American Dreamz

Director: Paul Weitz. Starring: Hugh Grant, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Willem Dafoe.

Details: US, 107mins, 12s. A new season of the X-Factor-esque show American Dreamz is on again and producer Mr Tweed (Grant) is on the look our for something different: a wholesome American girl and an Arab. The bitchy ambitious Sally Kendoo (Moore) is a middle class suburbanite from a flag-waving small town in mid-west America, and has just dumped her high-school boyfriend William Williams (Chris Klein) as he might stand in her way of becoming a star.

In the middle east, the Taliban has sent show tune-loving soldier Omer (Sam Golzari) to the US to await mission instructions but when he gets picked to enter the show, they have another plan: President Staton (Quaid), in an attempt to bolster flagging support, has agreed to be a guest judge on the show, and the Taliban plant a bomb on the reluctant Omer to blow the president up. "Omer, they don't call me 'The Torturer' because I don't like torturing people" - sure, the Arabs get a kicking in American Dreamz but so do ditsy, empty-headed Americans, soulless agents, the president and Simon Cowell.

American Dreamz tries for so many jokes and attempts to say so many things, it should never have worked but since it moves at such a frantic pace (in what takes 5 minutes, Klein gets dumped, joins the army, goes to Iraq, gets shot and returns home a hero) it hits more than it misses.

For those who hate Grant's foppish roles like Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill etc and prefer him when he's playing a nonchalant rat like About A Boy or Bridget Jones, will be happy to know that he plays the latter here.

Grant can turn it on when he wants to and he seems to enjoy this Simon Cowell parody and milks it for all he's got: "You're warm, sensitive, caring person … and I hate that". Tacky crap it may appear to be but American Dreamz is smarter than it looks and if you're in the mood for a politicaltelevision satire - there's worse ways to spend an hour and a half.