Visitors Review

dalelawson-1 (2012-05-26 16:07)

Dream House Review

Dream House (Jim Sheridan, 2011) follows a father who quits his job inorder to spend more time with his family and work on a novel at home.This movie begins like any other horror film, where the protagonist,and in this case his family, live in a world of tranquillity. Thisequilibrium is however swiftly broken when one of the daughters sees afigure watching them outside the window.A "spoiler" is already leaked in the trailer where we find out that atsome point in the film, presumably the end, the protagonist will findout he is the man responsible for murdering the family in the house hehas been living in. The problem I had with this twist was not that thetrailer already showed it to me, but that it doesn't occur at the endof the film and instead actually appears about halfway through. Leavingme to wonder how an earth the film can possibly progress any further.In all my other reviews I concentrate heavily on actors' performances,but in this film there is not a single actor that stands out asfantastic or appalling. All I can really state about the actors is thatDaniel Craig and Rachel Weisz portray loving parents with ease and thetwo daughters seem sufficiently talented. They all provided realisticenough characters for me to feel empathy towards them and their plightthroughout the movie.The one film that I kept comparing the plot of Dream House to wasShutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010). In Shutter Island we seeLeonardo DiCaprio seemingly as a detective investigating a missinginmate, but as the film progresses we find out he himself is an inmatecreating a fantasy persona to escape the truth. It is a very similartruth to that in Dream House where Daniel Craig lives in a house wheredoctors say he murdered his family, which was discussed in the trailer.Both are still noticeable psychological thrillers, although Dream Housedoes contain more elements to that of a horror film than ShutterIsland.Another noticeable aspect of this movie was its lack of locations. Mostfilms, even horrors, contain multiple interior and exterior locationsand so it was a surprise to find this film only used the "dream house",the neighbours home and the psychiatric hospital. This lack oflocations restricts the characters, as the film progresses, from havingany safe haven, which in-turn increases our sense of horror.Dream House was a mediocre film. It was a very restrictingpsychological horror thriller where the plot stretched on for too longdue to an early twist. Daniel Craig, who I praised in my The Adventuresof Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn review didn't stand out so much inthis films, although my hopes are still high for The Girl with theDragon Tattoo which I hope to see (and review) soon.

Tony Heck (2012-05-26 06:41)

A very uninspired horror movie that is filled with great acting. The acting does makes the movie watchable though. I say B-

"You've been living here and you don't know about the murders?" Will(Craig) and his family have found the perfect house in the perfectneighborhood to move into. When a local teenager is caught in theirhouse she tells him about a murder that happened in the house 5 yearsago. Will starts to investigate what happened and his neighbor Ann(Watts) helps. Will finds out a horrifying secret that may change thelife of him and his family forever. This is a very strange movie in acouple ways. First, the acting and idea are great. All the main actorsdo a great job. The main problem with this movie to me is that nothingseems to happen. The acting keeps you watching and interested enough,but eventually you grow board with the lack of anything. For a horrormovie this is very slow and drawn out. This is not a bad movie, and thelast maybe 15 minutes is exciting, but as a horror movie it is veryweak. Overall, a very slow and drawn out movie with great acting. Ihave seen worse though. I give it a B- (because of the acting)

Neil Doyle (2012-05-22 11:55)

Weak, illogical script defeats an admirable cast...

