Enjoy the first 20 minutes, then get on with your life

Rating: 2/10 (9 January 2007)

The first few songs in Dreamgirls are infectious, and the characters we meet in the first 20 minutes or so of the movie show promise. But as soon as the cast starts singing dialogue to each other instead of just performing Motown-type hits, run for the concession stand. Most of the musical numbers are painfully long after that and bring the plot screeching to a halt to make a point (and make it again and again, verse after verse, until you want to scream "We get it already!"). I spent the last 20 minutes praying for the movie to end, and many in the theater were laughing at the movie instead of with it during that stretch.