Have you ever watched a movie and just thought to yourself, “What a missed opportunity at something entertaining”? Over the years, there have been several films that I had those emotions with including Venom, Venom 2, and pretty much the entire DCEU sans Shazam! (I have hope it’s going to get better). Anyway, we received Vestron Video’s Dream a Little Dream, which takes a messy view of body-swapping, a big thing in 80s comedic cinema, and somehow gets it wrong.
Let’s dig into it.
Official Synopsis
Bobby has everything a young guy should have in life, which includes a good buddy, a girlfriend, and parents who love him. When the older couple down the street try a transcendental experiment to extend their lives, they quite literally become trapped in the teen’s bodies. This teen comedy has a great cast including the two Coreys – Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, as well as Harry Dean Stanton (Repo Man, Alien), Piper Laurie (Carrie), and Jason Robards (Magnolia).
Let me start off by saying that Dream a Little Dream is a cult classic and a film that has so many decent-to-worthy names within it. It’s also a good reminder of the rebellious and light-hearted 80s that allowed quirky comedies without much reason to the rhyme. I guess the latter is where this film lies, as the story is messy as hell, but it seems like everyone involved was having a good time with it. Of course, they’re actors, so they could just be acting like they are having a good time.
The story starts with best friends Bobby (Feldman) and Dinger (Haim) just being rebellious-against-the-system personalities that care little about the people around them and more about what they’re going to be doing on a Friday night. The carefree nature also includes walking through Coleman Ettinger’s (Jason Robards) yard and hurting his flowers/garden against his repeated wishes for them not to do so. The young and old personalities of Coleman and Bobby see life in two different ways as they begrudgingly intersect without knowing it. Bobby is trying to figure out what to do with his life and how it’s going to go, while Coleman wants to do as much as he can before his life ends, which includes extending it to spend as much time as he can with his wife Gena (Piper Laurie).
As things start to heat up a bit between Coleman and Bobby, Bobby’s spiraling life gets more complicated when he falls for Lainie (Meredith Salenger) the girlfriend of rough/tough group leader Joel (William McNamara). Openly admitting that he likes her, Bobby finds himself chasing after Lainie one night, who is chasing after Bobby, while Coleman and his wife are doing a ritual to extend their lives. Coleman and Bobby, as well as Lainie, intersect and run into each other causing the ritual to work and swap the souls of Bobby and Coleman.
If you’re confused by this, it’s okay. Me too. Let’s just pretend this is logical.
From that point on, we have a budding comedy, where Coleman is doing his best to survive within the young body of Bobby, while Bobby’s soul is trapped within a dream state. Both Bobby and Coleman talk with each other at night during dreams, where Bobby threatens Coleman with losing everything if he doesn’t try to get Lainie and live a good life for Bobby. It’s an odd set of conversations that Bobby and Coleman have in the dream world, where Coleman is mostly sulking that he wants his body back and Bobby sprinkling in solutions that could make that happen, but also giving Coleman a stern deadline that if he doesn’t do what Bobby wants within 48 hours that Coleman never sees his wife again. His wife is moving out of his mind and leaving. I don’t honestly know why or how, and it’s never truly explained in the story. Of course, it’s an 80s film. We just go with it. I mean, they made Baby: The Secret of the Lost Legend during this decade, so what the hell do I know?
Anyway, the movie continues with a gaggle of honorable chivalry moments between Bobby and Lainie, and a predictable set of missteps, which include an alcohol-induced, gun-toting Joel that is ready to blow the brains out of a random villain in Dumas. The story explores a better and deeper understanding of both Coleman and Bobby while offering up some insight on how to treat your teenage son when you’re lost at parenting. There are a lot of lessons presented in this film, but none are consistent and completely connected with each other. I will say that Bobby’s talk with Joel at the end was very heartfelt in delivery and useful for angry and lost teenagers on the wrong side of reason, so that’s a huge plus.
As you can probably predict, the film ends on a happy note. I mean, it’s the 80s. What do you expect? Comedies don’t end on a sour note in the 80s. How you get to that note is important and how it’s done is vital. Because of the messy storytelling, and at times incredible overacting the film’s conclusion isn’t as impactful as one would have hoped. I get its intentions and support them, but the story just doesn’t completely deliver on what it wants.
Dream a Little Dream is such an odd bird of a film. It really has fantastic and classical 80s intentions, but the execution is just messy. Through Coleman and Bobby, the story wants its audience to enjoy life while you still have it and not worry too much about the future. That’s a fair and valid wish and takeaway, as most of us tend to think about what’s coming up rather than what we’ve got going on right now. Due to the sporadic journey the story and set of characters take, the conclusion is dulled down a bit and not as meaningful as it could have been. As films do from time to time, stories presented as a series of moments, such as Feldman’s Michael Jackson impression dancing with Salenger and the alleyway scene with Dumas and Joel, tend to forget how all the pieces fit together as a whole. When you go that moment-to-moment route, you lose the bigger picture, which makes the impactful of the story fall short.
Still, this is a cult classic, and most films of their kind don’t need to be perfect to be loved. Seeing Feldman and Haim acting together is always a treat that harkens back to the budding brilliance in The Lost Boys. The biggest and most tragic thought I can take away from this film is that the two Coreys will never have the opportunity to make a buddy comedy again. The Coreys worked well with each other in Dream a Little Dream, and were no doubt the highlight of the film, even if the story was all over the place. It’s a classic in the sense that it was a movie about what could have been for these two young kids. And they were kids during this time. Sadly, it’s a permanent reminder of what will never be again, but at least those moments were preserved in this movie.
Special Features
- Interviews: “Young at Heart” — An Interview with Actor Corey Feldman
- “When Lightning Strikes” — An Interview with Executive Producer Lawrence
- Audio Commentary with Film Historian Jarret Gahan
- Theatrical Trailers
- TV Spots
- Stills Gallery
