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Dreamgirls - 2 Disc Showstopper Edition
R1 - America - Dreamworks Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (5th May 2007). |
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The Film
 About as far from his 'Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh' days as he can possibly get, writer/director Bill Condon brings the celebrated Broadway musical to the big screen in a graceful and elegant manner. At the risk of sounding harsh, I'll say right now that the movie is fluff, but it's Hollywood fluff and it's incredibly well made. Compared to, say, 'Moulin Rouge' or even 'Chicago', though, it's just not as full, poignant or emotional. It's based on the life of the Supremes, but because I honestly don't know about their rise or careers in any kind of detail, I'll skip this aspect of the movie and move on to its biggest discovery. Jennifer Hudson can act and she can sing. Boy can she sing. She belts out some incredible melodies with her powerful voice (proving once and for all that Simon Cowell has no idea of what he's talking about). She handles herself very well in this role, being very confident and controlled. The only problems with her character come with the writing and not her performance. Her character is such a selfish little self-centered priss, I couldn't have cared less about her. Granted, the manager doesn't really help pacify her, but she doesn't handle it in the nicest way. Her character is self-destructive and it's no surprise when whe falls. Beyoncé has a nice role and once again gives an assured performance. You can see she wanted this role and is very comfortable in it. Her character, though, is a bit naïve, which makes her look stupid at times. However, she's idealistic and she only wants to sing. She unwillingly gets manipulated, and because of this you do feel for her. Jamie Foxx has a great role and does a great job with what his character. His arc is subtle but very nice and is, in my mind, the best written of the movie. To be sure, he's not the nicest guy and eventually proves it, but Mr. Foxx is a great actor and his smooth-talking agent only proves it further. Eddie Murphy is great, as well, and his character is loud and bombastic and is fun to watch. The plot and emotions are kind of thin. This, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. This is a musical and it definitely looks and feels that way. There's a musical number every 5 or 10 minutes, but these are important because they're a part of the story. They express feelings, desires and advance the plot. They're a nice substitute for dialogue. The musical numbers are simple but very nice. This is not 'Fiddler on the Roof', and consists mostly of three girls on a stage, singing (with, of course, the audience). The simplicity works for the movie because you concentrate on the performers and on the song. The lyrics and the music are what are important so having very intricate, Busby-Berkeley-like productions would focus your attention elsewhere, taking away from the core of the song. For me, the technical side of the movie is great. The sets, costumes are great and the movie looks very much of the time it's supposed to be in. The emotions, however are a bit lacking, with the characters being a bit flat and not really evolving too much, which is a shame because this is essentially a character study. I'm a big fan of Bill Condon's and I was expecting something great. If I were a bigger fan of musicals, I would be more lenient with certain aspects of the movie, I'm sure. I did, however, find myself tapping my foot with to the music many times. It's a visual and aural treat and nobody can say otherwise.
Video
2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The movie looks incredible, with a virtually perfect transfer. The movie at times has extremely strong hues and so the red and orange dresses lose detail. Their folds looks fuzzy and their delineation is not very clear. This, however, is probably how the filmmakers wanted the movie to look and so is not much of a flaw. The level of detail is great and you can see everything very clearly. The colours are extremely bright and they look great. The dresses sparkle and shine the way they're supposed to. A lot of the movie, especially on stage, is very dark and the transfer has no problem showing this. There is a very small level of noise, but it's not much and not often. I can't really find something wrong to say about the picture. The transfer really shines.
Audio
The English Dolby 5.1 track is very good. Usually, I say that most of the movie is talking, but here, I have to say that most of the movie is singing. The music comes out loud and clear. The many musical numbers rock the walls, using up all of the speakers. The subwoofer peeps through during, for example, Eddie Murphy's soul number and during some of the other songs, but it's a very subtle use. The dialogue is clear, as are all the other little effects. The mix is very nice, though the movie isn't the most dynamic one. It's basically like a concert with some dialogue in between the songs, but the Dolby track handles everything very well. An English Dolby 2.0 surround, and French Dolby 5.1 are also provided with English and Spanish subtitles.
