Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
American Dreamz

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 37 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama
Written by: Paul Weitz
Directed by: Paul Weitz
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 21, 2006
DVD: October 17, 2006
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: About a Boy American Pie Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Down to Earth In Good Company
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The rare case of a movie that gets better as it goes along.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The jokes in American Dreamz whiz by with speed and grace, and Weitz maintains control of the material every minute.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This movie seems better suited as cable or video fare than for theatrical viewing.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Slate Michael Agger
As a political statement, American Dreamz is overly didactic and liberal in a read-too-many-blogs sort of way.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Weitz's idea of satire is generally both ludicrous and mild: exaggerating types, then sentimentalizing them.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
Maybe America will prove me wrong by voting, but I felt like you were holding back until the end.
Read Full Review >Premiere Allison Williams
The movie tires itself out setting up the complex plot.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
It's a redundant comedy, like hearing the same tired joke for the 100th time.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Michael Ferraro
It is definitely the weakest movie of the Weitz catalog and will certainly be forgotten faster than Hung himself.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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!