I'm always in the mood for a good ghost story, so I assumed I wouldfind one in DREAM HOUSE--not to mention the fact that the cast washeaded by Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts.On the plus side, the snowy New England effects work to provide theright atmosphere, as does an eerie background score that ramps up theshock factor at every possibility. Unfortunately, there are very fewgenuine shocks and the suspense stays at a very even level throughout.The performances are valid enough too. Daniel Craig does a fine job ofacting while keeping his shirt on for most of the film and Rachel Weiszhas some nice chemistry with him as his devoted wife. The children areplayed with simplicity and charm by two adorable youngsters.But that's not enough. There has to be some logic behind the hauntedhouse story and the discovery that a family had been slaughtered thereyears before. And when the final twist comes, the viewer will befighting off boredom to such a degree that the surprise factor in thefinal scene will be a mere blip on the film's radar. And then,abruptly, the film ends.Surely, something went wrong in processing the script and bringing itto a final resolution that bears close scrutiny. But with all the talkof Jim Sheridan wanting his name off the directorial credits, I shouldhave been forewarned that this would not be a good, coherent ghoststory. Somewhere, a good story is struggling to get out.To make matters worse, I viewed the film in a theater where two girlsin the row behind me never stopped chattering and laughinginappropriately at all the tense moments. If the story had been reallygripping, I would have told them more than to stop kicking the seat.Alas, they were immature and totally unaware that they were movie pestsof the first degree and spoiled whatever enjoyment I could get from thefilm.Summing up: The script for DREAM HOUSE was a muddled mess before JimSheridan ever chose to direct it. He deserves to have his name remainon the director's credits if for no other reason that he should haveknown better than to lay a finger on it.

cashman1955 (2012-05-22 03:29)

Did a Committee Produce this Movie

This is not a scary movie. There are s few moments of "gotcha" with thetime worn loud bump or crash, but that's about it. Don't stay away justbecause you think it'll be too scary for you.Craig is good, as is Rachel W. Naomi Watts played her usual confused self. The audience was rightthere with her.Watts' husband was good; he made my skin crawl whenever he was on thescreen. The donut eating cops were pitch perfect as donut eating cops. The movie is a mess. It is well documented that some of the majorplayers involved washed their hands of everything before the film wasever released. They were smart.

chris dimarino (2012-05-19 14:51)

Decent Movie Overshadowed By Poor Marketing

I was very excited to see Dream House. A thriller/horror movie with atrio of my favorite actors is too hard to resist. However this moviewas marketed as a lot more of a horror movie than it is. In fact itsnot even close to a horror. The other huge misstep was the "twist" ofthe movie was shown in enough detail in the commercials that it wascommon knowledge. However in the movie's timeline, it takes a while forsaid twist to occur and a lot of the movie's appeal is tied into it.This movie had excellent acting and set the mood perfectly. At the endof the day, I still enjoyed the movie, even though I felt tricked andit turned out to be more of an ominous romance. Other than that, DanielCraig impresses and though the twist is forthcoming, the actions andhow it plays out with him afterwards are well executed.Not to harp, but more than the movie's misrepresentation, I would saythe advertisements divulged WAY too much information. Also the endingseemed a bit lackluster. It really seemed that the movie wanted to relyon its central twist. But anybody can think of a different way to tella story and a different outcome. Given the goals the movie was strivingfor, the ending fits.I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys the top 3 billedactors and wants a thriller/romance. If you haven't seen thecommercials, than I highly recommend it because at least you can enjoythe meat of the plot.

Robert W. (2012-05-19 07:13)

Lots of potential but less than great delivery

Dream House was rife with problems behind the scenes. Unfortunatelysometimes, in fact, usually that means the film will be marred anddragged down and that seems to be the case. They have a top notch cast,a decent story, potential for a great twist and yet all of that getscompletely underused and under delivered. The film still has some charmin the way that it is dark and suspenseful at times but you are justleft feeling empty and disappointed. Even the 'big twist' to the wholestory is given away in the trailers and is completely disappointingwhen it does happen.Daniel Craig tends to be hit and miss with his roles. Having seen himin a few personal interviews I think he is very pompous and selfinvolved and sometimes that comes through in his performances. I stilllike him a lot, he is a powerful actor at times but this was likedrivel to him and he looks like he just constantly wants out of therole. Rachel Weisz gives a pretty solid performance considering thecontent she is given. Her role as Craig's wife is nearing excellent andgives the film the edge over being awful. Naomi Watts is completelyunderused in her role as the neighbour. Her role should have been savedfor a second rate supporting actor, because she is a great actress andher talent is completely wasted.Director Jim Sheridan is an acclaimed director, with multiple Oscarnominations. I'm sure part of the behind the scenes issues were himtrying to make this mess a little bit better and being stone walled bythe studios but we can only speculate. Dream House borders on beingthis terrific dark thriller but due to pathetic performances, sub pardirecting, and a lack of ambition on the part of the cast it is left inthe dust and comes across as a made for TV movie...and not a good oneat that. Its average in every way. 6/10

cmoyton (2012-05-14 02:59)

