American Dreamz (www.the-usher.com)

"You going to be a contestant on American Dreamz"

As the new season of the number one show in the US and the rest world, American Dreamz host Martin Tweed (Grant) wants to make it the best ever. After winning a second term in the White House, President Staton's (Quaid) chief of staff (Dafoe) thinks he needs to keep his popularity up by appearing as a judge on the show. The contestants see this as their chance of instant fame but for Sally Kendoo (Moore) and Omer (Golzari) is means so much more.

Satirical comedy can be very hit or miss but writer/director Paul Weitz inject some laughs into the genre?

After gaining success with hit movies like 'American Pie', 'About a Boy' and 'In Good Company', writer/director Paul Weitz had became a filmmaker to watch but his latest almost destroys everything that has gone before. 'American Dreamz' is a satirical look at reality TV, the current Presidential regime in the US and the problems in the Middle East which instead of been funny, it just ends up been plain embarrassing.

Hugh Grant's Martin Tweed is basically Simon Cowell from 'American Idol' and 'X-Factor' and he does try really hard to be the self-obsessed host of the most popular show on the planet. Some people forget that he can actually play this type of character and this is basically an extention of his Daniel Cleaver role from the 'Bridget Jones' movies. The problem is that his character has absolutely no screen presence and nothing to reveal why he is the most popular man on television.

Dennis Quaid's President Staton is basically President George Bush. A political puppet that is just the spokesman for his Chief of Staff's policies, this is satire at its lowest level. Whatever your opinions on the President, making out that the leader of the free world doesn't even read newspapers and is on 'happy pills' to kerb his increased interest current events. Willem Defoe has fun as the Chief of Staff and steals the film but this doesn't make up for the shortcomings of the script.

Omer's suicide bomber turned singing sensation is just embarrassing. While the performance as Sam Golzari is OK, it is the script that really doesn't let him go anywhere with the character. He is quickly consumed by the freedoms of America and the film misses the opportunity to show inner conflict between living his dream and avenging the death of his mother for some really basic jokes.

Mandy Moore's Sally Kendoo is what you expect a contestant on the show to be like but again the script lets down another talented performer. Her push towards stardom is everything you expect it to be with her manager and mother telling her what she should do and say, as she also comes under the attention of Martin Tweed.

'American Dreamz' is embarrassingly bad. For a comedy satire it is missing the most important thing, laughs. With a complete lack of comedy moments or jokes and satirical plot lines that are unimaginative and far too simple to make any impact, the film is simply awful and quite painful to watch. Paul Weitz really needs to reassess writing style after this disaster.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the movie is presented well.

BONUS FEATURES

Deleted Scenes (12.07 mins)
Watch six deleted scenes showing ' a trailer for the new season', 'the premiere episode', 'auditions for American Dreamz', 'Omer in the mall', 'Martin and Sally in the Ferrari', 'the President crying', 'the first songs', 'Sally thinks she is going to lose', 'President meets Martin', 'Omer gets nervous' and 'Omer runs out of the studio', these deleted scenes suffer from the lack of a commentary track or introduction.

Center Stage: Sally Kendoo (3.58 mins)
Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore) takes you behind the scenes of American Dreamz and she tells us what the show means to her.

Dance Dreamz (7.27 mins)
Director Paul Weitz, choreographer Jennifer Li and stars Sam Golzari and Tony Yalda talk about Omer's journey on American Dreamz. Here we see how Omer's dances came about and performing his song 'The Impossible Dream'.

Feature Commentary with director Paul Weitz and actor Sam Golzari
The writer/director talks passionately about his film and reveals why he likes to do commentaries. He talks about the story and how it is a subconscious reaction to what is happening in the America today. He also talks about his return to wacky comedy and the budget restrictions of the movie. This is a decent comedy from two people who are very invested in the film.

OVERALL

With a decent commentary and a few short featurettes, fans will be relatively happy with this DVD release. This still doesn't make up for the shortcomings of film however.

DVD

American Idol

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2006