'Dream House'

'Dream House' (PG-13) (1 1/2 STARS)

Writer: David Loucka
Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Elias Koteas, Martin Csokas

It is a shame when bad movies happen to great people. Director Jim Sheridan has always directed quality projects including one of the best movies I have ever seen in "In America". I don't know how he got involved with a boring drag and laughable thriller like "Dream House". He makes the movie look beautiful with the help of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (father of Zooey!)
but the screenplay is a joke. Word is Sheridan disowned the movie after losing final cut from the studio but did he read this screenplay?

"Dream House" stars great actors (also wasted here) Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz as a married couple with two little daughters. The father is first seen retiring from his editor's job and then we see him back with his family in their house. The kids start seeing a man in the window and think the house is haunted. Then the father finds out a family was killed there before, the husband supposedly shotting the wife and kids dead. Is the "Dream House" haunted? I will save you the trouble, no the movie advertises it as a horror, haunted house movie but the story turns into a lame murder mystery.

I did expect a haunted house movie and the trailer promises twists and turns and I thought a haunted house. There are three plot twists, the first one I guessed right away because THE TRAILER GIVES IT AWAY! The second one is a laughable twist and the final twist is just lame. There is no suspense here, no character development and when kids are used as props in a thriller when said thriller is pointless it is offensive to me. Anyway this movie is just too stupid, lackluster and lame to care about. The pace is also mind numbingly slow and the plot is so familiar it is just boring. "Dream House" may have been ruined by it's studio but where is the blame for the writer who wrote this terrible thriller?

P.S. The movie was not released to critics ahead of time because Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz didn't want to answer questions about their affair that turned into a marriage. Really? Really! Really? Is this where we have gone to? A movie not released to critics because of a Hollywood scandal? Nice cover there movie studio people. Come on, you didn't release it to critics because the movie is bad.