How many of us have a chance to visit Broadway and see an A-quality show? That's the experience with Dreamgirls, and there's something to be said for it.
Dreamgirls (2006)
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Reviews Counted:198
Fresh:154
Rotten:44
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Dreamgirls' simple characters and plot hardly detract from the movie’s real feats: the electrifying performances and the dazzling musical numbers.
Theatrical Release:02-02-2007
Synopsis: In 1960s Detroit, a good night onstage can get you noticed but it won't get your song played on the radio. Here, a new kind of music is on the cusp of being born – a sound with roots buried deep in... In 1960s Detroit, a good night onstage can get you noticed but it won't get your song played on the radio. Here, a new kind of music is on the cusp of being born – a sound with roots buried deep in the soul of Detroit itself, where songs are about more than what's on the surface, and everyone is bound together by a shared dream. Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Jamie Foxx) is a car salesman aching to make his mark in the music business – to form his own record label and get its sound heard on mainstream radio at a time when civil rights are still only a whisper in the streets. He just needs the angle, the right talent, the right product to sell. Late for their stint in a local talent show, The Dreamettes – Deena Jones (Beyoncé Knowles), Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose), and lead singer Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) – show up in their cheap wigs and homemade dresses, rehearsing songs and steps by Effie's brother, C.C. (Keith Robinson), with hopes that talent and sheer desire will break them out of the only life that seems available to them. They're young. They're beautiful. They're just what Curtis is looking for. All they have to do is trust him. James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy) is a pioneer of the new Detroit sound, spellbinding audiences all along the "Chitlin' Circuit" with his electrifying blend of soul and rock 'n' roll. Curtis finesses The Dreamettes a gig singing backup for Early, and suddenly, for all of them, the gulf between what they want and what they can have draws closer for the first time. Curtis launches the girls as a solo act, rechristening them The Dreams, knowing in his gut that success lies not with the soulful voice of Effie, but with the demure beauty and malleable style of Deena – despite their history…and Curtis' promises. Deena is ready to step into the spotlight, even as Effie fades away. As a new musical age dawns, Curtis' driving ambition pushes this one-time family to the forefront of an industry in the throes of music revolution. But when the lights come up and the curtains part, they hardly recognize who they've become. Their dreams are finally there for the taking, but at a price that may be too heavy for their hearts to bear. The groundbreaking Tony Award-winning Broadway phenomenon comes to life as an all-new motion picture adaptation written and directed by Academy Award®® winner Bill Condon. A Laurence Mark production presented by DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, "Dreamgirls," is a compelling story of love and loyalty, fame and betrayal that tracks the struggle, sacrifices and triumphs of a group of outsiders carrying their landmark sound into mainstream America in the 1960s and '70s. --© DreamWorks [More]
Starring: Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson
Starring: Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Glover, Keith Robinson, Hinton Battle, Anika Noni Rose, John Lithgow, Sharon Leal, Tom Voth, Robert Cicchini
Director: Bill Condon
Director: Bill Condon
Screenwriter: Bill Condon
Producer: Laurence Mark
Composer: Henry Krieger, Stephen Trask
Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC
Reviews for Dreamgirls
(Hudson) isn't the only person in the movie, just the best; and the lightweight story about the perils of fame grows significantly heavier (from a dramatic standpoint) every time this veritable force saunters across the screen.
Good story and acting. The music is mediocre at best and far too loud. Bring ear plugs.
Jennifer Hudson becomes the take-no-prisoners raison d'etre of this extraordinarily slight soap-opera dance run through a 'Motown for Dummies' re-imagining of two crucial decades of American popular music.
It is big and showy and loud, but director Bill Condon's attempts to make the movie more socially relevant than the theatrical production instead just highlight what little soul was there in the first place.
For the first time in a long time, that familiar gleam in Murphy's eye shines over something other than the easy money of a gaseous kiddie comedy.
The 1981 Broadway musical lumbers onto the screen saddled with clichés from every showbiz story ever made about the rags-to-riches saga along with songs that can't hold a candle to the Motown classics.
everyone walks out talking about how Jennifer Hudson is going to win that Oscar (and how Urkel looks all grown up!).
It's Hudson who owns Dreamgirls; her delivery of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" is worth a standing ovation -- or at least a recount on American Idol -- all by itself.
When I was a little girl, I saw a play that took my breath away and this film adaptation is more than I dreamed it could be.
Dreamgirls may come up short in terms of originality and killer songs, but it wears its big, drippy camp heart on its sleeve.
Good thing movie theaters serve their drinks in paper or plastic, or Jennifer Hudson would be shattering glass at multiplexes all over America. The gal has got some pipes.
Yes, Virginia, there is a holiday movie worth taking your parents to that won't bore you silly or give you sugar shock.
This is the first important movie musical in decades about African-Americans and the first to deal with the revolution in civil rights and the mainstream success of black pop music.
Dreamgirls is a knockout, no two ways about it, a sizzling adaptation of the successful Broadway musical that is bound to leave audiences howling with pleasure.
Condon has gotten terrific performances from almost everyone here. Knowles lives up to the promise she's shown in her earlier big-screen warm-ups. And Hudson proves to be as good in her dramatic scenes as she is in the musical ones.
Full of strong performances and outsize musical energy, Dreamgirls has all the makings of a big-time holiday hit, and it deserves to become one.
As much as I appreciated the performances from the terrifically talented cast -- as much as I liked Dreamgirls -- I didn't love it. Maybe it was just a little too slick and over the top for its own good.
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