The President is a boob in this lazy rip-off. Not funny except for one gem: the angry Arab gay cousin with a dream Weitz steals from him.
American Dreamz (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:152
Fresh:61
Rotten:91
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: This overly silly satire aims at too many targets with arrows too dull to make relevant social commentary.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for brief strong language and some sexual references
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:21-04-2006
Synopsis: Filmmaker Paul Weitz -- whose comic explorations have ventured into the synergistic halls of corporate culture (In Good Company), the perils of psychological isolationism (About a Boy) and the... Filmmaker Paul Weitz -- whose comic explorations have ventured into the synergistic halls of corporate culture (In Good Company), the perils of psychological isolationism (About a Boy) and the vicissitudes of losing one's virginity (American Pie)-- now delivers a comedy yanked from right-now popular culture...where the nation's shrinking attention span is more focused on "what's hot" than on hot-button headlines: American Dreamz. On the morning of his re-election, the President (Quaid) decides to read the newspaper for the first time in four years. This starts him down a slippery slope. He begins reading obsessively, reexamining his black and white view of the world, holing up in his bedroom in his pajamas. Frightened by the President's apparent nervous breakdown, his Chief of Staff (Dafoe) pushes him back into the spotlight, booking him as a guest judge on the television ratings juggernaut (and the President's personal fave), the weekly talent show American Dreamz. America can't seem to get enough of American Dreamz, hosted by self-aggrandizing, self-loathing Martin Tweed (Grant), ever on the lookout for the next insta-celebrity. His latest crop of hopefuls includes Sally (Moore), a conniving steel magnolia with a devoted, dopey veteran boyfriend (Klein), and Omer, a recent Southern Californian immigrant (who just happens to be a bumbling, show tune singing, would-be terrorist awaiting activation). When both Sally and Omer make it to the final round of Dreamz--where the President will be judging along with Tweed--the stage is set for a show the nation will never forget. American Dreamz is written, produced and directed by Paul Weitz (writer/director of In Good Company, co-director/Academy AwardŽ-nominated co-screenwriter of About A Boy and co-director of American Pie). Rodney Liber and Andrew Miano also produce; Chris Weitz and Kerry Kohansky serve as executive producers. --© Universal Pictures [More]
Starring: Mandy Moore, Hugh Grant, Willem Dafoe, Dennis Quaid
Starring: Mandy Moore, Hugh Grant, Willem Dafoe, Dennis Quaid, Chris Klein, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Coolidge, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Judy Greer, John Cho, Bernard White, Sam Golzari, Tony Yalda, Noureen DeWulf
Director: Paul Weitz
Director: Paul Weitz
Screenwriter: Paul Weitz
Producer: Rodney Liber, Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz
Composer: Stephen Trask
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for American Dreamz
American Dreamz, Paul Weitz's good-natured satire of pop, politics and our bloated sense of entitlement (arguably our biggest export) lampoons the great American disconnect from reality by locating the place where all these things intersect.
[Director Paul Weitz's] best work comes with plenty of breathing room. But American Dreamz is too busy and plotty to afford much of that. The characters end up competing for screen time.
This is a good movie about music that would have been better served without the music.
The time is certainly ripe for a scathing black comedy about our current political life -- something on the order of, say, Dr. Strangelove. Alas, American Dreamz is not that film. Not even close.
American Dreamz looks like a sitcom, plays like a sitcom and is a sitcom -- and also the riskiest political satire since Wag the Dog.
Even when Dreamz was clicking, I couldn't help wondering what a more ruthless filmmaker like Alexander Payne (Election) or even Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman) might have done with this material.
American Dreamz, writer-director Paul Weitz's parody of both American Idol and the American presidency, is filled with dead-on detail, sharp dialogue and reasons to laugh out loud.
Everybody's so good, you find yourself wondering why the movie isn't funnier -- or riskier.
Although Dreamz doesn't hold together as a seamless whole, most of its components are worth the price of admission on their own.
20 years from now, Dreamz will be a fine time capsule of who we are, and of everything that we think is 'so cool.'
You'd think the idea of a satire that combined politics and pop culture would be rife with possibility, but Weitz is more timid in the box than Jon Heder in The Benchwarmers.
The sort of satire so 'affectionate' that all of its would-be poison-tipped arrows seem to be coated in sugar.
A simple-minded cartoon that aims for low-brow laughs rather than going for the jugular.
...will undoubtedly come under fire for being all over the place, but that's like complaining a trapeze artist shouldn't be performing so far up in the air. The movie exhilarates precisely because it takes random, high-altitude risks.
...despite some great lines, the whole remains less hilarious than it ought to be.
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