American Idol or American Popularity Contest?

This is a website about Hollywood in regards to movies and television, but Hollywood is about more than just that. Tonight, I would like to change direction and talk about American Idol.

If you watched the American Idol results show tonight, you saw rocker Amanda Overmyer sing the last song she will sing this season. Although criticized at times for her raspy, Joplin-esque voice, Amanda was a very good singer and a truly unique and interesting individual. She was likable. She was fun. She was honest. She was a breath of fresh air.

Tonight, Amanda was in the bottom three contestants, ranked from votes received from viewers calling and texting after last night's performance show. She should not have been in the bottom three because her performance was better than eight other Idol hopefuls. She shared the bottom three with a contestant whose performance was better than nine of the other Idols. The third member of the bottom three, one Kristy Lee Cook, gave easily the worst performance of the night. In fact, Kristy Lee Cook has consistently given the worst performances almost every week. She is a bad singer and an even worse performer, giving the word "dull" a face. Unlike Amanda Overmyer, Kristy Lee Cook is not fun. She is not unique. And she is certainly not a breath of fresh air. She could be a very nice person; that I cannot judge, and I will give her the benefit of the doubt. She was, however, the worst of the bunch this week and in all the previous weeks. And she should have gone home tonight.

Why is Kristy Lee Cook staying and why is Amanda Overmyer going home? Because American Idol is quickly turning into a popularity contest. Kristy Lee Cook is a cutesy little blonde, and cutesy little blondes are apparently very popular. Her remaining on the show for another week has absolutely nothing to do with her talent as a singer, nor does it have anything to do with her skill as a performer. It only has to do with her popularity.

The rules should be changed. The judges, who are all professionals in the music industry, should have some sort of vote, as on Dancing With the Stars. Their opinions mean something. But until that happens, people like Kristy Lee Cook are going to stay on American Idol because high school pep squads across the country think she is cool.

I am not bitching about Amanda Overmyer being voted off, per say. I just think that the person with no talent should have gone home. I have no right to bitch, actually, because I did not vote. I usually do, but last night, I could not watch the performance show, nor could I vote after. I had to watch the performance show on tape and then I was forced to sit helplessly by and watch the results show live.

I will miss Amanda Overmyer. And I will say this: I would buy an Amanda Overmyer CD.

10,000 B.C.

I will admit that I was a little afraid when I saw the trailers for 10,000 B.C. I had visions of The Scorpion King meets Quest for Fire. The trailers did look exciting, however, and I decided to take the chance. I should have gone to Foxwoods because this movie was excellent.

10,000 B.C. is the story of a young mammoth hunter who is in love with a blue-eyed girl that was taken in by his tribe when she was young. Her parents had apparently been killed by "four legged demons", and she escaped. She is the village favorite because of a prophecy from the wise woman, and he is the son of a former tribal leader, who apparently deserted the tribe when the boy was young. The tribe hunts woolly mammoths for survival, and they are mostly happy. Until the "four legged demons" raid the tribal camp.

The "demons" are slavers on horseback, and they take the blue-eyed girl and a lot of tribes people, fleeing over the snow-packed mountains. Our adventure begins when the young hero, who doubts that he is a hero, decides to lead a small band to track down the slavers and get their people back.

If you think that this movie is another Quest for Fire and that you might have to struggle through a whole movie of grunts of bad subtitles, you are mistaken. We understand the mammoth hunters, and when they encounter some tribes in northern Africa, a plot point allows us a translator.

If you think this movie will be some farce, like The Scorpion King (which I liked, but let's be real - it was a farce), with unreality and anachronisms staining the story, you are wrong. 10,000 B.C. is an adventure epic, and there are some wild things that happen, but nothing ever gets out of hand. And there are absolutely no foolish characters. You know the ones: they act not only as comedy relief, but speak in 21st Century slang to make us feel at home. I hate those characters. Those characters should be banned from movies. 10,000 B.C. does not have any of those characters.

There are cool scenes, great computer graphics, breathtaking panoramic shots, and a mix of cultures that gives us a taste of what history could have been like.

Kids movie? Older kids? Yes. Younger kids? No. There are some dramatic scenes and some scenes that younger movie fans might find scary. There are deaths, though not too much blood.

Date movie? Yes. A love story drives the film, and there is nothing that would be embarrassing.

I have only one problem with 10,000 B.C.: the saber-toothed tiger was not in the movie nearly enough. I actually felt gypped. He's in the trailers, he's on the movie poster (although not the one I chose above), and he was super cool, but he's only in two scenes! Gyp!

I loved this movie, and I give it six out of six woolly mammoths.

Iron Man

I love superheroes. I have been collecting comic books since 1977. Marvel Comics Spectacular Spider-Man #13, released in December of 1977. I bought that comic with my allowance, spending a whopping 35 cents. I was totally hooked and could not look back. Today, my comic collection is modest, with some great issues that bring me back to my childhood whenever I revisit them. I have a large collection of action figures, at home and in the office. And I love superheroes.

When I was young, though, the only visual medium we had for superheroes was television. Super Friends, Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter, you are a real wonder woman), and Batman. Those shows were all DC Comics. Marvel Comics had a little less, giving us the Nicholas Hammond version of Spider-Man and the classic Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk. Not much to choose from, but all classic. Today? Well, as the man sings, "I'm in Heaven ..."

We have Spider-Man movies, and Batman movies, and there's the X-Men movies, and more movies starring the Hulk, and Daredevil, and Superman, and Blade, and Ghost Rider. And now, Iron Man!

Let me tell you, this movie looks fantastic! The special effects look tight, and there looks like there will be a lot of action. The element that is drawing me to Iron Man, however, is the lead actor, Robert Downey, Jr. Lots of people give this man the stuff because of his off camera antics. I'm not a big fan of drug addicts, but it is a problem that I can wrap my mind around. He was using drugs and acting out, and now he has cleaned his act up and is back in the mainstream. Good for him. Now, here is the interesting part: Tony Stark, the alter-ego of Iron Man, and the character Robert Downey, Jr. will portray in the Iron Man film, was an alcoholic. A rich alcoholic and a troubled figure. Now, he is being played by a rich drug addict with a troubled past. Downey, Jr. is a fantastic actor normally, even when he was battling addiction in the 1990s. Imagine how well he is going to do with this character. He's going to act the hell out of the Tony Stark role.

Go see Iron Man. Read the comics. Enjoy both.

(Left: The cover of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #13, released December, 1977)