I was wondering just how many movies, tv shows and current news items this Movie satorizes.
I thought there may have been an OC parody in there, with the whole poor kid who the rich peoples come in and just start giving him *beep*
It's a satire mainly based off of American Idol. It really is just hammering in the fact that American's only give a crap about stupid pop idol shows on TV, etc.
shareWell put- it's just showing you how mindless everyone has become- there's a lot of symbolism in there as well- the all american boy being introduced eating fried chicken and talking like a regular on leave it to beaver- The middle terrorist is introduced screwing up, and gets heck foremost for ruining the footage their recording (as though what was being recorded was more important than the action they're preparing for)
It's a great movie! Though, not for everyone, granted- it's really one of those love/hate movies
love or hate?? I choose hate..
I understand the parody and mockery... it wasn't that funny.
I get that Americans vote more for American Idol than they do for the president.. that's great.. but that takes 5 seconds to say.. we don't need a poor movie to tell us..
it was not good. Mandy Moore was not good. Hugh Grant did a fine job,, but it's a stupid movie, so you can't blame him. Dennis Quaid is a pile. he should never play anything ever again, except maybe if they make a sequel to Yours, Mine and Ours.. that was the only he's done that he was fit for.. except I guess, Playing By Heart.. and that's only cause he didn't have a big role. that movie's sweet, you should watch it.
American Dreamz is tripe.
I think "What does this movie parody?" is a good question, but in a different way. We know it intends to satirize/spoof/parody American Idol, Bush, militant Islamism, etc., but just what is it parodying about them? I don't think that the answer to that is very clear, and this is related to why I think the film fails artistically.
There is nothing parodic about the average kind of person who is on American Idol as a contestant, or the kind of music they do, or how they dress, or the mixture of intentions, or the fact that the music business is not just about playing music. There is nothing parodic about how the judges are, how the host is, how Hollywood types can have a skewed view of middle America, etc. Those things are common knowledge. Satire, in the technical sense, is meant as a critical technique, where you show the audience something they didn't already know by using irony, sarcasm, ridicule, etc. If a fact is common knowledge, you are hardly engaging in satire by just repeating what's already known. And it's difficult to see what would be funny about that. And insofar as people appearing on American Idol as contestants, there are far funnier ones on the actual show. So, where is the parody, satire or spoof?
There is nothing parodic about the popularity of reality television, about the number of people who vote for contestants on reality television versus who vote in elections, and so on. Those are facts instead. So where is the humor?
There is nothing parodic about suggesting that George W. Bush isn't a genius. You'd have to have been living under a rock for the last six or seven years to not have regularly run into people who think that he's an idiot, that he got into office primarily because of his family's status, etc. So suggesting the same kinds of things in a film hardly seem like satire or parody or a spoof. It's more like going into a chat room and typing that you think that Bush isn't that intelligent, and someone says in response, "Yeah, he's a dork!" How is them saying "Yeah, he's a dork!" a satire, parody or spoof? What's funny about it? You think he's a dork, too. That doesn't seem like a joke. It doesn't uncover any critical insight into Bush's nature via satire.
There is nothing parodic about militant Islamism in the film, or about the fact that America is both criticized by foreigners at the same time that they imbibe in its cultural artifacts, or about the fact that there are cultural differences, such as how frequently and why someone might go to a mall. Those are facts instead, and well known. So again, where is the humor?
Now, I don't think that absolutely nothing about American Dreamz was funny. I even laughed out loud a couple times. But it's difficult to say just what was being satirized, parodied or spoofed, and if the filmmakers didn't have a clear idea of what they were doing on that end, then just what were they intending to do? To attain humor, you can't just present everyday reality as people think it is. To attain satire, you can't just repeat what people already know or believe. You have to exaggerate some things, juxtapose things in an unusual way, do the unexpected, and so on. If you present things that are even less absurd than they are or than people believe them to be in real life, then you hardly have comedy. Especially insofar as the American Idol material goes, American Dreamz gives us far less humor, satire, etc. than the real thing does.
I should add this to the review I wrote for American Dreamz, because it pretty well sums up how I feel about the film: Think about hit pop records. They can be spoofed/parodied/satirized effectively--just listen to some Weird Al Yankovich. But American Dreamz, rather than taking that road, seems to me like those old K-Tel versions of pop songs (the ones with "Not the original artists" in tiny writing on the bottom near the copyright data). It's just a pale imitation of the real thing, with not much to say about the original that we didn't already know, and certainly not more entertaining than the original, but rather more vacuous, where the producers seem to have not quite understood what made the originals work, and neither do they try to do anything different with the material.
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And this is why I (for one) liked this movie a lot : it's a biting satire that doesn't even have to exagerate reality all that much. Says a lot about what we've come to.
- A point in every direction is the same as no point at all.
If you have to ask what was being satirized, you wouldn't have understood the satire anyway.
shareI haven't read it mentioned yet, but am I the only one who thinks this movie is satirizing the ideas of control, manipulation, influence and PR? I don't think the actual situations or characters are important - more what, or who, 'drives' them. If you think about each of the main characters, they're either being heavily manipulated or they themselves are a manipulator. In some instances they're both.
I don't think the politics, the gameshow and the islamic themes are as integral to the point of the movie as most people here seem to think. I think the writers could have picked any storyline to portray the same ideas, but probably chose these particular characters because they're more relevant to popular culture.
I think that if you watch the movie with this idea in mind, you're more likely to love it because it makes so much more sense than if you take it for face value. Everyone I've shared my opinion with who's watched the movie agrees, so far and now love the movie too. Any thoughts?
Gee people don't seem to realize to facts
1. There's no age limit on voting for American Idol
You can vote when you're 7 years old, you can't vote for President until you're 18
2. You can vote unlimited
You can only vote once for president, but I know people on IMDB who hit speed dial, they may put back up to 4,000 votes per night of voting.
Do I CAUSE YOUR FAILURE? Just like you caused Ozzy Osbourne's?
Maserati777
I think it is supposed to make fun of American Idol and the Bush administration.
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