However, Tuesday night changed my mind. The top 10 guys performed and it started off well, with tough-guy Michael Lynche breaking out of his shell with a great performance of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World”. I was disappointed by John Park’s performance, but when Alex Lambert performed John Legend’s “Everybody Knows”, I died and went to heaven.

Finally, I was reminded of other great contestants’ performances. It reminded me particularly of some of Kris Allen’s earlier renditions, like “Ain’t no Sunshine” and “Heartless”. Finally, I felt like this could be a season to continue watching.

The girls performed a day later than scheduled due to some bizarre health issues surrounding popular contestant Crystal Bowersox. However, she was recovered enough by Wednesday to give an awesome performance of “As long as I can see the light” and the judges, though annoying through most of their commentary, were impressed by the improvements of many contestants.

Funny, how it took only a few perfect songs sung by likable people to restore my faith in American Idol.

 For a hilarious recap of this week’s episodes, visit: http://www.ew.com/ew/video/0,,20312226_20312230,00.html

Staff Writer

Everyone seems to be making a “Top of the last year” list so I feel that in my reporter career, I should do one of these. And I am going to do one about movies. So these are the top five movies that I saw in the glorious year of 2009.

(These are in a random order)

Movie #1:  The Taking of Pelham 123

John Travolta plays a ticked off and disgruntled man who sets in motion a plan to take over a local New York Subway train; he closes off the track, takes hostages and demands a hefty ransom. On the other end of the negotiation is civil service worker Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), who finds himself in the unlucky position of having to be a go between for the unstable gunman and the authorities.

Movie #2: District 9

In his directing debut, Neill Blomkamp captures South Africa and aliens together in a favorable movie called “District 9”. It’s a great story about slavery, anger, and has a lot of history behind it even though it’s a fiction story

Movie #3: Inglorious Basterds

Oscar winner director Quentin Tarantino’s best movie will always be “Pulp Fiction”, but if you love action, great dialogue, and a tremendous cast, you will have a hay-day over this movie. It is superb in every category and will definitely get an award.

Movie #4: Star Trek

With J.J. Abrams taking over as director, the reboot to the Star Trek franchise was a success. With a slick style and feel, excellent acting, and a tremendous plot, Star Trek does not disappoint. You don’t have to know anything about Star Trek to enjoy this movie. Set your phasers to stunning.

Movie #5: The Hangover

With an all star cast and a fabulous script writer, the 2009 comedy “The Hangover” made me cry laughing. It’s a simple story of four friends getting drunk in Las Vegas for a friends Bachelor Party. It’s all about the day after when they are “hungover”.

Like my opinion or not, these were some of my favorite movies of 2009.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Zombieland, 500 Days of Summer, Sherlock Holmes, The Men who stare at Goats.

On Sept. 9, the Tim Burton movie 9 was released. I was skeptical when I watched the commercial and saw the release date. It seemed to me like someone just wanted to make a movie on that particular day.

Voiced by Elijah Wood, #9, from left, #7 (voiced by Jennifer Connelly), and #5 (voiced by John C. Reilly) face peril in Shane Acker's epic adventure fantasy "9," which Focus Features releases nationwide on September 9, 2009. (Courtesy Focus Features/MCT)

Surpirsingly, many people I’ve talked to told me the movie was much more than a gimmick. 9 is actually based off of a short-film directed by Shane Acker that won an Academy Award.

I have now challenged myself to see this movie before I judge it on its opening day. Hopefully, I will be surprised.