Dream a Little Dream (film)

Last updated

Dream a Little Dream
Dream a little dream (film poster).jpg
Promotional film poster
Directed by Marc Rocco [1]
Written byMarc Rocco [1]
Daniel Jay Franklin
D.E. Eisenberg
Produced byMarc Rocco [1]
D.E. Eisenberg
Starring
CinematographyKing Baggot [2]
Edited byRussell Livingstone
Music byJohn William Dexter
Distributed by Vestron Pictures
Release date
  • March 3, 1989 (1989-03-03) [3]
Running time
114 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5,171,429 [4] - $5,552,441 [5]

Dream a Little Dream is a 1989 American fantasy-romantic comedy-drama [3] [6] film directed by Marc Rocco and starring Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Meredith Salenger, Jason Robards, Piper Laurie and Harry Dean Stanton. It was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. This was the third film featuring The Two Coreys. A direct to video sequel, Dream a Little Dream 2 , was released in 1995. [7]

Contents

Plot

Bobby Keller is a slacker high school student who, while running through a short cut through a backyard in his neighborhood one night, collides with Lainie Diamond, over whom Bobby has recently been obsessing. During the collision, elderly professor Coleman Ettinger is performing a meditation exercise in the yard with his wife Gena, theorizing that if he and his wife can enter a meditative alpha state together voluntarily, they will be able to live together forever. However, just as the Ettingers are on the verge of completing their meditation experiment, the teenagers' collision renders both teens unconscious, enacting a type of body switch between the four characters.

Bobby wakes up in his bedroom to find his best friend Dinger and his parents asking him if he's okay, but "Bobby" has no idea who these people are because he is actually Coleman trapped in Bobby Keller's body. Coleman leaves the house to find his wife but returns when he cannot find her or make any sense of the situation. On his return to Bobby's home, Coleman plays up the role of Bobby for his family and friend, just wanting to go to sleep to see if the alpha state he attains in dreams will give him any clue to what has gone wrong with the experiment.

In his dream, Coleman is greeted by the real Bobby, who appears to be trapped in a dream partially generated by Coleman's own subconscious. Coleman discovers that Gena, skeptical of her husband's "dream state" theory from the beginning, is also trapped in the dream but is unable to communicate with him because part of her mind has been transferred to Lainie's body. Bobby informs Coleman that he has very little time to prevent what's left of his wife from forgetting about him and becoming lost in the dream forever.

Bobby claims to know the secret to switch them all back, yet is reluctant to help Coleman do so, finding the dream-world he now inhabits to be more satisfying than the physical world in which he existed as a troubled teen. Coleman realizes he only has a few days (while pretending to be Bobby) to overcome generation gaps, high-school bullies, Lainie's violent and unstable boyfriend Joel, and Lainie's bitter and manipulative divorced mother in order to improve Bobby's grades, love-life, relationships with his family and friends, and connect with Lainie (who is not particularly fond of Bobby) enough to convince her to recreate the meditation experiment that might save his beloved wife.

Cast

Source [8]

Music

The soundtrack includes a mix of 1980s rock and classic music. Michael Damian covered the 1973 David Essex song "Rock On" which rose to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of June 3, 1989, [9] [10] helped by a video featuring the film's lead actors.

Mickey Thomas, the lead singer of the popular 1980s band Starship, recorded the film's title theme song and its duet version with Mel Tormé for the soundtrack. Thomas also appears as the teacher Mr. Pattison in the film.

Track listing [11]
  1. "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by Mickey Thomas - (Fabian André; Gus Kahn; Wilbur Schwandt) – 2:52
  2. "Time Runs Wild" by Danny Wilde - (Danny Wilde) – 4:44
  3. "Whenever There's a Night" by Mike Reno - (John William Dexter; Tom Whitlock) – 3:34
  4. "Dreams Come True (Stand Up and Take It)" by Lone Justice - (Gregg Sutton; Maria McKee) – 4:05
  5. "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison - (Van Morrison) – 3:30
  6. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. - (Peter Buck; Mike Mills; Michael Stipe; Bill Berry) – 4:00
  7. "Rock On" by Michael Damian - (David Albert Cook) – 3:21
  8. "You'd Better Wait" by Fee Waybill - (Rick Neigher; James House) – 3:21
  9. "Never Turn Away" by Chris Thompson - (John William Dexter; Tom Whitlock) – 3:07
  10. "I've Got Dreams to Remember" by Otis Redding - (Otis Redding; Zelma Redding; Joe Rock) – 3:12
  11. "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by Mel Tormé & Mickey Thomas - (Fabian André; Gus Kahn; Wilbur Schwandt) – 2:51
Songs

