Dream Girls

Dream Girls has everything that was needed to make a great story about a very interesting period in American musical history¹. Then it throws in a bunch of wannabe Broadway musical songs that ultimately undermine the show's credibility as the serious story the rest of the movie tries to be.

The story was great, the acting was great, the costumes were better than great, the dancing was great, and the non-Broadway songs were great... it's the suddenly breaking out into song at times when real people wouldn't that dragged this movie down for me. Yeah this is a musical, but it doesn't feel like a musical most of the time, and when it suddenly becomes one, the transition usually isn't a comfortable one. Not only do these songs feel out of place within the rest of the movie, but they also go on for way too long, especially the "you're going to love me, because I say so!" going-crazy-tantrum song.

Eddie Murphy played a great tragic character. Yeah he's a jerk, but a very likable one, and you feel bad for how far he falls². Jamie Foxx is really good as when he's the good guy, and even better as a villain. Who doesn't love Danny Glover in anything he does? The girls were good. I knew that one of them had lost on American Idol³, but I'm very proud to say that until I looked it up five minutes ago, I had no idea that Beyoncé was one of the girls... and that ladies & gentlemen, is how awesomely not a slave to pop culture I am!

Don't take my criticism to mean that this movie isn't very good. It is a good movie, it just has a few parts that keep it from being a truly great movie.

1) This movie gave me some fun flashbacks to the semester when I studied The History of Rock-N-Roll.
2) And you forget that he once wrote a song called Boogie In Your Butt.
3) And I only know that because I watched half of the Oscars with a family who skipped church one week to see a Kelly Clarkson concert.