Dreamgirls is the entire musical package, a triumph of old school on-screen glamour, and we wouldn't want it any other way.
Dreamgirls (2006)
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Reviews Counted:42
Fresh:36
Rotten:6
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Dreamgirls' simple characters and plot hardly detract from the movie’s real feats: the electrifying performances and the dazzling musical numbers.
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins 1 sec
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 25, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $103,338,338
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
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Release:
Jun 30, 2009
DVD Features:
- 2-Disc Set
- Region 1
- NTSC
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
- Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 2.0 - English, French, Spanish
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, French, Spanish
- Subtitles - Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Music Video: Beyonce Knowles - "Listen"
- Trailers: DREAMGIRLS Soundtrack Promo
- Alternate Scenes: Extended Musical Numbers (12)
Behind the Scenes:
- 1. "Building The Dream"
- 2. "Dream Logic: Film Editing"
- 3. "Dressing The Dreams: Costume Design"
- 4. "Center Stage: Theatrical Lighting"
- 5. "Auditions and Screen Tests"
- 6. "Beyonce Knowles Screen Test"
- 7. "Anika Noni Rose Audition"
- 8. "Steppin' To The Bad Side - Fatima Robinson Choreography Audition"
- 9. "Previsualization Sequences"
Text/Photo Galleries:
Galleries:
- 1. Image Gallery
- 2. Storyboards
- 3. Art Department Archive
Reviews for Dreamgirls
Elegiac, filthy-minded, unsparing, and as deeply moving as you’d expect from any de facto story of Peter O’Toole’s life.
It's a product that promises magic, and yet gives us nothing to live on.
With a star turn like [Jennifer Hudson's] at its center, a movie doesn't need too much more, but Dreamgirls has plenty to go around.
Flaws and all, Dreamgirls is certainly a lot more watchable than other recent adaptations of Broadway musicals like Rent, The Producers and The Phantom of the Opera.
Joy is defined as Dreamgirls, an ecstatic dose of pure top-down Motown tight-harmony effervescence that takes a hit Broadway musical about a Chicago girl group and turns it, miraculously, into a Hollywood delight.
It's fun. It's candy. With colorful costumes, often effervescent tunes (the original production's Henry Krieger wrote four new ones), it's a champagne cocktail.
Dreamgirls sizzles most of the time, giving us a slightly Broadway-ized look at an important part of the history of American pop music.
Any director hoping to capture racism, catfights, and urban decay with music this square, and filmmaking this haphazard, is a fool.
Dreamgirls is like a really fabulous party. The next morning, you don't remember anything special that happened, but you know you had a blast.
Bill Condon's screen adaptation of the 1981 Broadway sensation is, if possible, as dazzling and energizing as its source.
If what you value in a movie musical is visual extravagance and a show-stopping performance or two, Dreamgirls will leave you with a feeling of absurd, unreasoning happiness.
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 may come up short in terms of originality and killer songs, but it wears its big, drippy camp heart on its sleeve.
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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