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'American Dreamz' is a light-hearted satire that pokes fun at the American presidency and at American obsessions — like terrorism, celebrities and the rags to riches story. But while the latest offering from writer/director Paul Weitz falls short of the finesse of his 'About a Boy', it's far more cynical and considerably better than his rather juvenile 'American Pie' series.

Featuring a slightly bizarre plot with an explosive finalé, it literally throws together the US presidency, terrorists training in Iraq, and the producers and contestants of the aptly named show, American Dreamz.

The latter is a blatant rip-off of the popular 'American Idols', right down to the Simon Cowell character, Martin Tweedy (Hugh Grant). He's a narcissistic individual who despises pretty much everybody else, is witty in rather mean kind of way and is very good at giving the American viewing population what they want.

Grant plays this character to perfection — if you liked him in 'About a Boy' or 'Bridget Jones', you’ll love him in this. He is dark and cynical but his insight into his own nasty personality makes him paradoxically likeable.

Tweedy decides that what Americans want for this particular season of American Dreamz is a show of freaks: Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore), an ambitious white-trash blond from Ohio; an Hasidic rapper (Adam Busch); and Omer Obeidi, an Iraqi living with relatives in Orange County.

Sally will do anything she can to win the American Dreamz competition, including getting engaged to her sweet (but rather stupid) soldier ex-boyfriend William Williams (Chris Klein) whom she clearly despises ("Every time he smiles, I want to hit him with a shoe").

Omer (Sam Gozari), whose mother was killed by a stray American bomb, flunked out of terrorist school because of his incompetence and love of Broadway tunes. But when he's accidentally entered into the competition in place of his cousin Iqbal (a flamboyantly camp wannabe singer played by Tony Yalda), he suddenly becomes useful to the terrorist organisation.

So, how does a singing competition meet an Iraqi terrorist group? The answer is President Bush... oops, Staton (Dennis Quaid), who discovers the existence of newspapers and is rather loveable in a lost puppy kind of way. Along the way, the president’s puppeteer, the Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe) who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dick Cheney, loses control of the president who tells half of America that it looks like the troubles in Iraq will never end. Never, never, never...

This of course ensures that 'American Dreamz' is darkly funny to the very end and while it fails somewhat as a serious political satire, it is playfully sardonic about the driving force behind American society — American dreams.