A film that's hard to idolize

"American Dreamz" is an ambitious, yet underachieving movie. It's not every day a big studio movie so explicitly parodies public figures like the president and TV personalities. That's territory mostly crossed by late night comedy sketch and talk shows. And that's pretty much all "American Dreamz" is; a drawn out "Saturday Night Live" skit. \nAfter being re-elected into office, President Stanton (Dennis Quaid doing a surprisingly good Bush impression) is having an identity crisis. He confines himself to his bedroom reading newspaper after newspaper and refuses to make any public appearances. Worried about Stanton's dropping approval ratings and rumors of a nervous breakdown, his chief of staff (Willem Dafoe all dolled up as Cheney) plans an elaborate publicity tour topped with an appearance on the country's top-rated television show, "American Dreamz" (aka "American Idol"). At the same time "Dreamz" host Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant impersonating Simon Cowell) is searching for contestants to make this season different. His hunt leads him to Sally Kandoo (Mandy Moore) and Omer (Sam Golzari). Sally is a manipulative all American girl hungry for fame, while Omer is an Arab terrorist harboring a secret obsession for show tunes, and a presidential assassination plot.\nAs a member of the uneducated masses that "Dreamz" wishes to speak to (ask me a question about Bush's economic policies and I'll give you as blank a stare as he's often criticized for, but bring up "American Idol" and I can easily tell you this season's best performance was Paris Bennet's rendition of "Midnight Train to Georgia") even I can call out "Dreamz" for not being as smart as it thinks it is. While the film perfectly mimics the quirks of "Idol" (clueless untalented contestants, excruciating commercial breaks before eliminations, the Coke sponsoring) and lampoons Bush (the idea that all his ideas are fed to him through Cheney) the film doesn't really say much about our culture. Sure it touches on the topics of America's obsession with fame and celebrity, and how easily audiences fall for prepackaged sob stories, but is that really news to anyone?\n"Dreamz" builds up to the show's season finale where it manages to sneak in some funny moments, a few interesting thoughts on problems in the Middle East and a surprisingly ballsy ending, but it's too little too late. Also a distracting and unnecessary romance forms between Martin and Sally that only drags the film on.\nWhile occasionally humorous "Dreamz" parodies a culture that doesn't necessarily need parodying. There really isn't anything wrong with enjoying a sugared down show like "Idol" and Bush's intelligence can't be as bad as the film makes it out to be. Save yourself the admission price and stay home to watch "Idol," see these figures impersonated on "SNL" or even read a newspaper. All are cheaper and more entertaining.