He sees dead people and they see him

Nine out of ten cats cannot be wrong ....and yet apologists aplenty onIMDb.com. Much as i hate jumping on the bandwagon to dislike this movieis like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel. An attempt to mergeelements of The Sixth Sense, Shutter Island and Jacobs Ladder, DreamHouse fails miserably. Craigs character was not even required toattempt an American accent so he turned up as himself - hey Danielstick to Bond.Even when the misdirection twist is revealed about one third of the wayin my interest was stimulated for about five minutes. Also what onearth is Naomi Watts doing in this movie? Has she succumbed to thepaycheck? The acting is just horrible and reflects the lousy script. Inessence the film boils down to the did he or didn't he do it scenariobut believe me you wont care. When the truth is revealed at the end thereal murderer mumbles his explanation which amplifies the sense of allround embarrassment

lueschow (2012-05-13 09:49)

Previews made it seem it would be something it wasn't

I went to this movie expecting to see something like "A Haunting inConnecticut" or something like it. It wasn't quite what they had madeit out to be and it turned out to be more of a psychological thriller.I found myself looking at my watch way too often during the first halfof the movie because it was moving slow and it didn't look like itwould ever get moving but they did a nice job of stitching it togetherat the end.I'm glad I hung in there because in the end I really enjoyed it.I've been in love with Rachel Wiese since the first Mummy movie and Ithought her and Daniel Craig had good Chemistry on screen. Treat herright Dan because she is a beautiful and talented woman with plenty offans :)

Rockwell_Fassbender (2012-05-12 16:54)

Worse than you've heard.

For the entire first half of the movie I kept finding myself thinking,"This really isn't that bad." Yes, the trailer ruins the movie (it'snot the only twist but it is the major one, and is the primary reasonthat I've stopped watching trailers unless I'm unsure if I want to seethe film) and so in the back of my head was always the knowledge ofwhat was going to be revealed; I love that the producers tried to saythat it doesn't spoil the movie, so stupid.Still though, it was a relatively interesting story and Daniel Craig isalmost always a commanding actor who can keep my attention. I wasinterested enough to keep going, despite some of the more obviousclichés of the horror genre, like building up suspense then dropping itand then having a loud noise to make the audience jump. Then thetrailer twist was revealed and everything goes downhill after that. Thetone of the film entirely shifts from this horror setup to a dramaabout an unstable man. The middle act was incredibly dull, despiteCraig's best efforts it just felt like nothing was running well at all.I kept waiting for the film to end before it got worse, but boy it gotto a level of bad that I was not expecting at all.The producers kept saying that the twist in the trailer "wasn't the bigtwist" and they were right, but damn I wish they had been lying. Whenthe "big twist" comes it all feels so rushed, underdeveloped andabsolutely absurd. My mouth almost dropped open from just howhilariously stupid it was. As a huge fan of Craig, Rachel Weisz andhorror, this ended up being a major disappointment. No wonder the twoof them and Jim Sheridan refused to do any promotion for it.

moonfull (2012-05-12 03:50)

So predictable...

I watched this movie thinking it was a horror story. I never read theplots before seeing but do check the genre and the rating. This time Iwasn't able to... So my expectations for horror were gone when I sawthe man driving his car in a huff at he beginning (the neighbor). So Ichecked the genre and there it is a mystery, thriller. Then I thoughtthat was something about the neighbor and no supernatural thing. Stillchanging the point of view, the movie could be nice! Mr Bond was acting so solid, so I was thinking, "What's the problemwith you man?" When he came to his house, a lovely wife and twoadorable children were waiting for him. Everything was perfect. Tillthey began to figure out there was a massacre there. So what canhappen? A mysterious man came ahead, a man who killed his whole family!Spying on them? That wasn't a thriller at all. I never scared when Isaw the foot prints and etc. Still trying to understand, what about the neighbor woman? Why iseverybody acting weird? Why did the neighbor bring food? So it allbecome clear when he went to the ward (and Peter Ward) and saw hisfamily's photo there. Oh, "Shutter Island" type! They actually wantedus to believe that Peter Ward went to their home and took theirpicture? I hope not! Afterwards the movie was clear but still whatabout the neighbor? Did they kill the family? Was he having an affairwith her? Oh, I got it, brilliant idea! It was a misunderstanding! OK,I didn't like the movie at all. Could be good with unpredictable ideas,twists etc. Would prefer a dream house with scary ghosts or "ShutterIsland" was really good...

ununchanged (2012-05-11 09:59)

Massivly underrated.

