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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 38884
Released: October 17, 2006 |
| Our Price: $0.95 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The president of the United States becomes a celebrity judge on a reality contest show with contestants competing to be judged the best singer and performer.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 17-OCT-2006
Media Type: DVD
Description of American Dreamz (Widescreen Edition):
Thinly disguised versions of American Idol and the Bush presidency collide in the satire American Dreamz. Bored and self-loathing, Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant, About a Boy) wants to give his hugely popular reality show American Dreamz an extra boost by courting political controversy--but suspects he may find personal redemption in the form of scheming contestant Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore, Saved!), who manipulates her boyfriend (Chris Klein, Election) to give herself a vote-winning backstory. Meanwhile, equally desperate to court popularity, the President's chief of staff (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man, looking suspiciously Dick-Cheney-esque) gets Tweed to let the President (Dennis Quaid, The Rookie) be a guest judge on the show. But unbeknownst to all, a privately conflicted terrorist (Sam Golzari) has been selected as a contestant, and his sleeper cell wants him to blow up the President in the final competition. This complicated storyline doesn't quite have the bite it's reaching for; the political edge is particularly blunted--even diehard Republicans are unlikely to be offended. But sharp and funny lines are sprinkled throughout and the cast is uniformly excellent; the relationship between Grant and Moore is oddly touching, and Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock) makes an amazing First Lady--is this satire, or what we all wish Laura Bush was really like? An uneven movie, but with some delicious tidbits. --Bret Fetzer
American Dreamz (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
You could dream better. 
2009-12-09 - It has some laughs, it has pretty females, it has some good music, it is entertaining. I guess that it is what most of us would want from a movie. It is not really a movie about American Idol if that is what you were expecting. More of just a fun parody of singing contests. Best singer is Mandy, probably best actor too. Light entertainment, and as long as your buy is cheap, you can't lose.
A waste of nearly 2 hours 
2009-04-17 - I'm a huge Mandy Moore fan & I had such high hopes for this movie when I first heard about prior to its 2006 release! I purchased this earlier this week at Wal-Mart and just now got around to watching it... Now I know why it took me so long to get around to buying/renting/watching this movie :(
It really wasn't very funny... stupid is more the word for it. The acting was good, but it's too bad the script sucked.
2 stars for at least casting great actors (for a horrible movie).
I'm glad I only paid $5 for it at Wal-Mart.
Slightly bitter taste
2009-03-02 - I'v enjoyed many films by Paul Weitz and his brother Chris. They generally display a certain sensitivity and and maturity that I like. I understand the reasoning behind the attitude of the story. But the approach is a bit too cynical for my tastes. This is a well made film, with great acting/actors. The overall mood was just a bit depressing.
Too Close to the Truth
2009-02-17 - I think it was Woody Allen who wrote, "Comedy is tragedy with distance".
The basic premise of AMERICAN DREAMZ is hilarious: To boost his popularity, the President of the United States agrees to appear as a judge on a television show, not unlike AMERICAN IDOL. The President, delightfully played as a moron by Dennis Quaid, is not unlike George W., his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) is reminiscent of First Lady Laura and chief advisor Willem Dafoe is a Karl Rowe clone.
The comedy, written and directed by Paul Weitz, also looks into the personal lives of the TV show's producer-host (Hugh Grant), a rather self-centered fellow, as well as two of the contestants, Mandy Moore from Ohio, who is sort of a female version of Grant, and Sam Golzari, a totally incompetent Arab terrorist with a yen for Broadway show tunes.
All of the performances are first-rate and the picture offers many amusing moments. The problem with the movie is that it also tries to find humor with the war in Iraq, where many people are being killed every day, and, worse yet, it has a major subplot that involves a plan by Arab terrorists to kill the President.
Unfortunately, this is a bit too close to the painful truth to evoke many laughs.
Even today, more than a half century after the event, one does not find humor in the Holocaust. You can make fun of Hitler, but not the Holocaust.
With this movie, you can poke fun at former President George Bush, but the threat of a terrorist plot to kill him is not funny.
Do we laugh at 9/11?
© Michael B. Druxman
Racist, Pretentious and Immoral 
2008-08-30 - This film pretends to be a spoof about the current obsession with superficial fame as expressed through 'singing' 'talent' shows. Whoever wrote this film is not clever enough to pull this off.
The main characters in the film are :
1) An 'camp' Arab guy and his 'friend'. His colleagues want him to blow up the US president when they meet on the singing show (he is the finalist).
2) A blue eyed blond haired 'American girl' (the other finalist)
3) Her boyfriend (who wants to marry her)
4) The host of the show (played by Hugh Grant).
The problems I had with the film were :
1) It was hardly a spoof of this current 'celebrity culture'. This is evident in the fact that character 2) ends up being the 'good guy' character. She is portrayed as the sensible one in the film!
2) Character 2) ends up sleeping with character 4), yet character 2) still is portrayed as a good person in the film! In fact her boyfriend (character 3) gets so annoyed that he picks up the bomb which the Arab guy has dropped in the bin (he decides not to bomb everyone in the end) and threatens to kill everyone on set. In other words, the woman is unfaithful, but was portrayed in a good light and the man is ridiculed for being upset over his partner's infidelity! How ridiculous is this?
3) The portrayal of the Arab guy and his colleagues was the most reprehensible part of the film. First of all the Arab guy who is more western friendly is portrayed as lighter coloured, more camp (yes, they use 'campness' to signify western culture v. Arab culture) than the others. His colleagues who want him to carry out the suicide bombings are portrayed as more obviously Arab with beards, stronger accents, less western clothes and a backward mentality. The battle is basically portrayed as a western culture v Arab culture battle for the mind of Omar (the camp Arab guy). The Arab 'culture' is represented by suicide bombers. Of course, the western culture wins.
The film is dumb pathetic film and a (very small) part of the propaganda war that allows western governments to get away with the murder of so many Sunnis, Shias because they 'are all suicide bombers' who 'hate the west' and want to 'stop all of our liberties'. Subconsciously, many people who watch this film will walk out of this film with a small message of confirmation that Arabs are backward barbarians who are just dying (pun intended) for OUR help (the Taleban, Sadam Hussein, The Shah of Iran, the House of Saud, Hosni Mubarak etc etc)!!
And how many have died in the Middle East at the hands of such idiocy. And what have the Arabs ever done to us in the west (how many died on 9/11 v Iraq and Afghan wars - do the maths).
Whilst many will disagree with this view, I would only be interested if their disagreement is justified by sound reasoning.
