Customer Reviews

American Dreamz

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is barely a spiffy spoof on American culture and politics that might be all too close to a current TV show called "American Idol." Hugh Grant is a producer of the wildly successful "American Dreamz." He is professionally engaging and personally shallow, self-centered, and sleazy.

On the other side of the globe is an uncoordinated, two-left-footed terrorist in training whose mother was killed by an American bomb. Unfortunately, he loves American show tunes, and is caught by the silhouette of the light in his tent, dancing to one of them. His commanders decide that he will never be of any use, and order him to go to America as a sleeper agent. He is to take up residence with his aunt, uncle and two cousins. They plan on letting him sleep for a long time.

Then there is the President of the United States, played by Steven Quaid. He is a bone-headed, numbskull who gets everything he is supposed to say from his chief of staff, played by Willem Defoe. One morning he has the revelation that everything is not just black and white, and he goes on a reading frenzy beginning with the NY Times. He stays in the residence for weeks, just reading.

Mandy Moore is a blond, blue-eyed Karaoke singer from Anywhere, Ohio, and she definitely wants to become an American Dreamz Princess. She jilts her boyfriend as she finds out that she is selected for the show. The jilted beau decides to join the army where he is given only two weeks training before he finds himself in Iraq, where he gets shot in his tattooed arm that bears the name of his ex-girlfriend. He returns home to express his undying devotion to her.

(If you need to take a break from reading this review, I will understand).

Chief of staff, Willem Defoe decides to get the president out of his reading lethargy by booking him as a judge on "American Dreamz." American Dreamz Dream Team do their producer's bidding to find someone who is more ethnic than the average American. They should find someone from the middle east who they will ensure gets to the finals. And who do they discover practicing on his cousin's set in the basement of his aunt and uncle's California home? You guessed it!

Now the terrorists find their opportunity to strike at the clod of the United States. Will the sleeper terrorist who is love-struck with the American culture strap himself with a bomb, and blow up the president, or judge?

You'll have to see the movie to find out.

The acting is excellent and Hugh Grant deviates from his usual role as a sensitive, bumbling, loveable guy to heartless, intolerable creep.

As for actually seeing this movie, it's kind of a bomb. (Sorry, bad choice of words).

Take a nice nap instead.

President Joseph Staton (Dennis Quaid) sees the world as a fairly black-and-white place, but a glance at the daily headlines on the eve of his reelection leaves the most powerful man in the free world shaken to the very core. Upon reading this, Staton locks himself in his bedroom boning up on information, which causes concern for his chief of staff (Willem Dafoe) and first lady/wife (Marcia Gay Harden). Eventually, Staton finds himself booked on his favorite show, "American Dreams", hosted by the cynical Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant). The event is in favor of two contestants, Sally Kendoo (Many Moore) and Omer (Sam Golzari). But one of them has a dark secret that will ensure a season finale no one will soon forget.

With "American Dreams," Paul Weitz is finding himself in a new direction. Known for movies about getting past first base ("American Pie"), childish adults who want kids ("About a Boy"), and wounded egos in the workplace ("In Good Company"), the director is now moving into satirical comedy. Sure, we've been down this road before (on "SNL" and "MadTV"), but with a potent comedy agenda and good talent involved, "American Dreamz" manages to entertain.

Recently, critics are after this movie because of some poor satirical targets, such as "American Idol" and the fact that our president is a boob. Agreed, because we had "MadTV," "South Park," "Saturday Night Live," and a dozen other shows that have tackled these subjects. Of course, it doesn't help matters if you have overexposed "SNL" celeb Seth Meyers in your cast (though he does bring up a funny Britney Spears reference). And the movie takes a downfall when it reaches dramatic portions, such as terrorists forcing Omer to blow himself and the president up.

Weitz does get help from his cast. Like with all his recent movies, "Dreamz" benefits from a strong ensemble cast. The highlight of this movie is former(?) teen pop starlet Mandy Moore. She fills her character with naivet charms (think Piper Perabo of "Coyote Ugly" without all the lame clichd drama), and some doses of humor. It's very good stuff.

Rounding out the cast is some familiar Weitz cast members - Dennis Quaid puts a southern drawl for Staton, Hugh Grant is wonderfully cynical as Martin Tweed, and Chris Klein is always up for a laugh as Sally's b/f. It's a shame the same can't be said for John Cho, Jennifer Coolidge, Judy Greer, Marcia Gay Harden, and others, as none of them have a lot to do in this movie.

