American Dreamz (2006)

Okay, "American Dreamz" is not the best movie I've ever seen. But it did make me laugh, and it's chock full of talent.

Plot: a young terrorist is assigned to blow himself up on the television show "American Dreamz" while President Staton is a judge for the show.

"American Dreamz" = "American Idol." President Staton = George Bush Willem Dafoe plays a Dick Cheney like character.

Hugh Grant plays a Simon Callow like character.

Hugh Grant, as the calculating, sadistic, game show host, shows us his inner snake, and it's a pleasure making the snake's acquaintance. Grant is convincingly cynical, twisted, and, at a key moment, vulnerable and poignant. And always funny.

Shoreh Aghdashloo, better known for operatic parts in serious dramas like "House of Sand and Fog," reveals a wonderful gift for comedy. I can only hope she ever gets to play comedy again.

Newcomer Sam Golzari is a poignantly convincing "everyman" driven to terrorism over grief at the death of his mother. The scene where he dances to Bob Fosse while in a terrorist training camp is worth the price of admission.

Another newcomer, Tony Yalda, is funny, commanding, and completely believable as a young show business wannabe. His every move is perfect, even as he watches his luckier cousin perform onstage. When he catches flaws in his own technique -- as he watches himself in his full length mirror -- his look of despair at his own failings is, there's that word again -- poignant.

Dennis Quaid, doing a George Bush imitation, somehow manages to keep his considerable sex appeal intact. How, I don't know.

Chris Klein, Mandy Moore, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Coolidge -- these are very talented people and they are all perfect.

What isn't so great is the direction. It lacks the timing and snap of good comedic pacing. And there is a certain amount of incoherence in the script.

So, yeah, the movie isn't perfect, but it dares to poke fun at topics that have us all stymied, and to earn real laughs.

Fmovies: Imagine a terrorist getting to the final round of an American Idol-type show so that he can bump off one of the judges - the President of the United States. Paul Weitz has a great and creative imagination to think up the plot of "American Dreamz," a 2006 comedy that he wrote and directed.

The premise is that the President of the U.S. (Dennis Quaid) is the puppet of his chief adviser (Willem Dafoe) and has to have an earpiece so he knows what to say. At the beginning of the film, he's reading newspapers and discovering that things in the world aren't quite as they've been described to him. So absorbed is he in this new knowledge, that he won't leave the residence, and rumors surface that he's had a nervous breakdown or is ill. So his Chief of Staff mounts a massive publicity campaign, and one of the things he does is arrange for the President to judge the "American Dreamz" talent contest. Hugh Grant is the Simon Cowell character who also hosts the show. He wants a Jew and an Arab to compete, plus someone really yummy (Mandy Moore).

An idiot terrorist, Iqbal Riza (Tony Yalda) is sent to the U.S. to get him out of the way, and he lives with his cousins. His goal in life is to be on American Dreamz. However, the day the Dreamz committee arrives in response to his tape, his terrorist cousin Omer (Sam Golzali) is in his stage/basement setup doing a song from Guys and Dolls. He's scooped up for American Dreamz, which makes Iqbal a) furious and b) his choreographer. The terrorist bosses devise a bomb that Omer will retrieve in the mens room to kill himself and the President - but he has to get to the final round.

This comedy is truly outrageous. I just wish we could have seen a few more numbers from Omer and his cousin - for me, the competition just made the movie. In my opinion also, it would have been funnier if the Mandy Moore character of Sally Kendoo had been below par - she actually was pretty good. When Omer went into "The Impossible Dream" and one of the terrorists criticizes the choice of song to his fellow cell members, it was hilarious.

It is incredibly nervy to show terrorists assembling pieces of a bomb for Omer to put together and juxtapose it with a mindless competition - nervy because it's the old Hitchcock terror in normal places idea that is scary indeed.

After all Omer has been told about the evils in America, it must seem like a pretty silly place to him - but tempting - and he goes after the American Dream on American Dreamz. Sally Kendoo, looking for all the world like an innocent hometown girl, is anything but, as ruthless as they come, even taking advantage of an Iraqui vet she doesn't love to pull in audience votes. Grant is appropriately sleazy as Martin Tweed, Quaid good as an out of it President just finding his own voice, and Marcia Gay Harden has a small but colorful role as the First Lady.

Most of the characters are sketchy and not likable - except for Omer and his cousin, who are a riot. If only real young terrorists were the way these two are depicted.

