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| Movie Review |
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Dreamgirls
- In theaters December 25th 2006
- Rated PG-13 for language, some sexuality and
drug content
- RunTime: 131 min
- Website
- Matt's rating - 4 out of 5
Matt's Review
I am a fan of musicals transformed to the big screen.
Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, Grease. But compared to the
new, soulful, Motown sounds of Dreamgirls, all the
others are simply white people looking for the two
and four. With an all star cast and musical
arrangements from the early days of R and B,
Dreamgirls is a movie that not only stands on its own
but out in a crowd.
The story follows the career of three female soul
singers in the 1960’s as they cross over to the pop
charts. Their success and failures all hang by the
threads of puppet master Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie
Foxx). Curtis builds an empire and changes music
using every means possible. This is as much about
Taylor as it is the performers as it charts his success
over a couple of decades. It is an interesting look at
the music business and how talent sometimes takes
a back seat to image and timing. Anyone who
remotely follows the pop music scene will not be
surprised. I am not sure this movie intends to take a
stab at the businessmen of the music biz, but I got
the message loud and clear.
The film is full of musical numbers and sing song
dialogue that are well written and passionately
performed. New comer and American Idol loser
Jennifer Hudson proves again why American TV
audiences with a phone are the worst judge of
musical talent. She sings with a vengeance and turns
a debut acting role into an award winning
performance. No big surprise her costar Beyoncé
Knowles pulls it off. What is great about her role
though is that you forget it is Beyoncé. This is the
music of the 60’s and 70’s which takes her out of the
normal realm of hip hop monotony.
One of the best characters in the movie is
James 'Thunder' Early (Eddie Murphy). We watch
Murphy transform Early into recognizable faces of the
early R and B world. From Little Richard to James
Brown to Marvin Gay to Lou Rawls. Murphy pays
tribute to them all in a standout supporting role.
Rated PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug
content Dreamgirls has its older teen moments. But in
this BET/MTV generation this film does a nice job of
keeping it decent. I give it 4 out of 5 gold records.
Know before you go, I’m Matt Mungle
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Matt Mungle
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