Dreamers
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
In yet
another tale of chasing the dream of filmmaking, writer/director Ann Lu gives
us Dreamers (1998). The twist here is the early exposition of the
childhood of the two male leads as to the dead-end, small town lives that get
them to grow up with the desire to “go for it”.
That’s a good idea, but when they get there, everyone gets stupid very
quickly and so does the film.
Dave
(Jeremy Jordan) and Ethan (Mark Ballou) land up begin very disappointed by the
world they discover, and the film acts as if no film ever did so before. The characters are very two-dimensional and
it gets worse as it goes along. The
early part actually offered some promise, but that fades quickly. With the way the rest of this is presented,
the producers who thought they were making something worth seeing were also
being a serious group of dreamers
themselves.
The
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is soft and not anamorphically enhanced. This was shot by Neal L. Fredericks, who gave
us the ever stupid, laughable, and influential in every bad way possible images
of all time from one of the biggest rip-offs in box office history:
the-video-passed-off-as-film-massacre The
Blair Witch Project (1999). The
massacre happened to the audience, real cinema, and Artisan Pictures, who
eventually merged with Lion’s Gate a few years later. We will not even go into the
I-can’t-believe-it-was-greenlighted sequel or all the pathetic pseudo-films it
inspired. His shooting here is just as
idiotic. For being shot on film, this
looks like it has the craftsmanship of a "kegger" on a bender with a
camcorder, but at least this time, it was not with the nervous movements.
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 sound is very basic simple stereo, if that. The music is lame, and a Marlene Dietrich
song is desecrated. The few extras
include outtakes, ironically, some lame promo trailers, stills, filmographies,
and even a making (or is that unmaking) of program.
In two
very telling moments, the film has three men in straight jackets explaining why
they want to be in film. In another, a
kid thinks Francois Truffaut’s The 400
Blows (1959) might be an X-rated sex tape.
It is amazing how bankrupt this film is of real ideas ultimately, which
makes it one big bore. YAWN!!!!!!!!!
- Nicholas Sheffo
