Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Dreamgirls Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Sir Terrence April 13, 2008

Dreamgirls, wow! What a play, and now what a film. When I think that its been 27 years since I saw the original production of Dreamgirls at the Imperial Theater in Midtown New York, I am just blown away. I was just a wee little kid back then, and I remember my grandmother telling me that this was something that I had to see, and it was really good. She was right, as I went back to see the play 2 times that year, 2 more times the following, and 2 more times in 1985 before it closed. Each time I saw the play, it improved over the last time I saw it, even when the primary actors and actresses were not performing. The history of this production is rich as it began as a project for Nell Carter, who along with Sheryl Lee Ralph and Loretta Devine was first considered for the play. The play starring this trio never got off the ground, as Carter decided to take a part on Ryans Hope, a popular television soap at the time. The play was originally called Project 9 in its development, and after a year of sitting on the shelf, it was brought back to life when it caught the interest of a very famous and brillant Choreoghrapher/Producer Micheal Bennett. Loretta Devine and Sheryl Ralph Lee returned in their roles joined by gospel singer Jennifer Holliday. Playright Tom Eyen (also from the original Project 9 group) returned as well, and Bennett and Eyen began shopping Big Dreams(as it was known then) to producers all over New York. Joining these fine actresses were Ben Harney, Obba Babatunde, Cleavant Derricks in the male roles on stage. However in the workshop stage(that is broadwayspeak for rehersals) Jennifer Holliday left the play complaining that Effie’s character was killed off before the first act in the play. After two mildly successful workshops which included actress Jennifer Lewis as Effie, Holliday returned to the project, now known as Dream Girls. However, she found Effie's role had been reduced significantly in favor of Sheryl Lee Ralph's Deena character, and Holliday eventually quit the project again. After acquiring funding from music industry mogul David Geffen and fellow co-financiers ABC Entertainment, Metromedia, and the Shubert family, Bennett called Holliday back and agreed to rewrite the show's second act and build up her character.

The most interesting caveat of the entire history of the play, and the film, is how much the life of Jennifer Holliday has really mimicked that of Effie White. Let’s face the facts here, Jennifer was the key ingredient that made the play work. Night after night folks jumped to their feet in praise and adoration of Holliday’s fine singing performances. While the entire cast was first rate, she put the icing on the cake almost every night from December 1981 till the play’s final curtain came down in August 1985. Just like Effie, Holliday has had a very tough time getting the footing needed to boost her career to this day.

Fast fowarding to 2004 and David Geffen, founder of Geffen Records and one of the play's financiers, leased the Dreamgirls film rights to Warner through his Geffen Pictures company. Although the film was announced several times, with singers such as Whitney Houston (as Deena), Lauryn Hill (another Deena candidate), and Kelly Price (as Effie) tapped to star, the studio eventually abandoned the project. Geffen eventually leased the rights to DreamWorks SKG, a company he co-founded, and Paramount Pictures in 2004. Laurence Mark served as producer of the DreamWorks/Paramount adaptation of Dreamgirls, written and directed by Bill Condon, who had earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay adaptation of Chicago. This film adaptation of Dreamgirls stars Jamie Foxx as Curtis, Beyoncé Knowles as Deena, Eddie Murphy as Jimmy, Danny Glover as Marty, Jennifer Hudson as Effie, Anika Noni Rose as Lorrell, Keith Robinson as C.C., Sharon Leal as Michelle, and Hinton Battle as Wayne. Dreamgirls was first exhibited in special ten-day road show engagements beginning December 15, 2006. Subsequently, the film went into national release on December 25, 2006. Loretta Devine, who originated the Lorrell role, has a cameo role as a jazz singer in the film. Two other alumni of the Broadway production Hinton Battle (a James "Thunder" Early replacement) and Yvette Cason ( Effie White understudy) also appear. While much of the material remains the same as that of the stage musical, some of the stage musical's songs (most notably "Ain't No Party") were removed, and four new songs were added. A number of changes were made to the story as well, including the additions of more overt references to The Supremes and Motown, and the relocation of the story's main setting from Chicago to Detroit. The film won two Academy Awards. One for Best Sound Editing and the other for Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Hudson. It was nominated for six others including Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Supporting Actor for Eddie Murphy and Best Original Song three times for "Listen", "Love You I Do" and "Patience".

Act I 1962-1966

It is 1962 and the film opens at a talent competition in the Detroit Theater in Detroit Michigan. The curtain rises, and we are treated with a spirited musical number from three African-American women Effie White (Jennifer Hudson), Deena Jones (Beyonce’ Knowles) and Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose). After the number is over and the trio retreats backstage, they bump into Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jaime Foxx), a Cadillac dealer owner with an ambition to break into the music business. The starring act for the evening is a famous local hit James “Thunder” Early who is having some issues with his backup singers. They walk off just before the show, leaving Early with no backup singers for his set. Taylor sensing an opportunity, introduces himself as the manager of Effie, Deena, and Lorrell, and makes a deal with Early to contract the three for a tour as background singers for his group. Effie balks at the offer at first, but is convinced to take the opportunity by her brother C.C. (Keith Robinson), the songwriter for the trio.