This is definitely an enjoyable movie. It's confusing at parts and notvery realistic, but the story is decent, the acting is actually amazingand the dialogs are realistic. I think i know why do people rate it so low... Just check the reviews:Many people saying: "This was so predicable". It' sort of a typicalmystery movie. I agree so far: Many parts of the story aren't new atall. However, compared it to typical blockbusters example: "Spiderman3", this story is still rather "unpredictable". Now, people don't really like being surprised. Ask anybody working intelevision. Look at any sitcom, soap opera... It's a problem ofcognitive balance: Extraordinary things break our flow and force us tothink even if it's about a totally pointless issue. We tend to avoidthat.I think it should be at 7 stars and believe it will be there overtime.As more mature reviews come in through the TV audience, the rating willturn average which would be more justified, considering that realboulder-crap gets 6 to 7 stars easily. This is movie is at leastdecent, even if you don't like the story.Spoiler: Another obvious issue: You'd intuitively want theinstitutionalized psycho to be the bad guy, and that prolly would havebeen more realistic. However it turns out differently. That is prettymuch the main twist in this movie. I know people hate that. It's sortof preachy. A lá "Not everything is what it looks like" and thatmessages been send many many times, so people get annoyed =) thanx forreading

jt1999 (2012-05-10 22:46)

It's Turkey Time

Yes, it's that time of the year... just before Halloween, and time totrot out the worst of the worst... the most ill- conceived, hideouslyboring, pretentious mess of a supposed thriller, and this year thestinker of the season is....Dream House!!But it's no dream.. it's a nightmare... a bloody awful snore-fest,stupid, slow, stolen and ripped off and cut and pasted from everythingfrom "The Shining" to "The Others" to every good horror or suspensefilm you can think of....... and all for what?!For nothing. Absolutely nothing makes sense. Characters behave as ifthey exist in some parallel universe. And to think some idiot actuallygreen-lighted this turd.Well, it simply proves one thing: we once had Polanski and Kubrick andJack Clayton and Hitchcock and Robert Wise.... And now, morons whoshouldn't be allowed to go get coffee and donuts are handed the reinsof $55 million dollar productions. Idiots without a clue about storystructure are hired, no questions asked...without sense enough torecognize and fix the storytelling problems long before thepost-production traumas begin.I don't blame the screenwriter or producer. I blame the director. Thispicture shows Sheridan's limitations. It shows that he's eithercompletely blind to the problems of a bad script or hasn't got a cluehow fix a broken one when he sees it... Either way, he's failed as adirector. He only knows how to get decent performances from actors whenhe has a good script to start with. That essentially means he's an acting coach. Not a director. Directorsunderstand storytelling. This is what separates the men from the boys, Jim. Sorry, pal. You were out of your league on this one. You might want totake Robert McKee's story structure course and try to learn something.Even Syd Field would help. Start with the basics. You'll learn. Maybe.

cassandrafatgrl2 (2012-05-10 12:26)

dirty nails...Alfred would be so proud!!!!

I don't like horror movies. But I do like to think. I watched this filmfree off the internet. Someone filmed it on a cam. (sorry I'm broke)Theaudience in the theater talked the whole time and I also heard childrentalking who were bored.(um, why bring your children to a movie aboutdead children?) Then in the last 30 minutes or so someone was snoringreally loud. I suspect it was the person filming it. I know why theCraig's made this movie. It's just to bad that while they were filmingat a stoplight, someone carjacked them and drove them tocrazy-ending-ville. That is not their fault. See this film in a quiettheater, and pay attention, you will not be disappointed. Since it wasa cam, I could not read what was in that e-mail.But I did enjoy whatwas in the neighbors bathtub!!Today's audience would not likeHitchcock, or the Twilight Zone. Too bad for them.

