DVD Reviews

Dreamgirls: 2-Disc Showstopper Edition

With all the attention Dreamgirls was getting come Oscar time, I was interested to "hear" what everyone was talking about.  I had no idea that there were so many stars in the actual film.  The only cast member I knew of was Beyonce Knowles.  Little did I know that Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and Danny Glover were also in the film.  But when all was song and done, I chock this one up as a decent adaptation of a stage performance.  I'm not a big fan of story song or message song as I like to call them.  Those are the songs used in musicals to further the plot.  The reason why I have difficulty liking them is that usually, they don't have a pleasant set song structure.  They are often just singing what they see or feel in a very linear format.  Kinda reminds me of that Family Guy episode Da Boom where it's Y2K and the Griffin family meet Randy Newman and all he does is sing about ! what's going on.

With showstopping performances by a star-studded cast, Dreamgirls soars with the amazing story of three female singers who learn that anything is possible when you hold onto your dreams. Based on the Tony Award winning Broadway hit and directed by Academy Award winner Bill Condon, the Oscar winning Dreamgirls is an interesting film though highly trumped up in the media.

Both the audio and the video for this release are spectacular. The video comes to us in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.  It's beautiful bringing about true colours and solid blacks.  The image is very sharp but never over sharpened. The audio comes to us in multiple formats including 5.1 and 2.0 surround tracks in English and a 5.1 track in French.  If you thought the video was good, the audio might just be better.  It's clean, clear and has a wide frequency response.  Surrounds are nicely used and the music just sooths the eardrums.

This release is no slouch in the extras department either. Disc 1 opens with trailers for Shrek 3 and Norbit, which are accessible in the Special Features and play along with an ad for the Dreamgirls soundtrack.  Oddly enough, I couldn't find a trailer for Dreamgirls itself. There are 12 extended and alternate scenes, great for the lovers of the film's music. Rounding out the extras on disc one is Beyonce's music video Listen. Unfortunately there is no feature length commentary of any kind.  Disc 2 contains the bulk of the extras including the documentary "Building the Dream,"  an in-depth look at all aspects of the film. It runs almost 2 hours long and if it missed anything you wouldn't know it.  "Dream Logic: Film Editing," "Dressing the Dreams: Costume Design," and "Center Stage: Theatrical Lighting" are 4 featurettes that cover anything that might have been left out of the documentary. Under the selection Image Gallery we get 4 options. Storyboards, Costume Designs, Production Designs and Art Department Archive which combine to give one of the largest image galleries I've ever seen.  I think every storyboard frame from the film is included on this DVD. The first set of storyboards contains over 150 images alone! The only thing really missing are some behind-the-scenes pics or promo photos. There's auditions and screen tests. I was interested to see the Beyonce screentest looked like she was in full costume. The section called Previsualization Sequences was also interesting. There are 7 different selections here and each combine live footage and music/audio with what look like very detailed storyboards to tell different scenes.

Dreamgirls isn't a bad movie.  I guess I was just expecting more.  The music just wasn't what I thought it would be.  Sure there are a couple decent songs but I was expecting some great songs and more fun in the music.  I found the music, for the most part, to be simple.  Simple lyrics, simple structure and simple sound.  A common aspect of doo-wop. The vocalist had some great voices however. These girls can really sing... well whoever sang the music can. Another common aspect of doo-wop. The story itself is something we've seen before.  Seems a lot films dealing with the music industry revolve around a great performer who gets shafted by someone and then comes back in the end.  Luckily Dreamgirls has a bit more going for it then just that simple plot line.  In the end, my favourite portion of the film came when I realized Jaleel White was in it.  There I was looking at Steve Urkel, but he wasn't Urkel anymore.  Very unexpected. Fans of the period in which this film takes pl! ace are probably going to really enjoy this film.  The music alone should bring back some kind of memories.  Is it worth a purchase?  I personally think it's a rent first buy later but considering the amount of extras, buying the DVD is definately something to consider if you enjoyed the film.

Review By Robert Harding