Quentin Tarantino Guest Directs On 'American Idol'

Music lover and Quentin Tarantino did a guest stint on American Idol to "direct" the final seven competitors. Those hoping for an extra glimpse of Inglourious Basterds probably came away disappointed, although he did get a pretty fantastic introduction.

If you were hoping that by "directing" the singers, Tarantino might have forced them to fight ninjas or drown one another in a toilet, you'd be disappointed. Instead, the closest they got to the world of Tarantino was by singing movie songs ... and not even the kinds of songs the director puts in his films, but every overplayed "ballad" you've ever heard: I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, Everything I Do, I Do It For You, Born to be Wild, Have You Ever Loved a Woman, Endless Love, Falling Slowly, The Rose.

Tarantino did try to beef up the performances (encouraging Anoop Desai to "kill" the aforementioned Bryan Adams tune was pretty funny), but no one seemed to take his advice much to heart. He's an obvious fan of the show though, eagerly awaiting to see what Adam Lambert does to rock classics. But it seems like if you're going to have Tarantino "coaching" your singers, they ought to be singing stuff he's picked, or stuff from his movies. How about performances of Stuck In the Middle, Hooked on a Feeling, and Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down.

Am I wrong? Then again, I'm not much of an Idol fan, so maybe I expect far too much out of a guest coach ... even when that coach is Tarantino. Was this really the best they could do with a category like movie songs?