One of those attempts by Hollywood to be 'smart' and funny at the same time, but it is just horrid. There is barely anything funny, and at the end of the day, one just wonders why did people spend millions of dollars on such junk like this? This is not smart, this is not funny, this is not satire - it is just a piece of crap. Surprised it had some decent actors in it...Only reason it gets a 2, really.… Expand

I agree with Tony B, this was bland. A couple funny moments but overall it was disappointing and really missed the mark.

Some critics diss Paul Weitz's American Dreamz as too "middle of the road," but that's a pose. Weitz errs in his calculated bid to create the definitive, film-critic-pleasing contemporary satire -- lampooning Bush's War on Terror and American Idol. It's not that he heralds The New York Times (that's considered positive), but he presents a Red-Stater President as being capable of accessing the "nuance" of The New York Times. Ergo: "middle of the road." Access to that New York Times "nuance" -- a bogus concept -- is a privilege film critics maintain for themselves. Weitz is so delusional -- so enraptured to ambition -- that he accepts the authority of The New York Times as American Reality.… Expand

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.… Expand

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.

First of all let me say this: A lot of critics are calling this movie a satire, it is actually political commentary about how stupid we as Americans have become. It is excellent and intelligent. It mirrors both our ridiculous obsession with pop culture and our ignorance to the way our nation is governed. I think anyone with a keen eye can

Call it a satire or a black comedy, the script sparkles at times. Getting off nice zingers mostly comming from Hugh Grant. We get a game cast all getting ample screen time, so why does this comedy miss more than hit? To much on it's plate, the movie just flat overloads. American Idol is just to easy to trash to be funny, and taking on the bush administrationand the war. has been done to death. I'd also like to add, how does Mandy Moore keep getting cast in films? As a do anything it takes climber hoping to become the next american idol, she stands out like a sore thumb with the rest of this cast. She just doesnt have it, she can't hold a scene with any of the more talented cast. Paul Weitz recruits Jennifer Cooldige from American Pie, this ample comdienne is wasted in a simple part. Watch however for Shohreh Aghdashloo the mother in "the house of sand and fog" in a sweet supporting role.… Expand

I have't see n a worse portrayal of Arabs since 80s Chuck Norris movies. Not only are all the "Arab" actors PERSIAN, but this movie further degenerates Americas outlook on the Arab-American population. This movie does nothing for society, it actually put us further in the hole.

As Hollywood is filled with liberals, I have the distinct feeling that they probably laughed it up when they wrote this script, when they were filming, when they were watching the dailies, etc. However, the film opened in a shockingly dismissed eighth place, and it'll probably drop out of the top ten in week two. It deserves it. It's honestly that bad. The only bright spot in the entire production is Mandy Moore, and she has very little screen time. Had the focus of DREAMZ lessened the political swipes and gone more strongly with the pop culture aspect that it seriously intends to lampoon, there would've been a stronger film. But even advertisers tried to latch onto pushing a farce about Bush and Cheney down the folks of average people, and, thus, AMERICAN DREAMZ is nearly impossible to swallow.… Expand

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.

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.

So much potential wasted in an effort to please every demographic audience that it ends up pleasing only the ones it is skewering- American Idol viewers and the" Bushies"! To put it in 3 words- American Dreamz Suckz!

They have a president that is supposed to be a trait by trait copy of W, and a talent show that matches American Idol down to the cheesy background animations- but in this world of ostensible realism there is a show tunes singing mujahadeen and a group of terrorists that secretly love pop culture. The flm fails if it intends to poke fun at the current political situation, because it so often blurs the line between SNL realism and a Bullworth like "What ifing". What's more, this movie has a rediculous climax that was so random and sloppily motivated that they would have been better to have Ryan Seacrest produce it. If you think that Bushisms are on the cutting edge of humor then please go see this movie- otherwise save your money and rent Bullworth.… Expand

It's worth the price of admission just to see Tony Yalda as the flamboyant American Muslim who is desperate to appear on American Dreamz. The entire cast is delightful, especially Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, and Sam Golzari.

Great for a high school freshman, who thinks he is funny, but doesn't score well on standardized tests.

This film is certainly a blunt instrument with very obvious biases, but there it definitely has its fair share of hysterical moments. While, I think there

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.

I walked out on this film, which considering prices these days, is saying a lot!

The critics got this one wrong. This is a black comedy (not a spoof) and as such hits many correct notes. For instance, the president in this picture is more sophisticated, not less, and speaks more clearly, not less, than president Bush. The audience I was in laughed throughout, not like some Hollywood so called comedies where there is nary a peep for 2 hours. If you like dark comedies which tell a certain truth about the less cheerful side of life, give this movie a chance.… Collapse

Bland, ham-fisted topical comedy on only the most obvious of subjects.

