I went into this movie knowing that it wasn’t going to be spectacular and knowing that I would probably be amazed at the idiocy, and hey, I didn’t disappoint myself. American Dreamz tries to be clever and tries to make a statement on our reality TV culture, but you know what, it’s too much. Let me expand on this idea.
So the basic premise of this movie is, well, like American Idol. Young aspiring singers get chosen to live out their American Dream and get the chance to compete for a record label, fame, and so forth. So we have a young karaoke queen in Ohio and an effeminate Arab teenager landing a spot on the show in order to prove their worth. We also have the President who recently learned that more people voted for the contestants on American Dreamz than for the election. Now begin the story. The president along with the first lady and vice president, decide that a good publicity stunt would be to become a guest judge on the show in order to gain mass appeal. Imagine the fireworks. Weitz seems to be doing too much for his own good. He’s almost too liberal, and his jokes on the president are a bit heavy handed. Quaid (the president) is completely incompetent and must be told everyday that Jesus did indeed want him to be president. The vice president (played by Dafoe who looks eerily like Cheney) whispers speeches and information into an earpiece with Quaid then repeats to an audience. It’s funny, but a bit hackneyed. The parts where we actually watch parts of the American Dreamz show are probably the better scenes in the movie. Mandy Moore and Hugh Grant play are all right. Grant’s rendition of Simon Cowell is pretty decent, and you know he does have that British accent. Moore of course plays the wholesome girl yet again and yet somehow there is some kind of thing between Moore and Grant that I didn’t quite understand. Grant is taken with Moore and rigs the contest so that she wins (probably what happens in American Idol anyway, but that’s pure speculation). But there is too much willing suspension of disbelief that it just becomes, well disbelief. The best two characters are Omer and his cousin Iqbal. Omer gets kicked out of the terrorist camp and sent to America where he gets picked up (as stated before). When the terrorists learn of the President becoming a judge on American Dreamz, they then hatch a cockeyed scheme to blow up the show, literally. This part was unnecessary, but all the Omer bits of him singing and his general attitude is what makes the movie bearable. Weitz tries too much in one movie though. He wants to flesh out every character, but in doing so, many of the characters just become stereotypes or just plain unbelievable. Chris Klein has too big a part in the movie as the wounded soldier from Iraq and even Moore and Grant I feel just didn’t light up the screen as the could have had Weitz concentrated more on developing certain characters. The movie is also not especially linear and it makes the movie even harder to believe. There are much better satires out there and better political commentary on the government that even though this may be a little funny and somewhat enjoyable, overall it can’t hold a candle to movies like Bamboozled or Thank Your For Smoking.
I would have to say that I didn’t really expect much when going into this movie and I didn’t get much out of it. Sure Weitz was brave to poke fun of everything that America has been thinking, like the incompetence of the government, terrorists, and American Idol, but there isn’t enough depth or even energy spent on making a point. What did we learn from this, absolutely nothing. It tells us everything we already know and just twists it in a humorous way. I wouldn’t suggest watching it in theater or even owning it. This is a rental all the way. And even then, you may feel like you got cheated.
"American Dreamz" opens April 21, 2006 and is rated PG13. Comedy. Written and directed by Paul Weitz. Starring Dennis Quaid, John Cho, Marcia Gay Harden, Seth Meyers, Willem Dafoe, Mandy Moore, Hugh Grant, Jennifer Coolidge, Chris Klein.