Ambitious Curtis armed with the desire to increase the popularity of both Jimmy and the young ladies, starts his own record company Rainbow Records right out of the showroom of his dealership. He makes C.C. his head songwriter. At first the plan is a failure, as the first single is stolen and covered by a white pop group. Frustrated but determined, Curtis resorts to paying kickbacks to local radio station in an effort to get his singles on the air. This plan works, and Curtis is able to get the group in the top 100 of the billboard charts, and a big gig at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. As the tour progresses, love affairs begin to develop between Effie and Curtis, and Jimmy and Lorrell. Marty (Danny Glover), Early’s band manager begins to get jealous and skeptical of the new direction Curtis is taking Jimmy, walks away from Jimmy. Jimmy finds himself without his friend and long time manager.

With Marty walking away, and Jimmy unable to transition from an old school R&B act, to a more slick and modern act, Curtis decides to separate the girls from Jimmy’s act. He call’s the newly formed act the Dreamettes, and begins to make some pretty profound changes. He moves Deena, the lesser singer, but better looking in place of Effie as the lead, which angers Effie to no end. Armed with a new look and lead singer, the Dreamettes are transformed into the new group The Dreams, which by 1965 become as big an act as the Beatles. In spite of the success, Effie becomes bitter and angry, and begins to do things that negatively affect the group. Things become so bad Effie is quickly replaced by Curtis’s secretary Michelle Morris (Sharon Leal). Effie later finds out she is pregnant, and after a big blow out at Caesar Palace finds herself alone and without a singing career, C.C. and Curtis.

Act II Eight years later

We open with Effie, a depressed single mother on welfare and no singing career. Rainbow Records has left Detroit after the riots, and has moved to Los Angeles and expanded. The Dreams are a huge success, but Deena is looking beyond her singing career and desires to move into acting. Curtis also wants to expand from music to film, and is working on a musical version of Cleopatra which will star his now wife Deena. Deena, not wanting to be apart of the film, begins to meet with other studios to shop around for another film to star in. Jimmy, with his career on the skids, and unhappy with his martial situation and his mistress Lorrell, turns to cocaine and other hard drugs. Rainbow Records has planned a tenth year anniversary television special featuring its roster of acts. During the show, Jimmy has a breakdown onstage, changes his song back, and drop his trousers before a live television audience. Lorrell then leaves him, and later Jimmy is found dead in a Los Angeles motel from a drug overdose. C.C., angry over how things are turning out, walks out on Rainbow Records, and returns to Detroit to seek out Effie. The two re-establish their relationship, and work on Effie’s comeback single. Just as the single begins to get local airplay, and vengeful Curtis steals the song, and pays off radio stations again so they play Deena Jones and the Dreams version, which becomes a major hit.

In the mean time, Curtis finds out about Deena’s meetings with other film studios, and forces Deena out of any further meetings. Deena, angry and upset, sneaks into Curtis’s office as discovers Curtis’s plan to crush Effie’s comeback, and a copy of her single. She calls Effie and her brother, who arrive at Curtis’s office with Marty and her lawyer. Confronted with the reality he may go to jail, Curtis works out a deal to give C.C. his own label, which allows Effie to obtain national distribution for her future projects. Deena, inspired by Effie’s struggle leaves Curtis and strikes out on her own.

Dreamgirls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

How is the picture quality of this 1080p/MPEG-2 1:85:1 encode? Stunning to say the least. Dreamworks really delivered the goods on this release, as this is one gorgeous release to behold. The encoding source appears pristine, no scratches, dirt, or blemishes to be found. Blacks are really deep and solid, but not so strong as to harm or kill shadow detail. Colors are well saturated and hues are well resolved, contrast is excellent, detail is simply exquisite. The amount of detail and fine detail gives the the picture quality that prized three deminisional look, with the sense of depth that is quite good. When you set all of the colors to such a wide picture dynamic, the whole image just really jumps off the screen. I saw no excessive grain, no artifacts, no banding, just a clean vivid image. This is reference material for sure, as there are nothing but quality images popping up on the screen. Check out the detail in the costumes when the Dreamettes perform. You can see everyone sequin, every detail in the silver lame gowns, but you can also see that too much makeup has been applied to Beyoncee face on occasion. This is one of the best looking bluray's I have ever seen, next to animation.

