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By STEVE PERSALL
Published October 20, 2005

At first glance, Stay (R) seems like every other yarn lately involving ghosts, reincarnation or some kind of creepy afterlife. Then you check the credits and learn it's directed by Marc Forster, and the anticipation level immediately rises.

Forster made his debut with the best film of 2003 (in my opinion), Monster's Ball, which earned Halle Berry an Academy Award for best actress. He followed that gem with Finding Neverland, a multiple Oscar nominee. This guy knows what he's doing.

Stay features Ewan McGregor as a psychiatrist whose patient (Ryan Gosling, The Notebook) announces he will commit suicide in three days. Twentieth Century Fox's publicity department has been unusually tight-lipped about what occurs next, although it has something to do with a netherworld between life and death the therapist discovers while trying to save his patient's life. My sixth sense tells me Forster will create a doozy.

The film was screened too late for Weekend deadline. Check Friday's St. Petersburg Times for a full review.

For some reason, the creators of Kurt Russell's new movie are compelled to declare their authenticity in the title, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story.

That's five words and one needless pronouncement too many, in my book. Imagine if Steven Spielberg called his first hit Jaws: This Is Made Up, or the Farrelly brothers released Kingpin: We Worked Really Hard on These Jokes.

Anyway, Dreamer - sorry, I can't bring myself to write the rest - stars Russell as a horse trainer whose incredibly astute daughter (played by Dakota Fanning, of course) sees potential in a thoroughbred with a broken leg to match her father's broken spirit. With the help of her crusty grandfather (Kris Kristofferson), they get the horse into shape to contend for the Breeders' Cup, one of racing's most prestigious events.

Las Vegas wouldn't lay odds on the chances of an unhappy ending.

Dreamer was previewed too late for Weekend. See Friday's Times for a full review.

It's ironic that the video game that changed everything, turning gaming into an entertainment force to rival film for discretionary spending, has been made into a movie.

Though videogame-to-film projects aren't unheard of (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Mario Brothers), Doom was a different animal. It immersed players in a format that came to be called "first person shooter." Wildly violent and addictive, Doom, the game, burst onto the scene in 1993 as shareware, offered free across a new medium called the Internet.

The game, and the movie, recount the tale of space-age Marines sent to a remote space outpost to battle demons unleashed when an experiment opened the gates of hell.

Whereas a sci-fi shoot'em-up starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Walking Tall) released in the typically dry fall season might be brushed off as minor, there is more than usual riding on this adaptation. Doom won't be for everybody, but if it can't please its intended audience, if it can't measure up to the game, film will have lost another important battle with the video gaming industry.

Opening Friday, Doom was screened too late for a Weekend review. Look for a report in Friday's Times.

- CHASE SQUIRES, Times TV critic

[Last modified October 19, 2005, 10:43:05]