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American Dreamz
Universal Pictures


4.0

based on 37 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 37 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual references

Starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Marcia Gay Harden, Willem Dafoe, Chris Klein, Judy Greer, and Sam Golzari

Paul Weitz brings us an utterly insane comedy about politics, reality TV and the idea that everybody in America has a dream - and how that 'great thing' can actually drive our culture crazy. (Universal Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Paul Weitz
DIRECTED BY:	Paul Weitz
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 17, 2006 Theatrical: April 21, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A blithe, funny, and engaging movie.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is more slapdash than smooth, more impulsive than calculating, and it takes cheap shots. I responded to its savage, sloppy zeal.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

"Network" it's not. Weitz doesn't have the killer instinct for merciless satire but he knows how to stage a gag and deliver a punchline.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Not as incisive a political commentary as "Thank You For Smoking," American Dreamz lampoons the public's appetite for mindless entertainment and easy distraction from serious concerns.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The rare case of a movie that gets better as it goes along.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

American Dreamz pitches its softballs with style. Martin Tweed, the preeningly heartless British host of the title TV show, just may be the great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The jokes in American Dreamz whiz by with speed and grace, and Weitz maintains control of the material every minute.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Grant's second coming as a rake and an egotist is the best thing to happen to his career since "Four Weddings and a Funeral." He is twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as he was as the bumbling good guy, and Weitz makes perfect use of the new persona.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Weitz has a winning way with a one-liner, and he's recruited a stellar cast that gets the most out of his material.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This movie seems better suited as cable or video fare than for theatrical viewing.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Where good satire is drawn with a surgeon's scalpel, this comedy is done with a brush broad enough to paint - or, at least, hit - the side of a barn. But in the softer realm of parody, it has a good premise, a couple of funny performances and enough giggles for a reasonably good time at the movies.

Newsweek David Ansen

Pitched too broadly to get very deeply under your skin. Still, there are some smarts at work here, and it will make you laugh.

Slate Michael Agger

As a political statement, American Dreamz is overly didactic and liberal in a read-too-many-blogs sort of way.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

A moderately engaging satire, some of it amusing and some of it strained, but in considerable measure it reflects a strange circumstance in all our lives.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The only likable characters are ebullient Omer (Sam Golzari), a show-tune-loving reluctant Iraqi suicide bomber who comes to the O.C., and earnest William (Chris Klein), an American GI wounded in Iraq, who are mirror images.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Hugh Grant's Martin Tweed is nowhere as menacing (or interesting) as the callous bruiser who makes every episode of American Idol a chilling psychotic adventure.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Gets the details right while missing the big picture.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Putting it another way: When spoofs of bad singing and songwriting are the sharpest arrows in your quiver, and your politics are diluted until they hit about as hard as someone sticking their tongue out, your satire has a problem.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Weitz's idea of satire is generally both ludicrous and mild: exaggerating types, then sentimentalizing them.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The vision of America as a vast, ratings-driven amateur hour is not without promise, but Weitz's movie, named for the most popular TV program in its parallel universe, is disappointingly soft in its individual characterizations.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Grant, playing a variation on Simon Cowell, resident meanie on "American Idol" and its inspiration, Britain's "Pop Idol," does what's required with seedy panache. Yet the characterization, both as written and acted, lacks a spark.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

As in his previous "In Good Company," Weitz wants too much to like all of his characters, and he wants us to like them too. The result is a movie devoid of any threat, or many laughs, with barn door–broad performances.

The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore

A film with none of the heart that has characterized Weitz's best work and none of the freshness of his most successful.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

To keep his satirist’s street cred, Weitz chases the sentimentality with sour slaps at the audience. But for all its supposed outrageousness, American Dreamz has a soft center.

Variety Robert Koehler

Combining a gallery of targets including President Bush, "American Idol," the Iraq War and the overarching theme of a nation of citizens held in the thrall of phony dreams, pic and its ambitions are undermined by insistent cartoonishness and comic ineptitude.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Maybe America will prove me wrong by voting, but I felt like you were holding back until the end.

Premiere Allison Williams

The movie tires itself out setting up the complex plot.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A cartoonish, unfocused and mostly unfunny satire.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The writer-producer-director of American Dreamz makes nearly every mistake in the satirical book. His targets are either too easy or too dated. He's inconsistent in his attitudes toward them. His stereotypes are stale.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's a redundant comedy, like hearing the same tired joke for the 100th time.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The director of "American Pie" has set out to make a merciless satire of American media culture along the lines of "Network," but his ideas are so commonplace that nothing registers except the bile.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

This picture ain't funny. I winced three times, and gave a couple of short laughs, but that was it.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The jokes don't just fizzle into insignificance; they flop about with gaudy ineffectualness, gasping for air like newly landed trout.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Weitz co-directed the wonderful "About a Boy" in 2002, but in "Dreamz" -- a tediously facile satire -- his comic instincts fail him.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The movie stands as a genuine offense against the venerable and indispensable institution of satire.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Weitz doesn't have the chops for satire, let alone black comedy.

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

It is definitely the weakest movie of the Weitz catalog and will certainly be forgotten faster than Hung himself.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 37 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Christopher R. gave it a2:
You know a movie is bad when you have nothing to do on a Saturday, and yet you still think you're wasting your time watching it. The broad sketch of the idea of the movie: cynicism, reality TV and America's foray into the Middle East, is rife with possibilities for deeply cutting, thoughtful satire, This movie hasn't an ounce of that. You find yourself rewriting scenes in your head with what they could have said and done with each setup. It was most frustrating and unfunny. Yet I doubt I'll remember anything about it in about an hour.

Matt S. gave it a2:
As satire, this movie is as effective as writing the word "idea" on a hammer and then hitting people on the head with it. The common denominator this movie aims for might actually be lower than the target audience for an Adam Sandler film. It is useful, however, as an example of how not to write satire.

J H gave it a7:
This isn't the best movie I've seen this year (2006; the best is Borat!), but it is worth renting. Mandy Moore is luscious, and Hugh Grant does a great spoof on that Simon guy from American Idol.

Eli C. gave it a3:
I would like to know what the writer's though was funny about this film. One of the few films I found myself constantly looking at my watch wondering when it would be over.

Dave F gave it a9:
Biting, incisive, and honest satire of America, Americans, and...terrorists. Much more nuanced than the red-scorers would have you believe, American Dreams mixes blithe South park subversion with amiable Airplane slapstick. A dreamz come true for anyone who reads The Onion or watches the Daily Show.

Craig S. gave it a2:
Desperately wants to be 'satire' but ends up being a mish-mash of cheap shots at soft targets like Simon Cowell, George W Bush and Reality TV. Worse than that, some of the material here is borderline racist and reinforces the wildly incorrect perception that the entire known universe revolves around what happens in the US mediaspace. In fact, vast swathes of the global population don't know or care about crap US reality TV.

Bram M. gave it a3:
I walked out on this film, which considering prices these days, is saying a lot!

American Dreamz Universal Pictures

American Dreamz
Universal Pictures