Ralph's Movie Reviews: DREAMER

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

DREAMER

Sports drama

BACKGROUND
Age - all thoroughbreds count January 1 as their birth date
Breeders' Cup - thoroughbred racing's year-end championship, a multi-million dollar extravaganza held on the last Saturday in October each year, that brings together the world's best horses to compete in one of the eight races run that day
Colors - racing silks, the jacket and cap worn by jockeys. Silks can be generic and provided by the track or specific to one owner
Filly - female horse, four-years old or younger
Foal - a baby horse
Furlong - ⅛th of a mile
Mare - female horse, five-years old or older
Stud - male horse used for breeding

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Kurt Russell: Ben Crane, horse trainer
Elisabeth Shue: his wife Lily, a part-time waitress
Dakota Fanning: their daughter Cale
Kris Kristofferson: Ben’s father, Pop
David Morse: stable owner Palmer
Freddy Rodriguez: horse jockey, Monolin
Luis Guzman: stablehand, Balon

REVIEW
This movie is like a favourite bedtime story: there is nothing original about it, the story is well known, the ending predictable, yet it’s fun to read over and over again because it is a “feel-good” type of story.

CLASSIFICATION

for brief mild language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
The Breeders’ Cup was first run in 1984 so the 22nd running takes place in 2005. October 29 of that year was a Friday, not a Saturday.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.