As triumphant on the screen as it was on the boards, though like the original, it's a triumph of style over substance.
Dreamgirls (2006)
Tomatometer
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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
[Director] Condon paints with such broad, familiar strokes that the film feels generic; in setting out to tell everyone's story, Condon ends up telling no one's.
A production so good it reinvigorates the movie musical, gives it grit and substance and returns it to glory.
It's not just the best musical of the year (there's really no competition); it's simply one of the best movies.
This year's King Kong, a reminder of what lavish studio productions can be. It's Motown meets Broadway in Hollywood, full of energy and moving emotions.
Murphy is a revelation as James, and what American Idol castoff Hudson lacks in technical acting craft she makes up for in raw energy and a voice that could melt the rhinestones off a beauty queen.
I've been going to the movies a long time. This is the first time I ever saw people sit during the closing credits, just so they could cheer when a performer's name came up.
Dreamgirls is undermined by its stop-start pacing and sketchily developed characters.
Film director Bill Condon keeps that story on track, while cramming the screen with wonderful visual touches.
Who needs catharsis when there's so much eye-popping, foot-stomping enjoyment to absorb? Dreamgirls leaves you giddy with sensory pleasure in a way that a serious Diana Ross biopic never, ever will.
Critics and fans could spend hours arguing over director and cast, but it’s hard to imagine many combinations achieving greater success than what Condon has accomplished.
If you can be satisfied skipping along its surface, Dreamgirls fulfills its splashy, superficial promise of glitter, glamour, and sass.
The production is top-flight all the way, with a detail-attentive lavishness rare these days.
...as Effie White, the Dreamgirl left behind, Jennifer Hudson may have lost American Idol only to have won an Oscar.
...as Effie White, the Dreamgirl left behind, Jennifer Hudson may have lost American Idol only to have won an Oscar.
The big screen version is a deafening muddle, pulled apart by booming vocal power, melodramatic performances, and zips through time faster than Doc Brown's De Lorean.
A cliché-riddled storyline populated by unsympathetic characters and songs that repetitively bleed into one another to the point where we curse Motown for the R&B movement altogether.
In terms of enjoying it on the basis of pure showmanship, it's perhaps the most effective musical transition to the big screen since this current movie musical mini-revival began.
Compare the musical numbers from Dreamgirls with Annie Ross's smoky, lived-in performances from Short Cuts and the charade of this film becomes especially apparent.
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