My holiday movie hopes...dashed

Did it ever occur to anyone to cast singers in the movie adaption of "Nine?" That is, instead of pretty, famous actresses who just speak and breathe through some really wonderful melodies. Maury Yeston - are you still alive and allowing this? Allowing a cohesive - if a bit indulgent - musical to be butchered for the screen is painful each and every time it is done, but "Nine," I fear, could be the worst.

I plan on seeing the film when it comes out Christmas Day. Based on the snippets I'm previewing on iTunes right now, I might have to cook a goose other than the famed Christmas goose. Cinema needs something more than live theater as it loses a keep sense-ual element, I understand that. But the dark, gritty shots and cheesy added numbers like "Take it All" and "Cinema Italiano" in place of the heart-felt "Simple" and the decadence of "Grand Canal" probably won't play well to an audience familiar with the source material.

Daniel Day Lewis seems to be in his element - but of course he is. The man chooses his movies so carefully, there was no doubt he would be great as Guido. As for, well...the rest of the cast, I will remain skeptical. I (potentially scathing) review will follow!

Where are the Scissor Sisters when you need them?

Has any "American Idol" contestant ever come out with a CD that wasn't incredibly generic? After last season's upset - come on, no one saw Kris Allen winning - I expected Adam Lambert to be that exception. "For Your Entertainment," for the most part, isn't a reflection of his creativity from the show - particularly his single "For Your Entertainment."

The song could be any AutoTuned club singer backed by drum beats and synth. The lyrics are vapid - "you thought that I was soft and sweet/that an angel swept you off your feet/but I'm about to turn up the heat" - and the vocals unremarkable, a real disappointment after Lambert's renditions of U2's "One" and his performance with Queen. His high notes seem planned, a gimic rather than a talent. "Pick U Up," "Sure Fire Winners" and "Strut" follow suit. My favorite track, "If I Had You" doesn't deviate from the unoriginal pop formula the rest of the album follows, but it's a fun dance track - I just don't need 6 dance tracks. I wanted his album to have more depth - see a previous entry in which I embedded a video of singing 4 Non-Blones "What's Goin' On." The album seems to embody Lambert's AMA performance, playing more with fun and fame rather than true music, a sad thought considering the quality of his instrument.

Tegan and Sara's "Sainthood," on the other hand, builds nicely on their last two major albums, "The Con" and "So Jealous." The best track, "Hell" uses their typically melodic, but not necessarily major keyed, chorus structure and fast-talking verses. Creative rhymes - "I know you feel it to/These words gets over-used" - dispel critics continual dismissal of them into simple pop. These girls are intelligent, they feel deeply and they express well- it's not the clean and clear "So Jealous" nor is it the crunch of "The Con," but somewhere between. It's still hanging in my car stereo.