3 out of 5

Director: Joseph Ruben

While haunted by many 80s flourishes and pointless side-plots, Dreamscape is a fun sci-fi / horror flick that takes a good idea and stretches it in wandering but interesting directions. So Dennis Quaid is a psychic – but fear not, they dont push that too much in the movie. Its just his in to a special project that Kate Capshaw and Max von Sydow are working on, where one is able to dream the same dream as another and even interact in the dream world. Quaids character has used his psychic talents for money-grabbing hustles, and his quirky charm in this role is essential for the right balance of willingness and cynicism, especially when introduced to creepy fellow psychic David Kelly and government man Christopher Plummer. How all of these people are involved isnt too surprising – this dream technology has some potentially dastardly applications after all – but its still fun to see how things play out, with Quaid helping solve the riddles in nightmares and eventually using his dream gift to… you know, save the country. As mentioned, there are some 80s bits, but it was the 80s, so thats forgivable. Otherwise you get some awesome dream sets, a weird soundtrack by Maurice Jarre, and some cool makeup in the nightmares. Plot-holes are there, and a pointless action scene, but its very enjoyable, and much better than it couldve been.