Review: American Dreamz

Rated PG-13 | 107 mins

IMDB Info

Say what you want about Paul Weitz’ filmmaking career, but the writer/director has never made a bad movie. American Dreamz doesn’t come anywhere close to the level of emotion found in About a Boy, In Good Company, or even American Pie, but it offers its fair share of good laughs and is unmistakably a Weitz film. More of a comedy that exaggerates the already-existing humor found in current-events than an analytical satire, the two main targets of American Dreamz are TV’s “American Idol” and the Bush Administration. The plot follows a brainwashed, clumsy terrorist named Omer (Sam Golzari) who is sent to America by his superiors “as a sleeper cell.” However, they are actually shipping him off to live out the rest of his life only under this assumption because they fear that his continued participation in the organization will jeopardize future attacks. In the U.S., strange chain of events leads Omer to be a contestant on TV’s “American Dreamz”, alongside bubble-gum-popping goody-goody Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore). When the heads of the terrorist group discover that the American President (Dennis Quaid as a very Bush-inspired figure) will be judging the finale of the show, they decide to utilize Omer after all. They send orders to him to conduct a suicide-bombing during the episode, killing both he and the Commander-in-Chief.

The fact that Omer, a terrorist, is depicted as a humorous character is slightly distasteful when one keeps the current international-climate in mind, but American Dreamz is so over-the-top that this never comes across as entirely offensive. In fact, one of the main things I admire about the movie is that it targets its humor in a highly malicious fashion, leading to an often hysterical result. Weitz, working hand-in-hand with his cast (Moore is particularly good in her role), is able to capture a synergy between the performances that contributes to the general hilarity of the film. However, despite its abundance of clever material and acting, American Dreamz never transcends the level of these big belly-laughs and, as a result, is nothing more than a simply good film. Had Weitz been able to create a deeper product under the same premise, it could’ve ranked among his best films. Still, American Dreamz offers audiences some funny and biting material to chew on, which is becoming more and more of a rarity in Hollywood nowadays.