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Movies / On DVD / American Dreamz
American Dreamz

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American Dreamz (2006)

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Reviews Counted:34

Fresh:15

Rotten:19

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: This overly silly satire aims at too many targets with arrows too dull to make relevant social commentary.

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for brief strong language and some sexual references

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Apr 21, 2006 Wide

Box Office: $7,156,725

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 Award®-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

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Release:

Oct 17, 2006

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Reviews for American Dreamz

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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A 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.

Full Review Source: New Republic | comment Comment
05/05/06
Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann
New Republic
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[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.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
04/27/06
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
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In the words of Simon, it’s a complete and utter disaster.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
04/24/06
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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[Paul] Weitz co-directed the wonderful About a Boy in 2002, but in Dreamz -- a tediously facile satire -- his comic instincts fail him.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
04/21/06
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
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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.)

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
04/21/06
Geoff Pevere
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
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American Dreamz is the rare case of a movie that gets better as it goes along.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
04/21/06
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
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It's a disappointing effort from witty writer-director Paul Weitz (American Pie, In Good Company). He tries to weave a subversive tapestry a la Nashville but only tells a story full of holes.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
04/21/06
Lisa Rose
Lisa Rose
Newark Star-Ledger
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A cartoonish, unfocused and mostly unfunny satire that doesn't come within a hundred miles of hitting its two main targets.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
04/21/06
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
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The devilishness of satire is in the details, and [Paul] Weitz's script just isn't as funny or as consistently sharp as it should be.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
04/21/06
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
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In American Dreamz, the people are stereotypes, and the context is fake: It's broad, it's thin, it's a big easy target. And ultimately, its dreamz are hollow.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
04/21/06
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
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A random episode of American Idol offers more comedy and drama, not to mention more disturbing insights into contemporary popular culture, than American Dreamz.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/21/06
Stephen Cole
Stephen Cole
Globe and Mail
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American Dreamz is an often uproarious, always ambitious gutting of modern America that cuts painfully close to the truth from beginning to almost-end.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
04/21/06
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
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American Dreamz is as forgettable and lacking in insight as the great majority of dreams that trespass on our subconscious.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
04/21/06
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
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American Dreamz pulls off that rare feat of shooting at dozens of big targets, and hitting so many of them that we want to stand up and cheer because someone even tried.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
04/21/06
Michael Booth
Michael Booth
Denver Post
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As satire, American Dreamz is heavy-handed. As comedy, American Dreamz is hilarious.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
04/21/06
Philip Wuntch
Philip Wuntch
Dallas Morning News
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American Dreamz is a political satire that's eerily emblematic of the moment we're living in: smart, spring-loaded with pop culture references, and far too good-natured to do any lasting damage.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
04/21/06
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
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The jokes in American Dreamz whiz by with speed and grace, and Weitz maintains control of the material every minute.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
04/20/06
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com
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American Dreamz lampoons the public's appetite for mindless entertainment and easy distraction from serious concerns.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
04/20/06
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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Paul Weitz's film is a seriously unfunny comedy about that intersection where politics meets entertainment.

comment Comment
04/20/06
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
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The movie is a spirited exercise in caricature rather than a cohesive comedy. Everybody's playing somebody real, but the movie never approaches reality.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
04/20/06
Bill Muller
Bill Muller
Arizona Republic
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