Charts

Chart (1990)Peak
position
Australia (ARIA Charts) [12] 80

Reception

Box office

The movie made $2,568,963 during its opening weekend, [4] with its widest release, in 1,019 theaters. The following week, its weekend gross dropped dramatically (by around 51%). Its domestic gross came out to be around $5,500,000. [5]

Critical response

The film received largely negative reviews, earning a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes based on all 11 reviews counted. [13] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 32 out of 100, based on 12 critics. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corey Feldman</span> American actor (born 1971)

Corey Scott Feldman is an American actor. As a youth, he became well known for his roles in popular 1980s films such as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), and Stand by Me (1986). Feldman collaborated with Corey Haim starring in numerous films such as the comedy horror The Lost Boys (1987), the teen comedy License to Drive (1988) and the romantic comedy Dream a Little Dream (1989). They reunited for the A&E reality series The Two Coreys, which ran from 2007 to 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Damian</span> American actor and singer (born 1962)

Michael Damian Weir is an American actor, singer, director, writer, and producer, best known for his role as Danny Romalotti on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, which he played from 1981 to 1998, 2002 to 2004, 2008, 2012 to 2013, and again from 2022 to 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheburashka</span> Russian character

Cheburashka, also known as Topple in earlier English translations, is a fictional character created by Soviet writer Eduard Uspensky in his 1965 children's book Gena the Crocodile and His Friends. The character subsequently appeared as the protagonist in a series of stop-motion animated films directed by Roman Kachanov for Soyuzmultfilm, the first of which was made in 1969, with songs composed by Vladimir Shainsky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lainie Kazan</span> American actress and singer (born 1940)

Lainie Kazan is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for St. Elsewhere and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for My Favorite Year. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in My Favorite Year (1982). Kazan played Maria Portokalos in the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise. She also played Aunt Freida on The Nanny.

<i>The Flintstone Kids</i> American animated television series

The Flintstone Kids is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. It is an alternative incarnation of the studio's original animated series The Flintstones. The series depicts juvenile versions of the main characters from the original show. It aired from September 13, 1986, to November 14, 1987, on ABC. It was the first Flintstones series not to have a laugh track.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meredith Salenger</span> American actress

Meredith Salenger is an American actress. Her credits include the 1985 film The Journey of Natty Gann, as the title character, and the 1989 teen comedy Dream a Little Dream.

<i>The Papas & the Mamas</i> 1968 studio album by the Mamas and the Papas

The Papas & the Mamas is the fourth studio album by the American folk rock vocal group the Mamas and the Papas, released in 1968.

<i>The Basketball Diaries</i> (film) 1995 film by Scott Kalvert

The Basketball Diaries is a 1995 American biographical crime drama film. The movie deals with drug addiction and its unfavorable outcome in lives of common people. Directed by Scott Kalvert in his feature directorial debut and based on an autobiographical novel by the same name written by Jim Carroll. It tells the story of Carroll's teenage years as a promising high school basketball player and writer who develops an addiction to heroin. Distributed by New Line Cinema, The Basketball Diaries stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll, along with Bruno Kirby, Lorraine Bracco, Ernie Hudson, Patrick McGaw, James Madio, Michael Imperioli, and Mark Wahlberg in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Rocco</span> American actor (1936-2015)

Alex Rocco was an American actor. Known for his distinctive, gravelly voice, he was often cast as villains, including Moe Greene in The Godfather (1972) and his Primetime Emmy Award–winning role in The Famous Teddy Z. Rocco did a significant amount of voice-over work later in his career.

