MOVIE: Dreamgirls

Tonight I finally went to go see Dreamgirls. I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

A quick review (since still lots to do tonight) would be to say that my TOP 3 comments for the movie are:
1. Jennifer Hudson: absolutely amazing. great great great singer, presence, performance. I just wanted more of her. You go girl!
2. The End Credits Montage: yeah, the showing of the different cinematic elements was a bit of an obvious whoring for nods, but it was cool to see anyways. What no spread for the movie's caterers? cool though. very cool (especially the bit for the editors).
3. Listen: really good song, and it should be nominated. The song was well-placed and shows the maturity and development of Beyonce's character in the movie. I was considering buying it off of iTunes (along with 'Move' - their talent contest song) but am giving it some time to sink-in... and not be so hasty.

Dreamgirls was a good movie, and I wouldn't mind if it got a Best Pic nod... I just really don't see it winning because there were a few, strong, oooo... shakes-head moments/elements that prevented it from being a very good/great movie. Here are the movie's BOTTOM 3:
1. Audio-Visual Synchronization: on MANY musical occaisions, the voice being heard singing absolutely DID NOT MATCH what was shown on screen... in tone and timbre.... it was very obvious that the tracks were recorded in a studio studio, and each time, it put a bigger gap between myself and the world being presented to us. By the end of the movie, I was looking away from the screen when there was singing... it was that painful.
2. Bad Casting: don't get me wrong... Jennifer Hudson was great, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Danny Glover, Eddie Murphy, and the other Dreamettes were good/okay. Just... pretty much everyone else. Too much talent in the less significant roles were SO distracting... like the guy from Psych (who obviously didn't do his own singing), the wife from Grey's Anatomy, Jim from the Office and 3rd Rock guy with really really bad hair... WHY? But I do think that the over-casting of recognizable actors was to the benefit of Jennifer Hudson (but Jennifer definitely did her work!)
3. (There's really no third bad thing.)

The two negatives were big Big BIG negatives, but Jennifer Hudson's Oscar-worthy performance, along with the capable editing and handling of the story, makes me give Dreamgirls a thumbs-up from me.