Morgan Freeman Is Terrible In Movie Shocker

Lawrence Kasden's Dreamcatcher is one of the most miscast movies ever. And I'm not so much refering to the cast, as I am about the director.

Kasden's a serious director. He treats Stephen King's novel with respect, with an ample budget, beautiful cinematography and a top notch cast. But the bugnuts plot required a little less respect and a bit more irreverence to make it work. There's three main sections to Dreamcatcher:-
1/ Four best friends, all posessing various ESP abilities, get together for the twentieth year running, in a log cabin for a winter break. While there a mysterious infection hits the locals, resulting in egg spewing slugs (Shitweasels) to coming ripping out of the infected person's arsehole. The mixture of horror and ESP is all very The Shining, and this bit of the movie works the best.
2/ An Army General (an overacting and woefully miscast Morgan Freeman) is brought in to deal with the contaigon. Freeman knows it's ET's that are the cause and is hellbent on destroying them, no matter the cost. It's the batshit Freeman stuff, interacting with subordinate Tom Sizemore, that grates the most. It's from an entirely diffent movie, coming across as dumb, corny, cliched and shlocky. If Freeman had been replaced by Steven Segal, it would've felt more appropriate.
3/ Damien Lewis gets possessed by an Alien, called Mr Grey. Damien talks to himself. So the real Damien has a US accent and Mr Grey talks with an excitable, hammy upper-class British accent. It's surreal and very very silly. And if Kasden had enough sense to take a note from James Gunn's Sliver (had it been made then), then presenting the movie in a tongue in cheek way might have made the movie more consistant in tone, and much more believable.

So what you get is a beautifully made movie that is engaging and facinating to watch...for all the wrong reasons. Morgan Freeman is really really bad. The aliens, in their climactic form, have escaped from a Stephen Sommers movie. And while conceptually sound, the sight of Damien Lewis talking to his possessed self is worthy of a Will Ferrel comedy, not a King adaptation. Maybe watching this stoned makes it work?