Phil, Chris say farewell on ‘American Idol’

On Wednesday American Idol say goodbye to two of the male contenders.  Phil Stacy and Chris Richardson performed their final encore as American Idol contestants.

Since country night, Phil Stacy performances have finally peaked, but unfortunately it was too little too late.  On Tuesday Stacy put in one of his better performances with “Blaze of Glory.”  Alas, it was not enough to hang on.

On the other hand, Chris Richardson has been just squeaking by for weeks.  And on Tuesday he really struggled with his rendition of “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

But the contestants weren’t really my focus tonight.  I spent the rest of the stretched out hour patiently waiting through all the filler for the performance of Bon Jovi.  Tell me again why we had to make the results show an hour?

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with Bon Jovi’s performance tonight.  They performed the song “You want to Make a Memory” from their new album Lost Highway.  I thought the song was beautiful.  But I was expecting hoping to really rock out with some classic Bon Jovi tunes.  In fact, since Tuesday’s show, all I’ve wanted to do was break out my Bon Jovi CDs (no, I don’t have a MP3 player) and jam.

Guess I better find my CD player.

What’s with all the sequels to ’80s movies going directly to DVD?

Is Warner Brothers single-handedly trying to ruin my favorite ’80s movies with less than stellar sequels that go directly to DVD?

First, WB announced that it would do a direct-to-DVD sequel to the cult favorite The Lost Boys. Now, apparently WB is planning a Beetlejuice 2, also directly to DVD.

You won’t get any argument from me that several of these movies do indeed deserve sequels.  In fact, I’d love to see a quality sequel to either of the above movies.  But if you are going to do a sequel, do it right.  Don’t ruin the franchise in the process.  We all know that direct-to-DVD means cheap with minimal effort.  Can anyone name one direct-to-DVD movie that is worthwhile?

But direct-to-DVD seems to be Warner Brothers’ new motto.  In fact, last summer, WB set up a new division, Warner Premiere, for exactly that purpose.

“Consumers today have more ways than ever to access content, which naturally increases the need for all forms of programming, especially in the DVD originals arena,” said Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.  ”With Warner Premiere, we’re creating an additional stream of new, high-quality, ‘fan-ready’ DVDs that will be supported by top-notch marketing to help them standout in the increasingly crowded marketplace.”

In other words, WB has found another way to pull money out of the pockets of the same die hard fans that have kept these cult favorites alive and turned them into classics. 

WB is even planning sequels to movies that haven’t hit the theaters yet.  Already in the works is a sequel to the big screen version of the ’60s TV series Get Smart to be released just 10 days after the movie hits theaters next summer. 

The sequel will not be a traditional follow up to the main characters; instead it will focus on the secondary characters.  And according to the Wall Street Journal, more studios are trying to cut these package deals with actors and writers to include the theatrical release and the DVD sequel.

Warner Premiere’s goal is to release 15 of these DVD movies annually and they are promising quality. 

“While the films and shorts produced by Warner Premiere will be produced under a new business model, they will have no creative constraints on them and should not be thought of as low-budget or second-rate in any way,” said Jeff Robinov, President, Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. 

But without the theatrical release, WB will never get the same stars to reprise their roles, let alone the directors.  Anyway you cut it, you end of with a second-rate product.

I know WB isn’t the only one doing it.  Disney has been making DVD sequels for years.  And even as a huge Disney fan, I haven’t found any of them interesting enough to watch, let alone buy.

My only hope is that no one will buy or watch these sequels and the studios will give up on these efforts.  And long live the originals!