“Dream Sequences Suck!” by the Bitter Script Reader
There are few things that script readers hate to read more than dream sequences. The Bitter Script Reader points out the ways that hacks abuse this element. Most of the time, a dream scene isn’t essential to the story in a good script.
Dream sequences can suck, but fantasy sequences are cinematic poison ivy. I just tried to watch “She’s Having a Baby” because I heard it was good, but shut it off about halfway in because of all the dream sequences/fantasy sequences.
The Wizard of Oz does work because everything that happened in the dream sequence (Spoiler Alert) helped Dorthoty grow as a character. But it is the exception that proves the rule.
I can’t think of many films in which a dream sequence works other than Spellbound, Audition and Inception. I have seen plenty in which it doesn’t, the worst was probably a thriller from the 90s (I forget the name) in which the heroine realises who the killer is by dreaming about it. Talk about a cop out.