"Dreamz" kind of runs in the similar category as any "SNL" Weekend Update you've seen: sophomoric play-it-safe potshots at the president, making you wonder if Tina Fey was uncredited with writing the screenplay. Still, if your cast has some likable talent like Grant, Moore, and Quaid, maybe it doesn't matter that much. And Willem Dafoe's good as the Dick Cheney look-a-like, so why complain?

Without giving a brief of the story, let me just say I found this movie a refreshing satirical comedy about many things wrong in today's society and the world politics in general. The characters are played well, each bringing out a likable personality along with flaws in character. Presented in a clear manner are negative results of selfishness, greed, insecurity, distrust among people and nations, dishonesty and on and on and on. This movie really has a lot of deep meaning to explore and think about. In a time when there is so much terrorism and ploting in the world I found it refreshing to see a movie which brings out the utter stupidity of todays shallowness and greed. The ending - the followup of the two main contestants six months later - should give us all food for thought about how we tend to judge and trust others. Who was really untrustworthy in the end?

Writer/director Paul Weitz (AMERICAN PIE , ABOUT a BOY) hits us with his new film American Dreamz satirizes the White House incompetence, the flaws in the "war on terror" and the idiocy of TV's "American Idol." Weitz uses these easy targets for send-ups, while (again) attempting to make us like stupid and unlikable characters. While this worked in ABOUT a BOY and his AMERICAN PIE series of films, it is awkward at best, and he has greatest success with his show tune loving-would-be-terrorist, OMER. Let me explain...

...the story begins when President Staton (Dennis Quaid) wakes up one morning and decides, for the first time, to read the newspaper. He awakens to the possibilities of an outside world. Meanwhile, the self-absorbed host of TV's talent contest "American Dreamz," Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant), about to start another season, he demands to have an Arab represented on the show. His call is answered by, Omer (Sam Golzari), a less than enthusiastic terrorist "sleeper" dumped for incompetence and sent to the U.S. to live with family waiting for his orders. The future "American Dreamz" winner, Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore), callously prepares for her future in showbiz by keeping her dim ex-boyfriend (Chris Klein) only to win votes. Willem Dafoe as a Cheney-looking Vice President, works to get the President, & the States, back under control, give Staton "happy pills" and making him wear an earpiece when speaking in public. As part of a PR blitz the President will make a guest appearance on "American Dreamz" in a painfully contrived connecting of characters. Weitz spends much of the movie attempting to humanizing these quirky stereotypes, the President starts to look like a nice, but spaced-out guy, along with the First-lady (Marcia Gay Harden), while even the shallow Sally and cynical Martin are revealed to be lonely behind their Hollywood facades.

In the end the movie falls short, after all the character tinkering Weitz fails to make a cohesive story. He supplies lots of interesting performances and interesting characters like: Tony Yalda as Iqbal, the flamboyantly gay cousin who helps with Omer's TV image; Jennifer Coolidge as Sally Mom, Chris Klein as Sally's boyfriend, Dafoe's VP has some great scene with the Staton as does Sam Golzari as the "Omerizing" contestant who may or may not win or blow-up the Prez. The movie's strength lies in the bashing of iconic sterotypes, from TV and from the general public, more concerned with reality TV voting than voting in a presidential election, in fact it is the movie's tagline. Another strength of the film is the energy used pointing out items made off limits for questioning or discussion, no matter how obvious, like the President blurting out that the War was a bad idea. But I expected more from this one, given the talent behind the project.

An impressive ensemble cast and sharp satirical understanding makes AMERICAN DREAMZ a lot more entertaining than I had expected. It manages to spoof of all things, terrorism, the American Idol craze, and political manipulation, and of course personal relationships.
Hugh Grant is perfect as the self centered egotistical host and producer of TV's most popular show, "American Dreamz." Grant has this kind of snootiness down to an art and he's quite effective. A surprisingly competent performance from teen star Msndy Moore as the coquettish but talented singer who will do anything to win the grand prize; Dennis Quaid is marvelous as the disillusioned president whose PR director (Willem Defoe looking a lot like Henry Fonda) tries to raise the president's popularity by making him the guest host for the show's finals; Sam Golari is very good as the planted terrorist whose success as the show's "novelty"(i.e., untalented) singer/dancer is perfect for the mission to kill the president on live T.V.; Chris Klein is Moore's lovestruck boyfriend whose war injury helps improve Moore's chances of winning, and whose final act is ironically appropriate. Jennifer Coolidge and Marcia Gay Harden are good as Moore's mother and Quaid's first lady respectively.
The expose of the innate idiocy of shows like AMERICAN IDOL is right on target and its twist ending also fitting. A good satire for our times.

