film: american dreamz

[L2R]

film: American Dreamz

d: Paul Weitz

s: Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Willem Defoe, Chris Klein, Mandy *ugh* Moore

imdb link

I saw this a few weeks back because my wife loves hugh grant. It wasn't a complete waste of time.

This light comedy has a great premise:
An american idol parody show is looking for the next outrageous thing, so they decided to get an arabic and a jewish contestant. A President, jaded from being told what to do by advisers, needs to boost his popularity so decides to judge the finale of the show. This grants an opportunity for a bumbling al-quaeda agent, who was sent to the LA to perpetually wait for a sleeper cell to contact him, to get close to the leader of the US. Hilarity ensues....
....or so i would've hoped.
This concept has fantastic potential for some nerve scathing social commentary, but turns out as a soft teen friendly cuddle fest.
There are funny moments, and one hilarious scene showing .... the making of al quaeda training camp videos .... but most of the positives were overshadowed by the overly light comedy.
The mandy moore sendups would be great if it weren't actually mandy moore, and then they overuse her in the rest of the film making the movie seem rather hypocritical.

A fun movie lost in too much great potential. A sad WASTE.

 

[ChemicalBeauty]

I thought this was pretty funny. 3/5 stars

 

[wanderlust]

*poll

 

[DarthMom]

let me just say that while i did indeed actually watch most of this, i am more ashamed that a fellow bler dedicated a thread tothis movie, more so than my dedication to my boredom at the time

so basically, it sucked really bad. one of those movies you watch and forget.

i really adore hugh grant. i don't care how many black tranny whores he has sex with, he is just adorable. and really quite lovable in his films. even the bad ones. but i just didn't dig this one.

 

[punkybutt]

i saw this movie while i was tripping balls and i actually enjoyed it (i watched it again later sober and it sucked). but when i enjoyed it, i thought it was hilarious. i saw it as a really dark, twisted look at psychoses in the backdrop of an american idol-esque competition. i would recommend this movie if you're tripping and looking for something to watch. i personally didn't get any bad vibes from it, but i can see how one might.