<i>Dream a Little Dream 2</i> 1995 American film

Dream a Little Dream 2 is a 1995 direct-to-video American teen comedy film, starring Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Robyn Lively and Stacie Randall. Directed by James Lemmo, this film is the sequel to the 1989 film Dream a Little Dream. It is one of seven films featuring The Two Coreys.

D-TV is a music video television series produced by Charles Braverman and edited by Ted Herrmann. Premiering on May 5, 1984 on the Disney Channel, the series combined both classic and contemporary popular music with various footage of vintage animated shorts and feature films from The Walt Disney Company, created out of the trend of music videos on cable channel MTV, which inspired the name of this series.

Pat Irwin is an American composer and musician who was a founding member of two bands that grew out of New York City's No Wave scene in the late 1970s, the Raybeats and 8-Eyed Spy. He joined The B-52s from 1989 through 2008. He currently performs and records with SUSS who have released several records on the indie label Northern Spy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock On (David Essex song)</span> Single by David Essex

"Rock On" is a song written by English singer David Essex. Recorded in 1973 and released as a single by Essex, it became an international hit. In 1989, American actor and singer Michael Damian recorded a cover version that went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song has been recorded many times, including a 2006 version by the English hard rock group Def Leppard.

<i>All the Leaves Are Brown</i> 2001 compilation album by The Mamas & the Papas

All the Leaves are Brown: The Golden Era Collection is a 2001 release compiling the first four albums by The Mamas & the Papas in their entirety, with some single-exclusive mono versions and one non-album track. The package includes a brief history of the group and its albums by Matthew Greenwald, author of Creeque Alley: The Oral History of The Mamas & The Papas.

Marc Rocco was an American film director, film producer and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damian Priest</span> American professional wrestler

Luis Martínez is an American professional wrestler. As of October 2018, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Damian Priest. He is also known for his work in Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring name Punishment Martinez, where he is a former one-time ROH World Television Champion. He also worked in Japan through ROH's relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

The Bloodline is a villainous professional wrestling stable that performs in WWE on the SmackDown brand. The stable consists of second leader Solo Sikoa, The Tongans, and Jacob Fatu. This name of the stable is in reference to the majority of the group being members of the Anoaʻi family of Samoan professional wrestlers.

<i>A Warm Shade of Ivory</i> 1969 studio album by Henry Mancini

A Warm Shade of Ivory is a 1969 album by American composer and arranger Henry Mancini issued by RCA Records. The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Album Chart on 2 August 1969. Mancini's arrangement of Nino Rota’s Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on June 28, 1969, and remained there for two weeks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Ettinger</span> American actor (born 1985)

Philip Ettinger is an American actor. He first gained attention for his supporting role as the troubled environmental activist, Michael, in Paul Schrader's First Reformed (2017). Other significant roles have been as Garrett Drimmer in the CBS All Access series One Dollar (2018), as the young-adult version of Mark Ruffalo's twin characters, Dominick and Thomas Birdsey, in HBO's I Know This Much is True in 2020, and in the lead role of Cole Freeman in Braden King's cinematic adaptation of the Carter Sickels' novel The Evening Hour (2020).

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Filmmaker Marc Rocco dies at 46". Variety. May 25, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  2. ↑ "ASC Close-Up: King Baggot". ASC. November 1, 2018. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "AFI". AFI Catalog. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Dream a Little Dream (1989)". The Numbers. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Dream a Little Dream at Box Office Mojo
  6. ↑ "Dream a Little Dream Reviews". TV Guide. 1989. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Dream A Little Dream 2 - Review". AllMovie. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  8. ↑ Dream a Little Dream at IMDb
  9. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2006). Top 1000 Hits of the Rock Era, 1955-2005 . Hal Leonard Corporation. p.  156. ISBN   1-4234-0919-1.
  10. ↑ "Michael Damian Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Dream a Little Dream - Original Soundtrack". AllMusic. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  12. ↑ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdf ed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  13. ↑ "Dream a Little Dream (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes. March 3, 1989. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Dream a Little Dreams - Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.