Idol Worship

Best American Idol season ender ever? Beyoncé, Lady Gaga & Scott McCreery makeit special

Scotty McCreery,right, is the latest American Idol. He beat out Lauren Alaina,left.
Beyonce added star power to the show.......
....along with Lady Gaga

After Tuesday night’s poorly produced performance episode, last night’s American Idol finale was a breath of fresh air, punctuated by engaging performances and a willingness to poke fun where necessary. I was disappointed we didn’t get a final Lauren Alaina / Scotty McCreery duet as in past seasons, but there were still plenty of highlights to choose from:

Top 13, “Born This Way” medley – A ridiculous and fitting choice all at once. The animated Top 13 made the most of the anthem, cheesy choreography and all. It was a trip to see contestants like Scotty McCreery and Casey Abrams dig into the whole thing with reckless abandon.
Casey Abrams & Jack Black, “Fat Bottom Girls” – There were a handful of great duets last night, but I’m not sure any of them were more entertaining than this one. Abrams and Black infused the performance with the spirit and commitment of the best SNL parodies - and they actually sounded pretty good together.
Top 13 Girls, Beyonce medley – I don’t know that we’ve ever had a fiercer, more dynamic group of girls in the finals. Sure, Beyonce schooled the whole crew when she came out guns blazing on “Crazy in Love,” but who doesn’t pale in comparison to Sasha Fierce? The girls brought impressive individual swagger and vocals to the slew of hits.
Haley Reinhart & Tony Bennett, “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” – I love how this song drew out the delicious, feathery-light jazz side of Reinhart’s voice, and I adored the sweet dance intermission. I’ll say it again: Reinhart has grown into herself as an artist in a big way this season.
Scotty McCreery & Tim McGraw, “Live Like You Were Dying” – Maybe it was the song or maybe it was the adrenaline rush, but McCreery has never sounded better. It was a telling glimpse into his future as a recording artist - and how cute was their high five at the end?
Idol humor– Props to the producers for recognizing that a little self-parody goes a long way. My favorite segment showed the contestants musing over the young age of the final two contestants (the best: “So we have like two sixth graders in the competition and they’re kicking everyone’s ass” – Stefano Langone). Close seconds were the James Durbin / Casey Abrams / Pia Toscano fight over the “most shocking elimination” title and Randy’s “in it to win it” (never again, please) montage.
Lady Gaga, “The Edge of Glory” – Yeah, the performance got a little over-the-top towards the end, but if this song isn’t in the sweet spot of her vocal range, I don’t know what is. She sounded amazing, and maybe I totally dug the saxophone interlude. Don’t judge.
The results – Those who’ve been following me this season know that I’ve always been more drawn to the color and character of Alaina’s voice - but a sense of satisfaction washed over me when McCreery took the crown. Take a look at his best qualities –his firm sense of self, solid vocal talent, consistent performances and endearing sincerity—and you’ll see that he’s made of the same stuff of the previous Idol winners, albeit wrapped in a different, straightforward package. His post-Idol career will be an interesting one to follow, as he delves into a country music industry that doesn’t always seem willing to shed light on traditionalist artists like himself. Here’s to hoping he knocks down some doors and is met by people who allow him to embrace his individuality.

And that’s a wrap, folks. Share your thoughts on the finale below, and sincere thanks to all of you for taking this wacky ride with me this season!

Get more of Tara Seetharam's pop culture musings on her website www.taraseetharam.com and follow her on Twitter @TaraAshley.

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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