but Curtis then shoots him in the hand for supposedly lying.
- A large parasite-like worm grabs Pete in the crotch as he urinates outdoors (we don't see the attachment). He then struggles with it and lands on top of a fire (that burns the creature and makes it let go). It then grabs him by the head while its tale whips around and tries to hit him. He then uses a burning branch to burn it and make it let go.
- An alien posing as a human causes a man extreme pain as well as his face and neck to undulate.
- Henry shoots and kills a parasite-like creature and prepares to torch its eggs. However, he then sees that other eggs have already hatched and small parasite-like worms then come crawling after him and up his pants. He ends up crushing many of them and torching the others (and ends up setting the cabin on fire as well).
- Curtis, Owen and others fly attack helicopters toward a downed spacecraft and open fire on extraterrestrials with missiles and machine gun fire (killing many of them). The extraterrestrials then blow up their massive ship that takes out most of those choppers (destroying them and killing the pilots).
- A huge alien bites down into a man, presumably killing him.
- Later, that same alien kills another man (we don't see the act, but hear his screams along with a few gunshots before seeing his body, or part of it, fall into the snow).
- We see some blood on the ground around dead people (as well as their blood-soaked clothes - all from off-screen violence).
- A man uses a rock to break glass to get into a building.
- A helicopter gunship opens fire on a man on the ground who fires back at it with his machine gun. The man on the ground is hit (and later dies), but he manages to hit the chopper that eventually crashes and explodes, presumably killing its pilot.
- A man shoots at one of those parasite-like worms. After it lands and swallows part of his gun barrel, he shoots again and the creature explodes.
- A large alien creature comes out of a man and then attacks another man, slamming him to the ground and seemingly impaling him in the chest with its large 'arm.'
- Two alien creatures battle each other with one impaling the other with its tale. The two then somewhat meld together before exploding or dissolving.
- A man steps down onto a worm and squashes it.
Reviewed March 18, 2003 / Posted March 21, 2003
Dreamcatcher Duddits Alien Form
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