It's Movie Night. They should subtitle it "If YOU Pick a Bad Song It's Not OUR Fault". Even JPL and John Stevens should have decent outings this week, I'd think. I missed the first two minutes, so I have no idea what order they are performing tonight. (Turns out that's not such a bad thing. I may do that every week. Or not.) And OF COURSE Quentin Tarantino is there as the celebrity judge. Is Kill Bill Vol. 2 coming out soon? Friday, you say? Very well.
George is first to perform, but FIRST, let's talk to George about his favorite movie: "The Wiz". "The WIZ"?!?! Somewhere Chris Rock is going crazy at his TV: "The WIZ"?! Is that like, 'my momma would give all 20 of us a bag of microwave popcorn and we'd sit around and watch 'the Wiz,' 'cept we didn't have a microwave so we had to eat the kernels..." Why do they insist on call him MISTER Huff like he's Sidney Poitier or something? Anyway, I think his performance is pretty good, since it's a Phil Collins song, but the judges REALLY question his song choice. I think he should've gone with 'Shake Ya Tailfeather" from the "Bad Boys 2" soundtrack, but whatever. Then he answers by saying it's kind of about his story of trying to make it on "American Idol". WHAT? The song's about Jeff Bridges being upset about losing his piece of ass to James Woods. Yeah, I saw the movie. I didn't hear ANY lyrics that could be taken as a song about a young man leaving the projects and going to Hollywood. Someone tell George that Ruben won without showing much range last year, so he'll not pick a song like this again. This is (maybe) gonna be a long night...
Jennifer Hudson's favorite movie is "Sister Act 2". Her poor family must have had to listen to her sing all of the songs to that movie a million times. Luckily, we get to hear her sing Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing" for probably the BILLIONTH time in her life. She looks very elegant, although they could be a little more liberal in their choice of camera angles if they are trying to flatter the girl. I guess it was OK, but it really seemed like a Whitney impression rather than a singing performance by Jennifer Hudson to me. Mrs. JJD points out (correctly) that Kimberly Locke would've done a finer job.
Jon Peter is next. You can fool America into thinking you can sing, but you can't fool me into believing your favorite movie is "Dead Poets Society". Come ON. I know it's "Tommy Boy". Or "Die Hard". If you're going to mess with people, just go all the way and say it's "Steel Magnolias". His rendition of "Jailhouse Rock" is certainly his most powerful performance in a few weeks and a BIG improvement. His "rock" voice is much better than his "tender" voice. (And it would HAVE to be, right?) Three performances and no one stands out to me yet.
WAIT JUST A GODDAM MINUTE! In that "Swan" commercial, SHE WAS SHAVING! HER FACE! WITH A NORELCO! BY GAWD, KING! I'm still not watching that show, but DAMN.
Diana DeGarmo is going to sing...*groan*...Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." See JPL, at least young "Double-D" tells us the truth about her favorite movie: "Bowfinger". Diana is totally average, not actively bad, but average. She REALLY picked the wrong song, but I'd bet people have fawned over her singing for so long she thought she could pull it off. Actually, even I would've thought she'd have done better. Then Tarantino RIPS her. Just brutal. The highlight of the show. Period. One, because he was right on. And two, because it stole Simon's thunder and completely pissed Simon off. I half-expected Simon to be in his trailer for the rest of the show after that.
Fantasia drew the spot after Diana, which doesn't hurt, and she's singing "Summertime", while giving off a very "Michelle Pfeiffer-Fabulous Baker Boys" performance. Randy calls it the greatest "American Idol" performance, ever, and I'm like "yo, dawg, for REAL?" I mean, I liked it, but not nearly as much as the judges. Look she's crying! Randy made her cry! She even gets a wink out of Simon. Was she THAT good? Did I miss something? Ryan asks her about it and she says she was just so INTO THE SONG IT MADE HER CRY. ARGH! Fantasia, don't talk anymore, EVER. Wuentin makes more points with me by asking her to go back to being funky. WE WANT THE FUNK!
Jasmine goes after Fantasia, which is bad for her because they LOVED Fantasia so much that their comments about Jasmine won't be good unless she's impossibly great. She actually does a good job on "When I Fall in Love", especially considering that unlike Diana and Fantasia she didn't dress like an old lady, but the vibe of her look is vastly different from the vibe of her song. Simon comments that her and Diana are trying to sing older than they are, and I can't agree more that they are doing that and it's getting tiresome. Dang, Jazz, sing something that kicks next week.
John Stevens is next. He should've told the truth with his movie choice as well, because you know he LOVES "Dirty Dancing" because Swayze is so damn HUNKY. "Time Goes By" is his predictable choice, and he's predictably pretty good, not letting the giant fork sticking out of his back to affect his performance. The judges give his props, with QT basically telling John he hates him but he was ok this week and Simon remarking that John has "no charisma". I agree, but he TRIED to have charisma with his "Crocodile Rock" performance and you hated that, too. He's got to be one confused young man, right now. Plus, I'd bet he wonders what the judges mean. *rimshot*
LaToya is going to close the show with "Somewhere". With none of the first seven doing anything great, LaToya's got a shot to nail it this week, and I think she does. She can definitely say she made the song her own, which at least half of tonight's contestants can't say. LaToya's solid, and she looks great this week, dressing young but still appropriate for her age, unlike Diana and Fantasia who went too old, AGAIN.