Dreamgirls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This movie is full of music, and in my opinion demanded a lossless track, so I am somewhat confused as to why Dreamworks did not include one. My first impression of the 640kbps Dolby Digital soundtrack was that it lacked mid bass and lower midrange power. Subsequent views dispelled that notion as checking my RTA's everything was very tightly balanced. This movie is mostly dominated by music, so do not expect explosions, bullets, or cannon fire to define the quality of the mix. What you do get here is a very fine mix with very well recorded musical numbers. The mix is so well done that vocal lyrics are never crushed by the music, LFE is almost non existant as most of the bass is directed at the front left, center, and right speakers. Occassionally the LFE would provide some low frequency support, but not much. The high end is well extended and airy, however on occasion cymbals would jump out of the mix during some of the numbers. Bass is tight, and non sung dialog is very well integrated into the mix. The frontal soundstage was huge, deep and wide, extended from wall to wall, and floor to ceiling. Music during concert performance wrapped nicely into the surprisingly active surrounds creating the ambience of the venue along with the noise, comments, and clapping coming from the audience. All of the musical numbers were so well done in terms of vocal performance it gave me chills. Listening to Jennifer Hudson belt out songs like "And I'm Telling You I Am Not Going" "One Night Only" and "I am Changing" had me jumping out of my seat. Beyonce singing "Listen" was extremely powerful and emotional. To say this was a very satisfying soundtrack would be the understatement of this century.

Dreamgirls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Paramount packed this release with a ton of extra content, so much that it required a separate BD-25 disc. I must admit, they are so well done, and well presented; the whole package just screams quality and class. Disc one does have some extra features on it, and it starts off with no less than twenty deleted or extended scenes. None of these scenes have dialog, as they feature all of the songs in the movie such as "Heavy," "Steppin' to the Bad Side" and two versions of "One Night Only", one of the best songs in the movie. The picture quality of this extra content is easily as good as the picture of the movie itself. Also included is a music video for Beyonce's "Listen", It's the only extra on the set to be presented in 480i video only. Finally, wrapping up the supplements in disc one is a promo spot for the 'Dreamgirls' soundtrack CD.

Disc two starts off with a very well produced documentary titled "Building the Dream"(115 minutes) which I so thoroughly enjoyed that I actually watched it twice. This one packs it all in with a nine-part chronicle of the entire production, from conception through execution to release. Every last one of the main cast and crew are present for interviews, including director Bill Condon, producer Laurence Mark, composer Bill Krieger, and cast members Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Glover and even the press illusive Eddie Murphy. There are tons of great moments here, from nice archival stills of the original Broadway production of 'Dreamgirls,' to footage of the "American Idol"-like open auditions for the role of Effie, which of course ultimately went to Hudson. I am really disappointed that there is no interview with Jennifer Holliday, but I can completely understand as Holliday has repeated complained about the lack of acknowledgement for her role in the original play (see a parallel?). I would have been satisfied if this was all there was in the way of extra's but Dreamworks went a lot further than this with the inclusion of featurettes that focus more directly on key production aspects of the film: "Dream Logic: Film Editing" (4 min.), "Dressing the Dreams: Costume Design" (8 min.) and "Center Stage: Theatrical Lighting" (9 min.). Next are three sets of Auditions and Screen Tests, featuring Beyonce, Anika Noni Rose and a choreography demo by Fatima Robinson. Beyonce's screen test is particularly interesting, as it was done in full costume, complete with live singing. These tests run a little over 12 minutes total, and the quality is surprisingly excellent, as (like the other extras on the disc) it is presented in 1080p video.

Rounding out disc two are Previsualization Sequences for seven scenes: "The Talent Show," "Fake Your Way to the Top," "Cadillac Car," "Steppin' to the Bad Side," "I Want You Baby," "Heavy" and "Hard to Say Goodbye." The sequences run nearly 22 minutes total, and are all well edited assemblages of shot-on-HD footage of stand-in actors and singers, plus storyboards. It's actually rather fascinating, giving a new appreciation for the challenges in constructing coherent narrative scenes around a song, as well as incorporating music video-like song and dance material.

Dreamgirls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This review was very special for me because Dreamgirls just happens to be one of my favorite plays, and now one of my favorite movies. I had the distinct pleasure of working on Broadway doing live sound as a young pup, and also had the pleasure of working with the films choreographer Fatima Robinson on a couple of Broadway plays, and some local plays originating out of Los Angeles.. Her talents extend far beyond what is displayed here in this film. Jennifer Hudson as well as Jennifer Holliday are a couple of my favorite singers, and it was good to hear them in full effect in the play and the film respectively. As I have stated before, the quality of this release is absolutely stunning, and I highly recommend this Bluray release to all lovers of plays, and specifically Broadway plays. This film is not perfect, but neither was the play, but it does not fail to entertain, and to me being entertained is much more important than prerfection that does not resonate. Paramount and Dreamworks get my highest praise for this fine release.