BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

oneguyrambling So a few weeks back I spent some time writing up the Outkast acting vehicle Idlewild, it was great. Probably the finest film review in the history of the world, paragraphs and everything!So in between that and scheduling the article's posting (VERBS!) the thing got lost. Gone. Skedaddled, and I of course had killed off the word doc as I thought it was saved to wordpress.(ITALICS!)Now I simply can't be bothered rewriting a fresh review for Idlewild, so in honour of Tenacious D the following is an abbreviated tribute to the greatest review in the world.Idlewild is set in the prohibition era in the Deep South, only a hip-hop prohibition era… if that makes any sense.It is basically an attempt to "break" (indulge?) the boys from the hip-hop group Outkast in the cinematic arena.Big Boi plays a guy who runs a whorehouse entertainment venue and Andre 3000 plays the son of a mortician who has the hots for a singer in the whorehouse ahem, nightclub.Shennanigans ensue.The film itself wasn't bad but it had some serious flaws that made it in truth a little boring. There seemed to be no consensus as to what the main plot was supposed to be, so Big Boi and Dre's stories kept going on and on, making the film a good 30 minutes too long and forcing them to abbreviate several songs.I did mention Idlewild was a musical right? No? Well I did a few weeks back… Remember all the VERBS and PARAGRAPHS!?!My other main issue was that Outkast are a million and a half times better than almost EVERYONE in the game from the 90s, 2000s or present day, yet they only took songs from the underwhelming double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. The best song in the film actually plays over the credits, (Morris Brown).If you like hip-hop and quote-unquote urban films then you'll find Idlewild OK, and in the interest of disclosure I would say "yes" to both, if you are more a casual fan or worse not a fan you would find Idlewild overlong and unfocused.Final Rating – 6 / 10. An OK film, Like Michael Jordan trying baseball it is disappointing when someone at the pinnacle of their industry settles for par elsewhere.Now I'll spend a couple minutes writing about something exceptionally important.If you call yourself a hip-hop fan (I do) and you admire the work of any of the following… Sean Paul Soulja Boy Nelly Lil Wayne (Anyone "Lil" actually. Also anyone "Young" for that matter. Prove me wrong!) 50 Cent Ludicrous The Game Obie Trice Jay Z Eminem Jamie Foxxx T.I. Kanye West Ja Rule Will-I-Am since Fergie joined BEP. (He got lazy!) P Diddy The NeptunesAnd I am not saying that any of the above never made a good song or two, Kanye has one (Gold Digger), Eminem a couple (Lose Yourself, Stan) and Will-I-Am had some great early stuff (Damn you Fergie for enabling the sell-out!). What I am saying is that in the main the greater part of their resume is mediocre or flat out sucks. Real fans actually buy albums and listen to them from song 1 to song 22(hip-hop albums are always too long), even hanging around and putting up with the inevitable skits! Having 85%+ as filler is just not good enough, so lucking out with a radio friendly song shouldn't provide you with a career, I'm talking directly to Kanye on that one. Stick to producing and banging coked up starlets.Between their debut in 1994 and Stankonia in 2001 Outkast put together a stretch of albums that could only be challenged by Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and De La Soul, and I'd still give Outkast the edge on all of them.So in a long winded way my message is don't bother too much with Idlewild, if you want to see what Outkast is about buy any of the following; Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik Atliens Aquemini StankoniaDo that for me and I'll go back to concentrating on not losing my reviews.

Janai P Canada (Sidadressage) I found this film actually by at a local library. I simply thought that it would be some kind of gangster' Rapper type drama, with a little music. But as Terence Howard is one of my favorite actors, I thought I'd give it a try. WOW! What a complete musical, with humor and even at the end a little sadness. See it for yourself and and make the decision. A Rodgers and Hammerstein musical? No, but JUST as good and well made for the current times. This was a fun piece. The cinematography was well done, the costumes were superb and all the acting was superb. I actually thought that the lead female was Alicia Keys. Patty Labelle looked wonderful and as I said Mr. Howard was quite a joy. JPC

The_Censored_Poster My biggest problem is that I don't know what this was. Was this a musical that was too much of a movie, or a movie that was too much of a musical? The problem is you can't blend them. Either it is a musical or it is not- and if that isn't clear from the get-go, the suspension of disbelief will not exist within the work.From the very beginning of the movie I had a problem with the suspension of disbelief. I didn't like effect of the freeze frames with the expanding pictures during the credits. I didn't like the fact that they were still rolling credits after 16 damn minutes. And when the rooster on the canteen became animated, a little kid barely able to see over the dashboard borrowed a hearse and DROVE it, and another kid's sheet music became animated, I knew that it was about to be a LONG 2 hours...It was.Had the music/musical scenes been strongly to my liking, I suppose I could have enjoyed this movie as a guilty pleasure like Prince's "Graffiti Bridge". But the music was horrible. In fact, there was nothing upon which I could found a liking of this movie on any level. From a picture book full of dead people in coffins; Andre's ugly beard and mole; animated characters/musical scenes that just didn't fit- Such as Rooster speeding away for his life in a car and rapping; and two full hours of play time; this movie was simply an unlikable piece of work.And one last personal pet peeve: The so called "hit song" that Miss Sally B Shelly AKA Angel Davenport was singing that supposedly made her a star, and kept the club packed was.. AN EXTREMELY WACK SONG. Another failure of the suspension of disbelief to exist for me.Someone commented that this movie was like a African American "Moulin Rouge". Funny thing is that I did think of Moulin Rouge when I first saw the Church club. But Moulin Rouge was enjoyable (even though I never felt the need to see it more than once) primarily because it KNEW what it was- an over the top musical- and the music/musical scenes were VERY good with very strong and memorable songs. Idlewild was exactly the opposite. This movie had no idea what it was.... at the sad thing is, that this was the least of it's problems...

beasymc I feel bad for everyone involved in this disaster. Very ambitious, I admit. Creative too. But oh my gosh, what a mess. I can't even begin to list the things that didn't work. I usually don't give to much credence to professional critics, but in this case i guess i should have. That's not true, I would have seen it anyway. One thing i have to comment on: Have you ever met anyone dumber that Rooster. I haven't. Paula Patton was excellent, and i thought she was great in Deja Vu also. I know they were trying something totally different here, but i think they should have gone with a more experienced and accomplished director. But really it was the script. All over the place. On the fly I'm sure. Oh well. At least I can go watch "Black Snake Moan" again. Now that's a sexy movie. Samuel L. can boogie.