American Dreamz (2006)

The new season of "American Dreamz," the wildly popular television singing contest, has captured the country's attention, as the competition looks to be between a young Midwestern gal (Moore) and a showtunes-loving young man from Orange County (Golzari). Recently awakened President Staton (Quaid) even wants in on the craze, as he signs up for the potential explosive season finale.

Director:

Paul Weitz

Writer:

Paul Weitz

Stars:

Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hugh Grant	...	Martin Tweed
Dennis Quaid	...	President Staton
Mandy Moore	...	Sally Kendoo
Willem Dafoe	...	Chief of Staff
Chris Klein	...	William Williams
Jennifer Coolidge	...	Martha Kendoo
Sam Golzari	...	Omer
Marcia Gay Harden	...	First Lady
Seth Meyers	...	Chet Krogl
John Cho	...	Ittles
Judy Greer	...	Accordo
Bernard White	...	Agha Babur
Tony Yalda	...	Iqbal Riza
Noureen DeWulf	...	Shazzy Riza
Shohreh Aghdashloo	...	Nazneen Riza

Storyline

Martin Tweed is the host of a talent show called American Dreamz, and whilst he despises each new season, it's a hit with the ratings. Tweed decides it's time for a new and interesting batch of contestants, and sends out his team to find the weirdest bunch possible. Whilst all this is happening, the President of the United States is becoming more and more depressed, and relies on his Chief of Staff to talk him through everything, even into appearing as a judge on the TV show. Perfect news for the terrorists who use the talent contest as a way to reach the President.

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Plot Keywords:

contest | chief of staff | competition | terrorist | television | 

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Taglines:

Everyone's gotta have....

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Genres:

Comedy | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual references

Details

Official Sites:

UIP [fr] UIP [uk]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

21 April 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Muriendo por un sueño

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Center Studios - 450 S. Bixel Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$509,217 (Australia) (28 April 2006)

Gross:

£2,158,359 (UK) (12 May 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Depth of Field

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The interior White House scenes were shot on the set of The West Wing.

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Goofs

When Sally and Omer are talking in the club, there is jazz piano music playing and a man sitting at the piano. He is moving his hands on the piano but it clearly does not correspond to the music.

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Quotes

President Staton: It's not like in this country, where whites, and blacks, and Latinos all get along and there's no prejudicial deal between them. I mean these people
[in Iraq]
President Staton: , they have some longstanding beefs with each other.

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Connections

References Grease (1978)

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Soundtracks

" (Girl) Let's Not Be Friends"
Written by Stephen Trask & Paul Weitz
Performed by Joshua Wade (as Joshua Wade)

User Reviews

A Very good satire

When I was reading the other people's opinion's on American Dreamz, I wondered if they even realized it was a satire...? I surely hope that all who watched it even knows what a satire is: It is when you mock people and their doings/obsessions with the hope of improvement. In this movie, the director (Paul Weitz) mocks everything from America's obsession with TV-shows like Idols to George W. Bush and his delectable office. This is surely a movie you would want to watch a couple of times over - just to catch that dreary bit you most certainly missed the first time.

I would give this movie a well deserved 8 out of ten.