Claudio Carvalho (2012-05-09 15:25)

Good Mystery that Deserved a Better Screenplay

In New York, the successful editor Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) quitshis job in the GPH Publishers to move to the suburb New Ashford anddedicate more time to his beloved wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and hisdaughters Trish (Taylor Geare) and DeeDee (Claire Geare) and to startwriting a novel.The family is frightened by a stranger watching them through the windowand Will decides to investigate and finds teenagers in a satanic cultin his basement. Sooner he discovers that the family man Peter Wardkilled his wife and his two daughters in that house five years ago.Will goes to the police but the officers do not give attention to him.He also learns that Peter Ward spent five years in the GreenhavenPsychiatric Hospital but was recently discharged. Will tries to get more information about the murder with his neighboron the other side of the street, the divorced Ann Patterson (NaomiWatts), but she refuses to give any information to him. Will decides togo to Greenhaven to get information about Peter Ward and he discloses adark secret about the former intern that will affect his life in hisdream house. "Dream House" is a good mystery that deserved a better screenplay. Thestory has a great potential and a surprising plot point but does notdevelop well important characters and situations after the revelationof the mystery. Usually this type of twist happens in the end, like in"The Others", or "Ghost", or "Identity", or "The Sixty Sense". In"Dream House', the mystery is disclosed too early and the last twist isvery weak and predictable. Daniel Craig is one of my favorite contemporary actors and Rachel Weiszis impressively gorgeous. Naomi Watts is effective, as usual, and therelationship of Ann with her husband deserved a better development. Myvote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Casa dos Sonhos" ("The Dream House")

Austin in Wonderland (2012-05-09 15:02)

Dream House was more of a nightmare.

This movie was advertised as a horror movie so if you're expectingthat, you will be sorely disappointed and annoyed. As was I. A coupleloud bangs and one mysterious dark shadowman were super misleading, asI kept waiting for more scary stuff to happen. But it became evidentpretty early on that my hopes would go unsatiated. Second major issuewith this movie: the previews totally ruined what could have been —nay, should have been — one of the first big ah-ha moments. Instead, asthe characters start in on their wide-eyed epiphanies in this supposedrevealing scene, we're all sitting there like "yeah, we know. Thepreviews already told us." Major deductions. Beyond that, the other bigtwist is okay. Not really expected so that's what makes a twist work.It's just so clearly NOT a horror film that it was difficult to getpast that and focus on the…well, I was gonna say positive but… *shrug*.I would NOT pay to go see this movie. Especially if you're a horrorfan. If you're NOT a horror fan, you may be satisfied. But it's nothingto rush out and wait in line for. Wait, who am I kidding. There won'tbe any lines for Dream House.

Boba_Fett1138 (2012-05-09 09:34)

Not entirely successful but still good enough.

Basically this is a movie with some good- and some bad points to it butoverall it still remains a watchable enough movie, that is not as badas some people try make you believe it is.It's definitely true that this feels and looks like a very typicalgenre movie. It starts off like a typical haunted house flick, like wehave seen oh so many of already. It's clichéd and formulaic but themovie still manages to throw in a couple of twists to keep thingsinteresting and going.Not that all twists are great but some of them still work out well forthe movie. It's best to simply watch this movie without reading orseeing anything about it. Let the story surprise you, even thoughchanges are you will probably not going to like everything that thestory will be offering you.I feel that the movie would had been better off if it simply went forone clear approach. It now instead is a bit of everything; a hauntedhouse movie, a mystery, a thriller. The movie keeps switching styles abit too often.Problem with the movie is that it's also being a bit of a slow andboring one at first. Luckily the movie starts to pick up some pacelater on but this of course doesn't make the first half of the movieany better to watch.Of course the movie gets also uplifted by its cast. It was greatwatching Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz but Naomi Watts is a bit wasted.Her role is too small to really make an impact, even while hercharacter still seemed to be an important one for its story.Not great and really nothing too special but also nothing horribleeither!6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

slntreader (2012-05-06 16:23)

