Okay, I had the pleasure to watch "Dreamgirls" who I as everyone else considered to be a top Oscar contender. It left me totally disappointed. It starts out really well, the songs are catchy, the acting (or better the singing since there's not much to act) is top notch, no Richard Gere in Chicago in sight.
But after about forty minutes things turn downward. In the beginning the songs are confined to the stage which is just the right thing but then they use the songs as dialogue replacement and all the actors turn from talking into singing. It is such a dumb move because the lyrics start to get really awful. And from what I heard most of the preview audience agreed with me. Furthermore it is about 20 minutes too long, in the end it starts to drag (maybe because they use more and more dialogue-songs). The stage acts are great til the end, but those other songs really stop the story.
I sincerely hope that if the Academy will honor a lighter movie as well, they opt for Little Miss Sunshine and not Dreamgirls. If they don't we get another Chicago, which was rightly called overrated the second the curtain in the Kodak theater closed. Just because actors sing shouldn't be enough to shower the movie with awards. I still think Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson will be nominated, but other major nominations would be unjustified.

ooooh ooooh ooooh!

have you heard my critique on the film? did you hear my podcast or read my comments about it?

YOU SHOULD!

Haven't so far. I'll do it right now

You're right Baba.

BTW: All I could think of during the movie was "There was a reason that Disney changed their from characters breaking into songs to background songs in their animated movies"

To be perfectly honest...

I'm still not totally convinced that it's is going to be the huge thing that everybody's saying.

I'm not convinced about a lot of stuff this season, apparently.

Hopefully this means a win for The Departed

I hereby dub this the "best thread title of the week."

And yeah, I jumped off when the first trailer came out. Welcome to the club.

Its a shame, really. This was one of my most anticipated, and then everything just seemed kind of cheap and "Cutting corners" and I fear this movie is about to go the route of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Maybe this will finally be Scorsece's year by default.

Well I never had faith in this film - especially when I was hearing how this was the frontrunner for BP based on a 10 min clip showed at Cannes. Its ridiculous.

The Departed is looking more and more like a Best Pic and Best Director winner now.

At least if it gets nominated due to the new, unwritten "One of the nominees must be a musical"-rule, I am pretty sure they won't win since Chicago won two years ago. (even Singin in the Rain, the best musical of all time couldn't win because of too many winning musicals the years before)

Exactly. And I do think it will be nominated - it just wont win. It pays to be the first one out. Imagine if an ensemble film about racism came out this year which was far superior to Crash - it would still most likely not win BP thanks to Crash's win last year.

Or imagine a movie about a gay american writer who writes his first non-fiction book about a murder came out this year after Capote won Best actor last year... Wait a Minute!

Yeah seriously: Die Dreamgirls die.

Damn that sounds good

It seems like just yesterday really, but Chicago won 4 years ago. Not 2.

I don't want to bag on this movie till I have seen it but I'm packing my support behind The Departed most likely... hoping that finally the best picture of the year may just be awarded so.

How is it "by default?"