I see your point, but I don’t think I’d call that lazy writing (though it might be lazy editing). Just because you’ve (non-lazily) put a lot of time and/or effort and/or imagination into creating something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any good.
It still cracks me up that the Coens threw a random dream sequence into The Hudsucker Proxy for no apparent reason:
Magnum PI (The real one) had two episodes IIRC where the dream sequence was the main story and the things learned in the dream solved a case in real life*. Now, on the one hand, they were a different way to tell a story, on the other hand, they should just stick to reality.
*Don’t forget, Magnum is literally a psychic detective. It isn’t just his imagination.
I generally don’t like dream sequences for most of the reasons already stated. One exception, which you sort of have to accept or the whole movie is pointless, is Hitchcock’s Spellbound, and that dream sequence had the advantage of being designed by Salvador Dali.
Yeah - I feel that way about most dreams on film. Just a bunch of weird shit. I guess the exception would be if they are trying to suggest a character comes to some realization from mulling things over in their sleep. But IME that is different than dreaming. And, I guess I’m too concrete or something, but unless a character does/says something upon waking, I have a hard time figuring out what part of the dream weirdness was a revelation.
In that Soprano dream, I looked at IMDB and they say he realized he had to kill his cousin - Tony B (Steve Buscemi). I didn’t see any sign of that for at least 1-2 more episodes, until he finally DID kill him.
Of course, now we’re into S6, where he has been shot, and a bunch of the first 2 eps has been dream/hallucinations. Not the way to leave me with a good taste in my mouth about the series…
Funny dream sequences can be great. I’ll add to the list Liz Lemon’s anxiety dream about giving birth to Meat Cat in 30 Rock. I feel like the dream sequence in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion was trying to be funny, but it didn’t really land for me.
Never? Most of the dreams I remember aren’t very interesting, but there are a few that stand out to me. I remember a vivid dream I had in the 2nd or 3rd grade where I was frog hopping over corpses in a swamp. What the hell was that all about? I don’t know, but obviously I wasn’t a well adjusted child.
Generally speaking, I can take them or leave them. Off hand, I can’t think of any that are particularly good. Maybe in movies like Dreamscape and A Nightmare on Elm Street but that’s unfair since the dreams are the whole point of the movie.
Damn Straight!
Magnum Hijack: Was watching re-runs a while back. Geez, Thomas used to get the shit kicked out him pretty regular.
That’s ok because he channeled his frustrations by killing several dozen people.
Over in the Movie Reviews thread, Siskel and Ebert begin their evisceration of Jaws 4 with Gene ranting about how much he hates dream sequences.
Ebert gave Inception 4/4 stars, though the semtiment is not universal (it has 74 points on Metacritic).
I totally agree and I came here to post that. The others are just stupid, especially the ones that lead you to believe the dream is real life.
Right.
That one was good also, but it was clear it wasn’t real.
The answer there is
“Bye Peter”
Magnum (channeling Harry Tasker): But they were all BAD!
He made up for that by being killed in the end. (season 8 was like Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge)
Like most things in movies, dream sequences are good if they are 1) only used seldomly and 2) done well.
Sadly, usually at least one or both of those criteria is missing.
I paused the movie I’m watching just so I could post this. Rob Zombie’s Halloween II has the most useless dream sequence I think I’ve ever seen. Everything from 11 minutes until 23:30 is a dream.
It’s action-packed, to be sure, and that may be good enough for a slasher, but I’m left feeling a whole lotta WTF?
I’ve never seen the show before, so I don’t know if the sequence will relate to something later. Maybe it’s a memory or a premonition or something, but right now I feel cheated.
And back to my movie.
I hate dream sequences, with a very few exceptions, all of which are obviously dreams and not fooling us:
Blade Runner- the Unicorn Dream, all of 20 seconds long, is the single best use I’ve ever seen of a dream sequence.
Terminator 2- Sarah’s annihilation dream, as noted upthread. The second-best use of the device IMO. (The Kyle dream in the extended cut was very wisely deleted from the theatrical release.)
Also as noted upthread,
Big Lebowski
Raising Arizona
Yeah, I hate them too. The worst one: The Wizard of Oz. I wish they’d just cut out that boring dream sequence in the middle.
Total Recall (1990) had a pretty goo… actually most of the film was a dream sequence 
Yes, like in Fletch.
“He’s 6’ 6” — 6’ 10” with the afro…”. 
…and then Bobby Ewing came out of the shower…