Music Break: Dreamgirls

Bill Condon's Dreamgirls, Oscar's big snub of 2006, is compulsively watchable and really quite good once its digested post-hype. My attention was brought back to it after I noticed that HBO recently decided to play it practically on a loop. That's just fine, because it isn't a film you tire of easily. The music is great, and below is one the movie's most impressive set pieces. It's Eddie Murphy, in his stunningly electric role as the James Brown-esque sensation Jimmy Earley, performing the second half of the song "Steppin' to the Bad Side". The video is of absolutely terrible quality, but see if you can't still catch the genius of the choreography, editing and Murphy himself. It was a rush on the big screen, and if Murphy hadn't strayed to make another fat suit comedy like Norbit, you surely would have seen him joining the company of co-star Jennifer Hudson as an Oscar winner.