One of those movies where you can just picture the writers sitting in their little room patting themselves on the back as they're coming up with this stuff, thinking they're so smart and witty. Satire, political commentary, black comedy. You can try to slap any of these labels on "American Dreamz", but i'm afraid you'll find it fails at all of them.

It was my American Idol obsession that drew me to theaters, and similar reasoning for why I enjoyed the movie. The plot was odd, the characters were bland, and much of the acting was questionable. I dont think this is a "spoof" or a "satire" because most of this movie's content is true. The manipulation and that power that pop culture holds over our society is undeniable. The only not believeable parts of this movie is the outlandish ending.... oh and that the president is remotely likable. For what it was, American Dreamz was worth seeing... but if you really love dark comdey, I would suggest the likes of "Drop Dead Gorgeous".… Expand

The real surprise in writer-director Paul Weitz's two-for-the-price-of-one satire on George W. Bush's Presidential administration and American Idol is NOT that Weitz picked what are probably the two easiest and most obvious targets available in American culture today, but that he nevertheless succeeded in getting so much freshness and mileage out of them for most of the way. As clueless, just-reelected President Staton (Dennis Quaid) discovers the greatness of reading newspapers, which leads him to slip into a funk over both the enormity of his job and the fact that he's nowhere near up to it, he's booked by his handlers as a guest judge on the phenomenally popular TV talent show of the movie's title, whose most popular contestants are Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore), a manipulative, psuedo-innocent all-American cross between the first American Idol's Kelly Clarkson and the current one's Kellie Pickler, and Omer (Sam Golzari), an Iraqi would-be terrorist who loves show tunes and sings them with such effervescent joy that America is completely won over. Lots of funny lines and accurate observations of showbiz both Hollywood- and Washington-style help, and so do some great song parodies that, in true Spinal Tap/ Mighty Wind fashion, are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, but the performances really make this fly. Hugh Grant is perfectly cast as the show's self-loathing, Simon Cowell-like host; Moore, here as in Saved!, may be a nice person in real life but plays conniving, self-serving hypocrisy so well you'd think she invented it; Golzari's song-and-dance performances (particularly "The Impossible Dream") are both as sidesplitting and as weirdly lovable as Weitz no doubt wants them to be; Marcia Gay Harden as the First Lady demonstrates why it's easy for some people to thoroughly detest George W. but still like Laura; and Quaid sidesteps much of the obvious buffoonery inherent in his role with a subtle, even sympathetic characterization. In fact, if you bought the DVD of Fahrenheit 9/11 the day it came out and have watched it at least half a dozen times since, you're likely to feel that the movie takes it much too easy on Bush...but then one of Weitz's most distinctive characteristics as a writer-director is the fundamental kindheartedness he shows toward all of his characters; it's what made the original American Pie one of the few teen raunchfests that intelligent adults caenjoy without shame, and it manifests itself here again when Weitz gives the otherwise despicable Sally a convincing speech about her childhood that explains why she's the way she is. On the other hand, the Dick Cheney/ Karl Rove-like Chief of Staff played by Willem Dafoe doesn't quite work; nothing wrong with the actor, but there's no sense of right-wing entitlement here, no deeply felt belief in the ends always justifying the means that really would've allowed Dafoe to nail his parody. And the other contestants (including the inevitable Whitney Houston wannabe and--of course!--a Clay Aiken type) are so funny that it's a real shame that they're hustled on and off-stage so quickly. Weitz's greatest liability, however, is his surprisingly, jarringly cynical climax and conclusion (faintly and oddly remiscent of a plot twist in An Officer and a Gentleman), which under most circumstances would earn the writer praise for being uncompromising, but in this specific instance is so sour, unconvincing, hectoring and preachy that it undercuts the 95% of a movie that is so bright, likable and subtle that it its best it resembles Michael Ritchie's sunny mid-1970s middle-America satires Smile and the original Bad News Bears and sends its audience home with a really acrid aftertaste. With all the end-of-year Oscar bait mostly behind us and the summer blockbusters yet to come, it's become popular (and redundant) year after year to complain that nothing good comes out in the spring. Well, talented individuals like Weitz and Spike Lee (inside Man) prove that this is a fallacy: they DO come out with original, imaginative stuff in the spring. They both just seem to, in these specific cases, have trouble coming up with good endings!… Expand