Idol, Indy, SATC...

My last post was kind of manically written post-Idol Finale, pre-Indy 4 screening late Wednesday evening. Since then, I've had some more time to think about my television and movie watching... and since I'm trying to avoid cleaning my apartment right now, I thought I'd write down some thoughts :)

So, American Idol Season 7 is over - and David Cook won. And some people are saying it was an upset, but others are saying that his victory makes sense. I agree with the latter - especially since I thought Cook deserved to be the Idol winner ever since his audition many, many months ago.

Wednesday's Finale was okay, though I shake my head at the Fox corporation... First off - I am friggin' sick of those stupid "Love Guru" time-ins with the show... stop wasting precious Idol time with ridiculous pre-packaged material of the Davids visiting Guru Pitka. As I watched that hideousness unfold before me, I thought to myself "I wonder how much extra time those boys could have rehearsed if they didn't have to make this clip." And I am SICK of Mike Meyers and his dumb characters. The first Austin Powers movie was okay because it was something kind of new... and then he made 2 dumb sequels. And then the whole Shrek franchise - I am not a fan of those films because they are aimed towards kids, but much of the humor is laced with adult themes. Not family appropriate in the slightest, but they made bajillions of dollars, so I guess that's fine! (blah) And now this whole "Love Guru" thing... I think it's kind of offensive.

The Idol Finale had some pretty good music guest... it was cool Cook got to perform with ZZ Top and Archie sand with One Republic. They seemed to be really enjoying themselves. It was nice to see Seal, Donna Summer and Bryan Adams as well. And George Michael... it seems like he's been on TV more this year than in a long, long time (I'm an Eli Stone fan, and he and his music were pretty much at the core of most of the episodes). And I really enjoyed the George Michael medley and his solo at the end of the show, but if Idol is aiming for an increase viewership in the 18-24 demographic, feature someone we like... like Daughtry or Chris Brown. (Yes, I know Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks were on, but even Jordin's song was aimed more towards the tweens than college age people). If the producers thought the 18-24 year olds would enjoy the Jonas Brothers, than I think they are mistaken. I am 24 years old. I even like High School Musical (yep, go ahead and laugh, I don't care...). But I don't get what is so great about the Jonas Brothers. I spent that 5 minutes of the Idol staring at my TV with my head cocked to the side, much like my dogs when they are confused about something. But whatever.

You know what I did like about the Idol Finale... those Guitar Hero commercials. I didn't see David Cook's until the next day (we got home after the Finale started, so we zipped through a lot of the commercial breaks... thank you, DVR). Little David Archuleta's was kind of weird to watch - it's not everyday you see a very well known 17 year old awkwardly dance around in his boxers to "Old Time Rock and Roll". It actually took me a few seconds into the commercial before I realized it was him. And since I hadn't seen David Cook's commercial, I was wondering why on earth that David Arculeta would get a Guitar Hero commercial... especially since he never even played guitar on Idol.

And then the next morning, I saw the David Cook version - and it made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to choke on my own spit. It was great - he had the song down and was completely channeling Tom Cruise in "Risky Business"... Cook had way better moves than Archie. And he's more believable with a guitar in hand. Even if it is just a Guitar Hero guitar.

Now that Idol is over, I can get back to my usual routine of watching movies (though, you can be sure I'm going to try and make it to an Idol tour show this summer and I'll be keeping my eye open for Cook's album... I can't remember the last time I bought a CD, but I'll drop a Hamilton or two the day his album drops).

My first film post-Idol was, of course, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Now, I won't reveal major plot points or anything, because it's still opening weekend and I respect people who don't like to know spoilers before going to the theater, but I will say that I was disappointed. A lot.

I LOVE the first 3 Indiana Jones movies... I remember getting them out from the library a lot when I was younger and they were always fun to watch with the whole family. We still use the phrase "He chose poorly" probably once a month. They are staple films from my childhood and I know them by heart. This Indiana Jones movie does not fit in nicely with those other 3.

