American Dreamz.

So. American Dreamz (2006). Sigh. There's sorta a spoiler below. You shouldn't care enough not to read on.

Here’s the story: It’s a "Canadian Idol"-esque show, but with only one judge and bigger ratings. The judge is Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant), who is basically a hollow shell of a man who hates his life but likes the lifestyle his life affords him. (“Re-write!”) The president is the spitting image of Martin Van Buren. No, wait… (egad, this is exhausting), George W. Bush, and is played by Dennis Quaid. We get to see, though, that this president is so sheltered from the real world by his advisors (including a creepy Willem Dafoe wearing a Cheney suit), that he is blissfully unaware of all the things that he could be doing to help. Perhaps this storyline was the only thing that kept director Paul Weitz [About a Boy (2002), In Good Company (2004)] away from Guantanamo Bay. The "American Dreamz" contestants: Mandy Moore as the savvy and manipulative Sally and immigrant Omer (Sam Golzari) as the Al Qaeda reject slash token brown guy... who has an uber-gay American cousin. Oh, yeah, and the rapping Sholem Glickstein (Adam Busch). I didn't make up that last name.

The president is shocked into seclusion when he insists on reading the world news as unfiltered through his staff. He begins taking "happy pills." Then the president grows a spine. His advisors want his street cred to go up, so they book him on "American Dreamz" as a guest judge. He doesn't really want to, but he agrees to appear. Al Qaeda creams its collective shorts. The plot goes on from there.

I walked out of the theatre satisfied that I wasn’t let down, but now that it’s been over a week since I saw American Dreamz-with-a-zee, I’m not so sure. Did it just capitalize on the popularity and preconceptions of "American Idol"? (No, I wasn’t so deluded to think that this was based on "Canadian Idol". Please.) Are there too many pop culture and political references for this movie to stand up against the test of time? Does Hugh Grant get blown up at the end of the movie? Did that event make me happier than I ever could have expected?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Rent this one if you really feel like it, but rent it soon, because in a month it’ll be about as topical as watching reruns of Weekend Update from the early 90s.