Overrated crap.

Rating: 3/10 (8 June 2007)

Dreamgirls first attracted me because it was released as a movie 'loosely based on The Supremes'. 'Great' I said, The Supremes had a fascinating story, it will be interesting to see what they do with it, considering such a fantastic cast and the overall hype.
Well, don't believe the hype. This is sappy, Disney-influenced crap that should never have been made. Yes, it was based on the MUSICAL DreamGirls, rather than being inspired solely by various music acts during the 20th century, but does that make it any better? Hell no.
Lets start with the positives though, shall we? Well, most aspects of the acting was pretty great. Eddy Murphy was simply superb, highlight of the movie for me. Jamie Foxx? Meh, he was okay I guess. Can't complain but he wasn't superb by any means. Jennifer Hudson? Overrated I thought, she was not worthy of Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. Yeah, she can sing like a frickin' whale on steroids, but acting-wise she wasn't spectacular as so many critics deemed her. The lighting and Camera work, was really good. Excellent in fact. great use of light, balmy blues and reds while they were onstage, and slick, sophisticated camera work. Top notch.
*possible spoilers* However, that's all the positivity I could extract. On to the negatives. The music was shocking. Considering this is 90% music, you can see why I thought it was such a failure. Every time there was a ballad I'd cringe and those Hudson songs just dragged on forever and the lyrics were hardly inspirational. The music wasn't apt in the slightest, it was so disgustingly modern that I felt like throwing up. I never heard a Supremes song sound like any of the ones they had on offer. The overall ending was just poor, why did everything just end up so perfectly? Everyone reunites? Everybody is as happy as Larry? The script-writers really did catch the Disney virus while writing the ending for this one. Shocking.
If you like glitzy, sugarcoated, fake musical equivalent and a bastardizing of former artists then please watch by all means, everyone else, pick up a copy of Ray or Walk the Line. Forget this crap.