AMERICAN DREAMZ is a pitiful mess of a movie, a film that seems as though it wants to be a satire on the Bush administration, on talk show hosts, and on our current state of mindless entertainment that seems to keep high ratings and low IQs neck and neck.

The story, what little there is, involves a bored talent show host (Hugh Grant, who looks very down in the tooth) desperate to get out of his mindless role, and hungry for people who are over the edge to come on his popular show and make fools of themselves. He manages to accomplish this from some rather innocent folks as well as the President of the United States (GWB imitator Dennis Quaid, Laura Bush imitator Marcia Gay Harden, and Cheney imitator Willem Dafoe). Along the way we meet some fragments of characters portrayed by some fine actors who bought into this venture belonging to Paul Weitz for some unknown reason: Mandy Moore, Jennifer Coolidge, a promising Sam Golzari, Chris Klein, Seth Meyers, and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Satire can be one of the finest forms of art, but it requires a very intelligent script. That missing element is what drives this very unfunny carcass into the dumpster! Grady Harp, October 06

Perhaps one of the worst movies ever made. For a comedy, I only laughed perhaps twice in two hours. I thought it would be a funny send up of American Idol. It wasn't. But it was painfully slow, dull, and boring, and perhaps that's why a week after it opened there were only 10 people in the entire theatre besides the three of us. Dennis Quaid wasn't funny, Hugh Grant wasn't funny, and really I wish I had left and asked for a refund. It's amazing how a movie like that can make it to the screen. I would have done better to watch Dave again with Kevin Kleine. This movie was an American travesty from start to finish!

evidently, this film is not for everyone, but for those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. Very well done, writing and acting, satire a bit mild

A hilarious send-up of politics, reality TV, pop-culture marketing, and the image of America, this movie is not to be missed.

The movie opens, oddly enough, on a Taliban training camp. Robed terrorists are going through their paces as another man films their activities. However, in each scene, there is ONE terrorist who is messing up the shot - falling over the wall instead of jumping over it, dropping awkwardly from the climbing pole, misfiring his weapon. We discover that this person is Olmer (Sam Golzari), who is only at the camp because he is related to its director. In the privacy of his tent at night, Olmer listens to old 45s of showtunes and dreams of being a song and dance man. The camp director, wishing to get Olmer off his hands for good, packs him off to live with another relative in California, telling him that his sleeper cell will contact him when the time is right (but fully intending to abandon him).

Meanwhile, Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant), the British host of a very American-Idol-like reality TV show, is trying to keep his program at the top of the ratings. They are looking for a crop of contestants for the new season, and they discover Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore), a singer from a rural area of Ohio. When he learns that Sally has a lovestruck Iraq War veteran (Chris Klein) for a boyfriend, something sparks Tweed's mind. He charges his team to also find an Arab and a Jew as contestants, leading to what he hopes will be hefty human interest drama during the show.

In the meantime, America's President (Dennis Quaid) is looking for some high profile appearances to boost approval ratings. It is decided that he'll be a guest judge on the final episode of the show, moving all the major players towards an inevitable and thoroughly entertaining conclusion.

I nearly busted a gut during this movie. It is such an accurate, sly parody of American society and the U.S. marketing machine. Performances are wonderful and light. Quaid is chuckle-worthy as the befuddled president, and Moore is a force as the driven, scheming Sally Kendoo. Golzari's Omer personifies the world's fascination with America. The script is fresh, funny, and smart. Rounding out the cast are Marcia Gay Harden as the first lady, Jennifer Coolidge as Sally's pushy stage mom, and Willem Dafoe as the President's chief of staff. With such an all-star cast, how can you lose??! Sooooo worth seeing.

I definitely got four stars worth of entertainment out of this DVD. There were enough laughs to keep me watching, and I particularly loved the Broadway show-tune-loving terrorist dancing in his tent.

After watching years of American Idol and watching the news, American Dreamz almost seemed like reality TV! There was nothing here to be offended by, plenty to laugh at -- and I still think it's funny after the second viewing.

Lighten up and laugh -- it's a silly comedy that delivers!