American Dreamz (2002)
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Reviews Counted: 155
Fresh: 63 | Rotten: 92
This overly silly satire aims at too many targets with arrows too dull to make relevant social commentary.
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 23
This overly silly satire aims at too many targets with arrows too dull to make relevant social commentary.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 95,803
Movie Info
The President of the United States (Dennis Quaid) seems to be having a nervous breakdown after picking up a newspaper for the first time in four years, and when his Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe) determines to get the Commander in Chief out of his pajamas and back into the spotlight, the stage is set for a talent contest that the nation will never forget. To President Staton, the world is a fairly black-and-white place, but a glance at the daily headlines on the eve of his reelection leaves the
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Cast
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Dennis Quaid
President Staton -
Hugh Grant
Martin Tweed -
Mandy Moore
Sally Kendoo -
Willem Dafoe
Chief of Staff -
Chris Klein
William Williams -
Jennifer Coolidge
Martha Kendoo -
Sam Golzari
Omer -
Marcia Gay Harden
First Lady -
Seth Meyers
Chet Krogl -
John Cho
Ittles -
Judy Greer
Accordo -
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All Critics (164) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (92) | DVD (16)
...Opting for a broad, light mood that's at complete odds with the darker potential of its political premise.
Top CriticA moderately engaging satire, some of it amusing and some of it strained, but in considerable measure it reflects a strange circumstance in all our lives.
[A] satirically unbalanced in its attempted fusion of such varied targets as George Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Muslim suicide bombers, and the hosts and contestants on American Idol.
In the words of Simon, it's a complete and utter disaster.
[Paul] Weitz co-directed the wonderful About a Boy in 2002, but in Dreamz -- a tediously facile satire -- his comic instincts fail him.
Like a commander-in-chief who's too good-naturedly dumb to be dangerous, the writer-director is ultimately too forgiving to do much bruising. (Or maybe too calculating, which kind of blurs into the same thing.)
American Dreamz tries hard to be both important and farcical, but it leans a bit too much towards farce without being funny enough to pull that off either. It's decent, but uninspired.
The pieces are all in place for a slashing Preston Sturges jamboree. All that's missing are balls
Writer/Director Paul Wietz ("In Good Company") tries his hand at creating a topical satire of our current American social-political crisis and comes up far short of capturing the brutal climate of a country running on the fumes of its dismembered civil ri
Did writer-director Paul Weitz think that U.S. audiences would be too dumb to appreciate actual satire?
A comedy that delivers in every way, "American Dreamz" easily gets my vote.
Viewers are left with nearly two hours of dull, rather obvious gags.
In a way, this film talks out of both sides of its mouth -- lampooning and loving its targets at the same time. But most viewers, I suspect, won't mind.
After a promising start, the film visibly deflates before your eyes, as joke after joke falls flat and Weitz himself seems to forget why he thought the premise was funny in the first place.
It has the good sense to hold up a mirror to ourselves, only instead of making us feel guilty and stupid, it makes us feel inclusive and in on the big joke.
There's the seed of a good satire in American Dreamz, but the film flops spectacularly due to a poorly written screenplay.
A satire that sets its sights too high and elicits only a few laughs here and there.
his movie, full of easy swipes at easy targets, comes off like that overly chummy guy at a party who got drunk too early and goes around taking too long to set up a joke that's already been beaten to death.
Dreamz is a nightmare!
Subtlety and sincerity go out the window in favour of crass stereotypes and easy jibes ...
Cleverly written and performed, it's entertaining but uneven.
... American Dreamz is kind of all over the place from the beginning.
For all its misguided qualities, the movie is at least perfectly cast.
There's a brilliant movie here somewhere, but it's never quite brought out.
Audience Reviews for American Dreamz
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Sally Kendoo: [while kissing in vid] Did you get that?
- Martin Tweed: DIRTY BITCH!
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Movie: ID: 150164931 Title: American Dreamz Release Date: 2006-04-21 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 3 Status: 1
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