This is a hilarious, if not perfect, satire. Mainly making fun of everything related to American pop culture, this also dedicates effort to parodying the administration of the time(and not doing anything to make it less obvious that that's what it's about)... and as something nice and different, it's about their personalities, not their politics. The humor is excellent, with a lot of dark comedy and absurdity, as well as cleverness. There is a lot of bravery in how far it goes to mock certain things, and I found the vast majority of it hysterical. With that said, some jokes and gags try too hard and fall flat. And I won't be an ass and claim that "everyone who doesn't like this doesn't get it". Weitz also directed American Pie and Down to Earth, and like in the first-mentioned, this juggles several plot-lines well. The characters are mostly credible, if not all the events are. It should perhaps be mentioned that you are, in fact, not supposed to sympathize with everyone in this, and it also is worth noting that there *are* a couple of likable ones, that you can relate to. The performances are a tad mixed, but they tend to be good. Klein is great, as is Grant. Greer isn't given enough to do, in my opinion. And yes, Moore is pretty annoying. She's not an actress, or wasn't at this point. The singing in this is enjoyable. There is occasional sexuality(and a little eye-candy, for both genders), mainly hinted at, sometimes in dialog(no details), and brief strong language in this. I recommend this to anyone that can imagine being entertained by it. 7/10

American Dreamz fmovies. This movie was soooo good and sooo funny, non-stop laughs and pitch perfect performances from everyone. Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Willem Dafoe, Hugh Grant (he was like watching Simon Cowell up there). The whole film worked from start to finish and had some of the biggest laughs in years. The film is very much "of the moment" with its mirroring American Idol, the President, and terrorism, but it hits everything right on the head. Chris Klein, towards the end of the movie, has one of the funniest lines I have heard in decades. The movie also zooms by. I saw it at the festival in Cleveland, but if it was during regular release, I would have sat and watched it again. Great one!

I just saw this movie now, in 2015. And it is really scary to know that we already knew this much about the world and that up to now the same problems are here.

I agree that this movie in its form has flaws. It is very clear that something went missing between scenes, or the scenes were not explored deep enough, or there were too many plots, or the direction was not strong enough, or the humor was too lousy... BUT underlying it there's a real clear view of the state of our world, and that's why I am really glad to have seen this movie.

One of the best lines of the movie is when the president finally gets rid of his earplug and speaks for himself and says : "And I just want to say, in terms of the Middle East, that it looks like the problems over there are never gonna be solved. I mean never. Never never never never never. And so I'm sorry about that."

I just saw this at an advance screening and was astounded. Based on the previews, I had concerns like many of the people posting in the forum here: that it would be stupid, flat, bland "American sucks because..." formulaic drivel with a little bit of Arab stereotyping thrown in for good measure. I went into the film expecting to hate it. From the first line through, I was converted. The film offers a very interesting take on what the problems are in modern America, but it is not entirely negative: it also has a lot of good things to say about what makes America work. It creates a perfect blend of political satire, social commentary, and intelligent, dark humor. All of this, is, of course, peppered with the sparkling wit that we have come to expect from writer/director/producer Weitz, whose past credits range from the crass American Pie to About a Boy. There have been lots of people expressing fears over Arab stereotyping, and I would be lying if I said that terrorism doesn't play a large role, but I don't think I'm spoiling anything here (it was in the previews). The film looks at America as seen by a young Iraqi man, Omer (Sam Golzari, who does a brilliant job of showing his constant turmoil as he struggles to reconcile the America that he sees and that which he was taught about), who comes to the States after spending his life being indoctrinated by a terrorist organization. Through his eyes, we see all the good and all the bad that this country has to offer. As a result, every single person, with the exception of Omer, is a caricature. The Arab terrorists seem like stereotypes because individual characters have been reduced to the essentials that are necessary for the satire to work. The terrorists are made more terrorist-y to create the separation from reality that satire requires. By the same token, the heartless Hollywood producer, the white-trash family, the loyal boyfriend, the opulent L.A. family, the idiot president and manipulative chief of staff, etc. are all caricatures of the people who they are standing for. The film does not engage in Arab stereotyping because it is racist drivel, but engages in caricaturing Arab terrorists (without implying that all Arabs are terrorists) because the genre calls for it. I don't know what else I can say about this movie, except that it might not be for everyone. It is NOT your usual Hollywood fare, so do not go to it expecting a few laughs and two hours of diversion from your life. Rather, like the satires of Swift, it will make you question everything about how you view the world, and it will make you laugh so hard, you don't even know it is doing this, until you leave the theater and everything looks just a little bit different. This is one of the most intelligent, unique, daring, and insightful films to have come out of Hollywood in a long time. This is a film made for every single person who has asked why Hollywood keeps putting out stupid, uninteresting films that trade out heart and intelligence for breasts and explosions. At the same time, this is a sublimely funny film that would appeal to an extremely wide range of ages and backgrounds.