I thought Indy 4 opened slow... probably because of the opening credits. I don't remember opening credits from any of the other films. I was also super tired because the film started around 12:15 because of more than a few crappy movie trailers before the film actually started... so, my eyes were ready to shut if something awesome didn't happen. Luckily Indiana Jones showed up and my eyes widened and there was a grin on my face the size of Texas. Oh Harrison Ford, I missed you. (The last Ford movie I saw in theaters was Hollywood Homicide... Yeah, I know.)

And then some more expositiony stuff goes down and my eyes wanted to shut again. But Hello Shia LaBoeuf... my eyes reopen and stay open for the remainder of the film (though not necessarily on the screen the entire time... for those of you who know how poorly I reacted to Spielberg's 1982 opus, I couldn't watch some of Indy 4 for similar reasons).

While there were some cheeky nods to the previous Indy films and some good scenes between Ford and LaBoeuf, there were some major problems for me in the plot and the CGI sequences. I won't go too into detail for you people who have yet to see the film, but let's just put it this way - Why on Earth are there crappy CGI sequences? Speilberg has made films with great CGI parts (i.e. Minority Report - crap movie, but good effects) and George Lucas's Lucasfilm/ILM is pretty much responisble for a majority of the digital effects that have been in films for the last 30 years... so shouldn't the CGI stuff look FLAWLESS?

This film did feel like other films of the 1950s, but I was looking for more than that. I was looking for the perfect bookend to an already awesome trilogy, but instead, I don't feel like I can watch Indy 4 again. At least not for a really, really long time.

Last summer, I wrote an article about film franchises. It was about the time Live Free or Die Hard came out... I was skeptical about that film, because Die Hard was another trilogy that I grew up on (thanks Dad!). Before Live Free or Die Hard came out, I was worried it was going to tarnish the Die Hard name, but instead it was a welcome addition to the series. Indy 4 had the opposite effect for me... I probably won't even want to own this one and when I speak of Indiana Jones movies in 10 or 20 years from now, I will be sure to exclude Indy 4.

I did this to myself - these high expectations. Last summer I was not looking forward to Indy 4. But then I saw teaser trailers and rewatched Raiders and Last Crusade and got my hopes waaaaaay up. And then Indy 4 happened and I felt let down. So, in order to move on, I have to turn my attention to the movie that has now become my most anticiapted release of May 2008... Sex and the City: The Movie.

I managed to avoid seeing anything Sex and the City related until last March. My sister has all 6 seasons on DVD and she was on her spring break and I took a week off from work and instead of working on a script I had started, I decided to watch SATC and see why everyone was so obsessed with it.

I get it. I really do. This is a great show - it's refreshing to see 4 girlfriends work and play hard in the greatest city in the world. And even though Carrie was the main character, we got to know everyone on that show - these were women who were playing out completely realistic situations (though some of the stories and a lot of the fashion were exaggerated beyond the norm).

It's hard to pick a favorite character out of the 4 women, as they all have assets and flaws that make them loveable and dislikeable at the same time. And then all of the men on the show... there are just so many characters to choose from. I liked Aidan a lot (who didn't?), but my favorite guy was Jack Berger, hands down. I did think the relationship ended poorly (a Post-it? Come on!), but when he and Carrie were in the swing of things, it was magical.

Sex and the City: The Movie opens this coming Friday and I am more than excited to see it. I do not see "chick flicks" a lot, and in fact prefer action/adventure movies with lots of shoot 'em ups, but this is one "chick flick" I wouldn't miss for the world. After watching 6 seasons in about a month's time, I am invested in Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte and I sincerely want to know what they've been up to. Plus, it's going to be interesting to see if Jennifer Hudson can act in a movie where she's not singing most of the time...

Well - it's time to clean the apartment. Or maybe take my portable DVD player out on the balcony and continue to catch up on some SATC Season 6 while I paint my nails :)

Have a lovely day, and I'll cya at the movies!