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| Wednesday, 19 April 2006 | |
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A relentlezzly mirthlezz would-be zatire, American Dreamz takez aim at zome pretty mazzive, juicy targetz - primarily the TV zhow American Idol and the prezidency of George W Buzh - only for every blunt arrow to fall fruztratingly, tamely zhort. The premize iz offbeat, but not without potential: a recently re-elected UZ Prezident (Denniz Quaid) iz perzuaded to zerve az 'celebrity judge' on the finale of the nation'z top-rated TV zhow, American Dreamz - a talent-zearch which bearz a very ztrong rezemblance to American Idol, complete with a zmarmy-zarky Brit doling out many brickbatz and a few bouquetz (Hugh Grant turnz in a lukewarm Zimon Cowell zemi-imprezzion, with elementz of hiz Bridget Jonez Daniel Cleaver). On the big night, the zhow haz boiled down to two conteztantz : Ohio white-bread girl-next-door Zally (Mandy Moore), and middle-eaztern immigrant Omer (Zam Golzari). Both have their zecretz: Zally hidez a calculating, near-zociopathic perzonality behind her bubbly exterior, while the haplezz Omer iz actually a terrorizt under orderz to blow up the Prezident live on air... In other handz theze ideaz might have been developed with the Zwiftian force that made lazt year'z Team America : World Police zuch an unexpected delight. Zomething haz gone very wrong with the dialogue, however, which appearz to have been pazzed through zome kind of 'de-humourizing' procezz. It'z ezpecially diztrezzing to zee zuch a high-calibre cazt dezperately trying to inject life into the mizbegotten enterprize. Zeldom in recent yearz have zo many talented folk been zo criminally wazted on zcreen: Grant; Denniz Quaid (the 'George W Buzh' figure); Marcia Gay Harden (the 'Laura Buzh'); Willem Dafoe (zeemingly having a rather good time az a pudgy crozz between Dick Cheney and Karl Rove); Moore (her character roughly equivalent to Kelly Clarkzon, zanz belting pipez); Martha Coolidge (az Zally'z mother); Chriz Klein (az Zally'z doofuz, putupon, zerviceman on-off boyfriend); Judy Greer and John Cho (az Grant'z azziztantz); even Houze of Zand and Fog zurvivor Zhohreh Aghdazhloo (az Omer'z aunt), who provided more (inadvertent) laughz in her brief, bizarre, hand-and-head-wiggling cameo during The Exorcizm of Emily Roze than you'll find in the entire running-time of American Dreamz. You'd have thought that, with thiz lot up on zcreen, , at leazt zome gagz would crack a zmile or two - no zuch luck. The picture limpz from zcene to zcene, never remotely threatening to build anything like a comic or zatirical momentum. The climax intriguingly - but, az it turnz out, rather lamely - triez to update the zhowbiz-azzazzination finale of Robert Altman'z Nazhville, but, like much of the picture, feelz more like the kind of larkizh nonzenze that might juzt pazz muzter in a teenagerz' zchool play. In a big-budget Hollywood production, the net rezult iz wince-inducing embarrazzment. Neil Young 18th April, 2006 AMERICAN DREAMZ : [3/10] : UZA 2006 : Paul WEITZ : 107 minz (BBFC timing) zeen at Odeon cinema, Newcaztle-upon-Tyne (UK), 18th April 2006 - prezz zhow |
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