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.
Writer/Director: Paul Weitz
Stars: Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Willem Dafoe, Seth Meyers.
Watched online, ok print.
20 songs in the Soundtracks.
GW Bush was president '01-'09. DQ plays a Bush-like president, with WD his Cheney-like chief of staff. HG is Simon Cowell-ish, SM is a contestant wrangler, MM his contestant.
But there's another contestant, Omer, visiting relatives in the OC. We first see him in a terrorist boot camp, doing badly, so they send him to the US as a sleeper. His cousin in OC has aspirations to perform, and the American Dreamz people show up at his house, taking the terrorist wannabe instead (cousin not home).
With his cousin's help, Omer is successful, making it to the finals with MM. The terrorist bosses are thrilled, because the US President is scheduled to be a judge at the finals, and Omer will be able to shake his hand, so they give him a body bomb. But he's had a lot of fun competing and getting votes from the viewers, so he casually throws the bomb in the restroom trash.
Meanwhile, MM's boyfriend intends to propose to her on the finale. But he sees her in bed with HG, so he's distraught. He spots the bomb and takes it out to the stage. HG, recognizing good live tv, keeps the camera on him. He sings and blows them both up. Everyone else had managed to escape the studio, and it was a small bomb.
MM becomes the new host of AD the next year. Her dead bf had won the "competition" (how did viewers "vote" for a non-contestant?) and HG died too.
Pretty bad for such good actors.
Rated 5.5 (23,595)
Universal & more, dir. Weitz; 5
