Dreamgirls - C

Released on DVD this week.

Based on a 25 year old Broadway musical, I knew I wasn't the target audience going in, but 2 Oscars wins and 8 nominations (the most last year) is required viewing, right? Dreamgirls is based on the Supremes circa late 60s- late 70s and stars Beyonce Knowles as Deena Jones, who can't sing quite as well as the size 14-16 Effie White (Jennifer Hudson). To reach a mass audience, their promoter Jamie Foxx moves Deena to the front.

Eddie Murphy plays James Thunder Early, a singer at the top on his way down. He's good, but if you've seen SNL's "James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub", you'll have a hard time not thinking about it. Jamie Foxx definitely has a superstar presence, but being a jerk is not his strong suit. He is miscast, partly because of the movie "Ray". I wished I was watching that movie often during the running time of 131 minutes. Even though it was a fairly standard biopic, "Ray" worked because the music was first-rate. And that's the central problem with Dreamgirls. It's a musical where the music isn't really that good. They would have been better off playing Supremes songs.

The one standout musical number is Jennifer Hudson singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going". She pours all the energy of the Tasmanian Devil into it (in a good way) and is entirely believable. It's like Ms. Hudson knows this is her last shot for stardom and she's leaving nothing on the sidelines. But that scene is near the halfway point and you have to suffer through endless and jumbled musical numbers about backstabbing, spoiled liars for over another hour. C

Red Alert: The preview for Norbit will automatically play on the DVD unless you press menu.