Extras
This set is packed with great extras, so let's start. In the first disc, you'll find 12 Extended and Alternate Scenes (36:10), presented in full Dolby Digital 5.1. They are: I'm Lookin' for Something (2:24), Goin' Downtown (1:57), Takin' the Long Way Home (2:27), Fake Your Way to the Top (6:38), Steppin' to the Bad Side (7:26), Heavy (1:14), I'm Somebody (0:38), I am Changing (4:05), Perfect World (1:30), Effie, Sing my Song (1:31), One Night Only (2:53) and One Night Only (Disco Version) (3:23). Most the scenes are just smaller shots here and there, but some, like Fake Your Way to the Top have nice little character bits, which add to the movie. That particular number, for example, tells the story of Jimmy going to a bar and picking up a girl, while he's singing on stage. It's quite inventive and it's a shame it couldn't be in the movie. However, had these been kept in, the movie would certainly be too long. It's very nice to see them as they were conceived, though. Next up is a Music Video, 'Listen' by Beyonc̩ Knowles (3:49), which is the only extra in the set (apart from the previews) that's isn't anamorphic widescreen. It's a nice song and video, but a bit different in style and conception than the musical numbers in the movie. Lastly, you have a few Previews, a minute-long spot for the movie's original soundtrack, as well as trailers for 'Shrek the Third' (2:07) and 'Norbit' (1:55). Starting the second disc is the wonderful Building a Dream documentary. It's a terrific, full documentary on the making of the movie. More movies should get this kind of documentary. It's 1 hour, 54 minutes and 47 seconds long and covers everything you can ever wonder about. It starts by talking about the Broadway play, then covers the casting, the actors, the pre-production, the music, the location shooting, shooting the musical scenes, the costumes and everything else. Just about everybody that had anything to do with the movie comes in to talk about every aspect of the movie. It's incredibly thorough yet never long or tedious. You hear funny on-set stories, like the girls having problems with the microphone cords, and Eddie Murphy getting a bloody mouth. It's a great 2 hours and is fascinating to watch. After that, you get three featurettes, Dream Logic: Film Editing (4:09), Dressing the Dreams: Costume Design (8:21) and Center Stage: Theatrical Lighting (8:44). As you may have guessed, each covers a specific aspect of the movie and all are very nice to watch. They talk about how they kept the theatricality intact, while making an already-cinematic play even more so. It gives out nice information, and even shows you a little footage of the editor, costume designer and lighting director doing their job. Auditions and Screen Tests are next. The documentary said they auditioned hundreds of girls for the role of Effie, which eventually went to Jennifer Hudson. She must have given an incredible audition, which, oddly enough, is not in this set. I find it very strange given the attentions she's gotten. In any case, you do have 'Dreamgirls РBeyonc̩ Knowles Screen Test' (2:24), 'Ain't No Party РAnika Noni Rose Audition' (2:09) and 'Steppin' to the Bad Side - Fatima Robinson Choreography Audition' (6:20). The tests are nice, and it's interesting to see how things differ (or stay the same) when comparing them to the movie. They're basically the same, by the way. After that, seven Previsualization Sequences can be seen. 'The Talent Show' (9:35), 'Fake Your Way to the Top' (6:57), 'Cadillac Car' (3:01), 'Steppin' to the Bad Side' (8:24), 'I Want You Baby' (2:45), 'Heavy' (1:46) and 'Hard to Say Goodbye' (4:29) combine demo reel footage with storyboards to show you how the scenes were supposed to look. The final scenes are in the extended scenes section on disc 1. The differences are pretty minimal. As the director says in the documentary, the movie should already be finished before you start shooting it. The previz scenes show that the makers knew what they wanted. A bunch of Image Galleries finish the set. The Storyboards section shows you ten musical numbers ('The Talent Show', 'Fake Your Way to the Top', 'Cadillac Car', 'Steppin' to the Bad Side', 'Family', 'Heavy', 'I meant You No Harm/Jimmy's Rap', 'Red Carpet', 'Hard to Say Goodbye' and 'Dreamgirls Finale') and they show you in detail how the scenes were conceived. They pretty much stayed the same all through the moviemaking process, up until the final cut. The extended scenes show exactly what you see here. The Costume Designs, Production Designs and Art Department Archive galleries are pretty self-explanatory. The production design gallery is actually very detailed and would serve as a great foundation for a comic book adaptation. The art department shows album covers and other props for the movie (and even the tour bus!). It's very interesting to see how much detail went into making the movie. The extras, by the way, have optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Overall
Despite the silly title, the Showstopper Edition DVD is really great. Dreamworks and Paramount have also released a single-disc version, which is only the first DVD of this set.
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