Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14228 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-02
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A sadly muddled and unsatisfying film, American Dreamz is beset by an identity crisis it never manages to answer.

On paper, it's promising, if hardly radical. Hugh Grant plays the host of a top-rated American talent show. On his quest for ratings, he casts his net far and wide hunting for hopefuls, bringing in the likes of Mandy Moore as he does so. And a wannabe terrorist too. Which doesn't really make too much sense when you watch it either. Throw in an insecure President of the United States--played by Dennis Quaid--who finds himself, thanks to his key adviser (Willem Dafoe) as a guest judge on the show, and you have something of a mess.

What's most surprising is that behind the camera is Paul Weitz, who's of late built upon his initial success with American Pie and brought us the excellent About A Boy (which again starred Grant), and the woefully-underrated In Good Company (which starred Quaid). Yet he's simply unable to work his magic here, as the film simply fails to gel. As a satire, it's targets are too soft and obvious, as a broad comedy it lacks laughs, and even as a straight hour and a half of easy entertainment, it's far too jumbled to be able to relax and enjoy.

There may be an argument that in the midst of all of this is a decent enough movie struggling to break through. But the point is that it doesn't, and given the calibre and curriculum vitaes of some of those involved, American Dreamz has to be classed as a crushing disappointment. --Simon Brew

Synopsis
In order to improve his declining approval rating, US President Joe Staton is thrust into the limelight as a guest judge on hit reality TV show American Dreamz. Head of State Joe Stanton (Dennis Quaid, In Good Company) is going through a bit of a crisis; he’s worryingly out of touch with current affairs, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and suffering his worst approval rating ever. If he's to regain any credibility, some serious damage control is needed. Leave it to the wily Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe, Spiderman), who takes it upon himself to enlist Staton as a guest judge on America’s premier reality TV show American Dreamz. But the show’s vainglorious host Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant, About a Boy, in full-on Simon Cowell mode) has his own ratings to think about and will exploit anyone to get those viewing figures up. This includes selecting a group of especially bizarre hopefuls--even by reality TV standards--including Omer, a show-tune singing would-be terrorist! As the contestants lose all perspective and shamelessly clamber to win first place, a sinister plot to blow up the president on national TV is uncovered. American Dreamz takes a very liberal swipe at society's obsession with pop culture--perceived by some as being symbolic of all that’s ill in the West--and is no less outspoken in its political commentary.

Customer Reviews

Racist, Pretentious and Immoral
This film pretends to be a spoof about the current obsession with superficial fame as expressed through 'singing' 'talent' shows. Whoever wrote this film is not clever enough to pull this off.

The main characters in the film are :

1) An 'camp' Arab guy and his 'friend'. His colleagues want him to blow up the US president when they meet on the singing show (he is the finalist).
2) A blue eyed blond haired 'American girl' (the other finalist)
3) Her boyfriend (who wants to marry her)
4) The host of the show (played by Hugh Grant).

The problems I had with the film were :

1) It was hardly a spoof of this current 'celebrity culture'. This is evident in the fact that character 2) ends up being the 'good guy' character. She is portrayed as the sensible one in the film!
2) Character 2) ends up sleeping with character 4), yet character 2) still is portrayed as a good person in the film! In fact her boyfriend (character 3) gets so annoyed that he picks up the bomb which the Arab guy has dropped in the bin (he decides not to bomb everyone in the end) and threatens to kill everyone on set. In other words, the woman is unfaithful, but was portrayed in a good light and the man is ridiculed for being upset over his partner's infidelity! How ridiculous is this?
3) The portrayal of the Arab guy and his colleagues was the most reprehensible part of the film. First of all the Arab guy who is more western friendly is portrayed as lighter coloured, more camp (yes, they use 'campness' to signify western culture v. Arab culture) than the others. His colleagues who want him to carry out the suicide bombings are portrayed as more obviously Arab with beards, stronger accents, less western clothes and a backward mentality. The battle is basically portrayed as a western culture v Arab culture battle for the mind of Omar (the camp Arab guy). The Arab 'culture' is represented by suicide bombers. Of course, the western culture wins.

The film is dumb pathetic film and a (very small) part of the propaganda war that allows western governments to get away with the murder of so many Sunnis, Shias because they 'are all suicide bombers' who 'hate the west' and want to 'stop all of our liberties'. Subconsciously, many people who watch this film will walk out of this film with a small message of confirmation that Arabs are backward barbarians who are just dying (pun intended) for OUR help (the Taleban, Sadam Hussein, The Shah of Iran, the House of Saud, Hosni Mubarak etc etc)!!

And how many have died in the Middle East at the hands of such idiocy. And what have the Arabs ever done to us in the west (how many died on 9/11 v Iraq and Afghan wars - do the maths).

Whilst many will disagree with this view, I would only be interested if their disagreement is justified by sound reasoning.

surprisingly good
im not a fan of hugh grants but it has to said i liked this movie it was funny and ejoyable

Pleasantly surprised!
I bought this DVD for 3 euros. I was, frankly, not expecting much but, hey, I can look at Hugh Grant for 2 hours, even now, so for 3 euros, why not? Now, I will be honest. I do not live in the States any more. I have never watched American Idol. I have not owned a television in about 7 years now (nothing militant...My husband and I just seem to get along all right without one...), so perhaps I was snickering at all the wrong parts, so to speak. I agree there was no "side splitting, guffaw moments, but that was made up for by my admiration of dead on lampooning of Bush and (probable) good lampooning of American Idol, not to mention the poke at the (not just American, sorry to say...)materialism and "superficiality" so many in real life seem to find so important. As I have said about other films: This is not rocket scinece, people, AND IT"S NOT SUPPOSE TO BE! Enjoy.