Tough week to pick this week. Jasmine could go, because she was (presumably) next to last this week and she didn't really do anything to get out of the bottom three. Diana could go, because America seems to listen to Simon quite a bit and it's clear he's ready for her to go. John Stevens could go and it would be somewhat of a mercy killing because at least he'd go out with a strong (for him) performance. I guess my bottom three would be Jennifer, Diana, and John, because everyone (save LaToya, who I'd vote to keep) was just about the same, but those three picked VERY safe songs for them in terms of their comfort level (unlike George) and didn't really DO anything with them.
“To get ass, you’ve got to bring ass." -- Roy Jones Jr.
"Your input has been noted. I hope you don't take it personally if I disregard it." -- Guru Zim
I am mostly in agreement with JayJayDean, but we had split decisions at our house.
On JPL, my wife thought he was good and me - not so much. He's just goofy. His voice is alright, but damn, just be done already.
Fantasia - exactly what JJD said. My wife and I (who admittedly are not fans of Fantasia) thought she was pretty good. But "best Idol performance EVER?" I don't think so, Randy. Not even close.
I think Jasmine, Diana and LaToya are too non-descript to win. None of them are bad performers, but none stand out.
That's why Jon, John, George, Jennifer and Fantasia will be the final five. Each one brings a little something unique to the show. That uniqueness might not be singing talent in the cases of Jon and John, but uniqueness nonetheless.
George was off from the first note - wrong song, wrong symbolism, definitely wrong favorite movie - good thing he has been so good for so many previous weeks
Jennifer - Her register seemed a little low for the song and the over exaggerated facial expressions are really starting to get to me. Like previously mentioned, she has a Kimberly Locke vibe going
JPL - what in the hell was that ? Did someone put ben gay in his jockstrap or a habanero up his butt ? He's only here because of teenage girls with cellphones. The product placement segment did more for his standing in the group than his singing
Diana - at least you didn't try and get everyone to clap along - go home now and stop my pain, please
Fantasia - nice song, nice performance, no screeching but....this song needs to be sung in a slightly lower key with some gravitas to it - I didn't feel it and I have to agree that there is no way this is one of the best AI performances ever
Jasmine - at least you get Camille's votes this week to help keep you around - I agree with Simon, lighten up, sing younger and please, quit trying to hit that last power note - you have failed at it 3 weeks in a row
Little Sinatra - HATED IT - Casablanca is one of my favorite movies - this song may have been in your genre but you had no emotion come through at all - I have a reggae version of this song that is far superior - I hope America sends you home if they don't send Diana home
LaToya - nice performance - you are definitely safe
Quentin - at least you weren't a cookie cutter of every other guest star and had some solid comments
AI gets the little box in my picture in picture during Survivor tonight - I hope to see Diana or Little Sinatra watching their obit video in the final 5 minutes
Folk singers are always liberal pansies, but not me.....I sing for my fellow conservatives...care to hear "Shoot the Hippie out of the Redwood Tree" ?
Originally posted by dunkndollazAI gets the little box in my picture in picture during Survivor tonight - I hope to see Diana or Little Sinatra watching their obit video in the final 5 minutes
Naw. Watching Survivor and then CSI and then watching the tape of AI. Well, no, I'll FF to the end of the tape of AI. The kick someone off shows are interminable. Just give someone the boot already. I realize they get great ratings and drawing out the show doesn't bring the ratings down, but come on, I watched last night, I don't need to know what the judges said.
I was legitimately shocked to see Jon Peter Lewis get ousted this week. Jasmine wasn't about to finish in the bottom 3 this week (with her likely getting the departed Camile Velasco's votes), so no shock there. But I honestly thought Diana Degarmo's dull rendition of the Celine Dion Song from Hell would seal her fate. Best of luck to JPL. At least now he won't have to put up with getting dressed up like a giant banana.
------ Another shock was seeing John Stevens get placed second to last. I thought this was his best outing to date. Guess the Idol viewers aren't Casablanca fans.
Completely forgot to put AI on in the corner last night - very surprised that JPL got the boot - guess my theory of little teenage girls and their cell phones didn't apply to him.
Next week is Barry Manilow week and Barry is picking the song for them - I wonder who gets stuck with Mandy and who gets Copacabana ?
Folk singers are always liberal pansies, but not me.....I sing for my fellow conservatives...care to hear "Shoot the Hippie out of the Redwood Tree" ?
Kudos to the AI producers for switching it up and saving the bottom three until last, because I thought for sure Jasmine was in the bottom three then I REALLY thought Jennifer was in the bottom three.
Too bad JPL had to go before John Stevens, but at least one of them IS gone now. At least America finally had the bottom three right. I bet a lot of parents got their cell phone bills with the HUGE text messaging charges from JPL and John Stevens fans and cut that right off.
“To get ass, you’ve got to bring ass." -- Roy Jones Jr.
"Your input has been noted. I hope you don't take it personally if I disregard it." -- Guru Zim
Thread ahead: Anyone interested in urban legends Next thread: Just another victim (Survivor Spoilers) Previous thread: Oops...missed this anniversary...