There are better suspense thrillers out there

I go to the movies all the time with my cousin and we lovesuspense/thriller/horror (even the bad ones).This movie was okay, butdon't expect much. The story (for me) was a little bit AmityvilleHorror, an iota of Shutter Island, a taste of the Wicker Man, etc. etc.Even though we stayed for the entire movie, while I was sitting in thetheater watching, I didn't really care about the characters or what wasgoing to happen. Also, there appeared to be plot holes in the story,which were explained by the end of the film, but I couldn't get over acouple of scenes where what was taking place didn't seem plausible orrational.If you are just looking for fun and like the cast: Daniel Craig, NiaomiWatts, etc. then you might enjoy this flick. If you don't have themoney to blow on just any movie, go rent a great suspense thriller, orwait until a better one comes out.

razzell2 (2012-05-06 04:48)

Dream House, a horror story with twists and turns. A Dream to watch.

I am not much of a reviewer, but I enjoyed this movie so much that Iwanted to contribute a few words.So many horror movies are predictable. You pretty much know what'sgonna happen, who's "ghosty", who done it, etc. But I was caughtcompletely off guard by this one...several times!There are multiple twists in this movie, and just when you think youmight have a notion, a new twist spins you away from that notion andheads you in another direction ultimately causing me to stop guessingalong, to just watch the movie and enjoy it.(spoiler alerts below, as I continue)Daniel Craig is good, putting aside his "tough guy" persona and addinga new dimension to what we are used to seeing from him on screen.Rachel Weisz is also good, never giving away her role, befuddled andconfused at the right times, (in character), as a spectre might be.Beautiful, of course, is Weisz as Craig's wife. Naomi Watts, also verygood, and equally beautiful, gives nothing away, enhancing the suspenseand keeping me guessing as to her part in the movie.The only part of this movie that could have been considered a "lovestory" is between Craig and his family. I was pleasantly surprised thatthe love interest did not extend to Watts in the end.All in all, as horror stories go, something a little bit new here. Ahorror story with twists and turns is not new, but the use of thesetwists is new, and they are used well.I enjoyed it, gave it an 8. Well worth watching, even owning.ps...The movie and its characters have much more depth than thisreview. I did my best :)

gizmomogwai (2012-05-02 15:27)

Disappointing attempt at a psychological thriller

Last month I started going to the theatre again for the first time in 3years (seriously), and one of the trailers that intrigued me was DreamHouse. It looked like a chilling ghost story with the great NaomiWatts. Alas, Watts is wasted in this movie, which failed to grab holdof me at any point.The basic idea is that Daniel Craig's character, his wife and two girlsmove into a new house without realizing it was a crime scene in whichCraig's family was murdered- but Craig, now insane, still sees them.Craig himself is suspected to be the killer, but Watts plays aneighbour who assures him he didn't do it. It appears Watts is right,but the bad guys come back.It seems like the insane person who's not who he thinks he is has beendone before (Fight Club, Identity), so I was disappointed when themovie went down that old route. But even before then, nothing about thewriting, acting or look of the film was compelling. Watts is hardly inthis before the revelation. The idea of a crazy guy who's innocent hasalso been done better in Hitchcock's movie Spellbound (1945). DreamHouse only achieves a couple of startling moments that made me jump,but nothing afterwards put me at the edge of my seat. The charactersjust weren't worth much emotional investment, and the climax didn'tstand out as great, original action suspense. For Watts in a real ghoststory, stick to The Ring.

shoalscat (2012-05-02 07:22)

Not what I was expecting but a good movie

Not a bad movie. Most of the bad reviews I have read involve thewriters comparing this movie to other movies of the Horror Genre...which it should not be. I was expecting the same, but was pleasantlysurprised by the engrossing storyline.If you are looking for ghostly shock value then you should watchsomething like Paranormal Activity. But, if you want a good story withsome plot twists then check this one out. This movie did not knock my socks off but it wasn't a waste of timeeither. Definitely worth a try if your looking for more then just "jackin the box fright".