American Dreamz (2006, DVD)

We just rented this from the library, so I had to tell you what I thought of course. This was in the movie theaters in 2006 and I never even heard of it. I gave it a whirl.

Cast
This movie has a bunch of pretty big stars in it, so let s start off with the stars and their characters. The first big star is Mandy Moore, who plays Sally Kendoo, a small town girl who loves to sing and doesn t like her boyfriend, William Williams, played by Chris Klein; because he loves her too much. Then there is Dennis Quaid who plays President Joseph Staton, who seems to be having a midlife crisis.

Next is Willem Dafoe who plays the President s chief of staff and who keeps him president by making him a puppet and telling him what to say and what to do. Then, my favorite character, Martin Tweed, played by lovable Hugh Grant. He isn t too lovable in the movie though. He s a self absorbed snob who is the host of the talent show American Dreamz.

Now we can t forget Sam Golzer, who stars as Omer, who is part of a terrorist group that is sent to the U.S. and he stays with cousins and somehow winds up on American Dreamz as a contestant.

The Story

Ok, it s a simple story with many underlying storylines in it. The first storyline is that of Sally Kendoo. Her boyfriend totally loves her. She loves to sing and dumps him after she finds out she was chosen to be a contestant on American Dreamz. He then goes to Iraq, gets wounded and comes back to her doorstep with roses.

Her agent think it s a great way to get more votes for the show by making him propose to Sally on national television. But, of course she doesn t really love him and is only doing it for herself to possibly win the competition.

Ok, in comes the president. He has just won the presidency for the second time. He never read the newspaper. Well, a morning after he just won, he decides to read one. He is shocked, and then for a month following that, he holes up in his room reading the newspaper and begins having doubts about why he is the president and what he is doing there. So, his Chief of Staff decides that it would be good for publicity to have him be a guest judge on American Dreamz.

Now, let s talk about Omer. He is part of a terrorist group, but he loves old show tunes that remind him of his mother and of course his group frowns upon that. So, they send him off to the U.S. to await further instructions. While he is there, the news crew of American Dreamz arrive at his cousins house to tell his cousin that he is a contestant on the show. Only, they are convinced that Omer should be a contestant instead since they found him singing and dancing in the basement. His cousin is hurt and outraged, but gets over it quickly and becomes Omer s agent and gets him through the competition to the final with Sally.

So, then Omer s terrorist group get a great idea. He needs to make it to the finals where the president will be a guest judge. When he meets the president, he is supposed to set off a bomb and kill all the people in the audience, including the president, Sally.

The end is a crazy one that will shock you and leave you speechless.

My thoughts

It s an okay movie. I like the stars and feel that they play their characters well. I really enjoyed Mandy Moore s singing.

I feel that there are too many storylines because they spend so much time on each one. They all sort of come together at the end, but it just doesn t all make sense and it isn t that funny in my opinion.