American Dreamz
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 21, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
15
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A blithe, funny, and engaging movie. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is more slapdash than smooth, more impulsive than calculating, and it takes cheap shots. I responded to its savage, sloppy zeal. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
"Network" it's not. Weitz doesn't have the killer instinct for merciless satire but he knows how to stage a gag and deliver a punchline. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Not as incisive a political commentary as "Thank You For Smoking," American Dreamz lampoons the public's appetite for mindless entertainment and easy distraction from serious concerns. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The rare case of a movie that gets better as it goes along. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
American Dreamz pitches its softballs with style. Martin Tweed, the preeningly heartless British host of the title TV show, just may be the great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Grant's second coming as a rake and an egotist is the best thing to happen to his career since "Four Weddings and a Funeral." He is twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as he was as the bumbling good guy, and Weitz makes perfect use of the new persona. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The jokes in American Dreamz whiz by with speed and grace, and Weitz maintains control of the material every minute. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Weitz has a winning way with a one-liner, and he's recruited a stellar cast that gets the most out of his material. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This movie seems better suited as cable or video fare than for theatrical viewing. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Where good satire is drawn with a surgeon's scalpel, this comedy is done with a brush broad enough to paint - or, at least, hit - the side of a barn. But in the softer realm of parody, it has a good premise, a couple of funny performances and enough giggles for a reasonably good time at the movies. Read full review
60
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Pitched too broadly to get very deeply under your skin. Still, there are some smarts at work here, and it will make you laugh. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
A film with none of the heart that has characterized Weitz's best work and none of the freshness of his most successful. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
To keep his satirist’s street cred, Weitz chases the sentimentality with sour slaps at the audience. But for all its supposed outrageousness, American Dreamz has a soft center. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The vision of America as a vast, ratings-driven amateur hour is not without promise, but Weitz's movie, named for the most popular TV program in its parallel universe, is disappointingly soft in its individual characterizations. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
As in his previous "In Good Company," Weitz wants too much to like all of his characters, and he wants us to like them too. The result is a movie devoid of any threat, or many laughs, with barn door–broad performances. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Grant, playing a variation on Simon Cowell, resident meanie on "American Idol" and its inspiration, Britain's "Pop Idol," does what's required with seedy panache. Yet the characterization, both as written and acted, lacks a spark. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The only likable characters are ebullient Omer (Sam Golzari), a show-tune-loving reluctant Iraqi suicide bomber who comes to the O.C., and earnest William (Chris Klein), an American GI wounded in Iraq, who are mirror images. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Weitz's idea of satire is generally both ludicrous and mild: exaggerating types, then sentimentalizing them. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Putting it another way: When spoofs of bad singing and songwriting are the sharpest arrows in your quiver, and your politics are diluted until they hit about as hard as someone sticking their tongue out, your satire has a problem. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Hugh Grant's Martin Tweed is nowhere as menacing (or interesting) as the callous bruiser who makes every episode of American Idol a chilling psychotic adventure. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Gets the details right while missing the big picture. Read full review
50
SlateMichael Agger
As a political statement, American Dreamz is overly didactic and liberal in a read-too-many-blogs sort of way. Read full review
50
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
A moderately engaging satire, some of it amusing and some of it strained, but in considerable measure it reflects a strange circumstance in all our lives. Read full review
40
VarietyRobert Koehler
Combining a gallery of targets including President Bush, "American Idol," the Iraq War and the overarching theme of a nation of citizens held in the thrall of phony dreams, pic and its ambitions are undermined by insistent cartoonishness and comic ineptitude. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
Maybe America will prove me wrong by voting, but I felt like you were holding back until the end. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
A cartoonish, unfocused and mostly unfunny satire. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The writer-producer-director of American Dreamz makes nearly every mistake in the satirical book. His targets are either too easy or too dated. He's inconsistent in his attitudes toward them. His stereotypes are stale. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's a redundant comedy, like hearing the same tired joke for the 100th time. Read full review
38
PremiereAllison Williams
The movie tires itself out setting up the complex plot. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
This picture ain't funny. I winced three times, and gave a couple of short laughs, but that was it. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The jokes don't just fizzle into insignificance; they flop about with gaudy ineffectualness, gasping for air like newly landed trout. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Weitz co-directed the wonderful "About a Boy" in 2002, but in "Dreamz" -- a tediously facile satire -- his comic instincts fail him. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The movie stands as a genuine offense against the venerable and indispensable institution of satire.
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The director of "American Pie" has set out to make a merciless satire of American media culture along the lines of "Network," but his ideas are so commonplace that nothing registers except the bile. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Weitz doesn't have the chops for satire, let alone black comedy. Read full review
20
Film ThreatMichael Ferraro
It is definitely the weakest movie of the Weitz catalog and will certainly be forgotten faster than Hung himself. Read full review
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