From Justin to Kelly (2003)

The modern American television landscape is often referred to as peak television.  There are great shows coming out all the time.  They’re seen as the best that television has ever been.  The leaps that the medium has made since the turn of the millennium changed audiences’ perception of television shows.  The most apparent areas that television changed were in the serialized nature of storytelling that led to bigger budgets and larger scopes, and the world of reality and reality competition shows.

Reality shows saw a big boost in the early 2000s when shows like The Real World, Survivor, and Big Brother saw their popularity boom.  But there’s one whole giant subgenre to come out of the reality competition shows that completely took over network television.  That was the talent show.  The one that kicked things into high gear in North America was American Idol.  The Simon Fuller created show saw many artists come to some form of popularity throughout its run.  Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard, and Fantaisa Barrino were just a few of the people to come out of the show.

The first season was a sensation.  FOX brought the show to the air and created an American franchise that has had over 15 seasons.  The winner was Kelly Clarkson, who remains popular with new music still coming out.  The runner up was Justin Guarini, who released two albums and quickly disappeared from the spotlight.  That wasn’t before he and Clarkson starred in a movie together.

From Justin to Kelly was a musical that starred Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini.  Kelly (Kelly Clarkson) and her friends Alexa (Katherine Bailess) and Kaya (Anika Noni Rose) went on vacation to Miami.  Kelly quickly fell in love with Justin (Justin Guarini) who ran an event business with his friends Eddie (Brian Dietzen) and Brandon (Greg Siff).

FOX had decided to capitalize on the success of their show, as well as the popularity of the winner and runner up.  In the final stages of the American Idol competition, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini were forced to sign a contract.  It obligated them to star in From Justin To Kelly.  In order to achieve the possible win of American Idol, and hopefully skyrocket into superstardom, they had to sign away a good chunk time to make one of the worst movies ever.

From Justin to Kelly was a musical that didn’t know how to be a musical.  It had songs and choreography and musicians involved, but it didn’t know how to execute any of it in a combined way to make things interesting.  There were decent songs here and there.  What happened during them, however, was lackluster.  Whole songs were spent with people walking through crowds without meaning.  One song setpiece had the two main characters sitting still on a boat as it cruised down an empty river, wearing white clothes that blended into the white boat.  There was nothing visually interesting going on.  And when there was, it wasn’t good.  The choreography was atrocious throughout the movie.  The lack of effort put in to make these things work and flow made it clear that FOX just wanted a quick buck.

In most cases, a movie as bad as this could ruin careers.  Justin Guarini and Kelly Clarkson had just come off their success on American Idol and their follow-up project was a poorly received musical.  Career moves like this normally kill any forward momentum.  That’s what happened with Justin Guarini.  He would end up releasing two albums that nobody really cared about.  Does anyone remember him outside of American Idol and From Justin to Kelly?  His career never blossomed the way that the television show made it seem it would.

Kelly Clarkson, on the other hand, recovered pretty well.  Her first album, which came out the same year as From Justin to Kelly, was successful.  Her second album, which came out in 2004, was the huge one.  It had five insanely popular singles that are still favourites of many people today.  She would soon be the punchline of a joke in The 40 Year Old Virgin, have music featured in Pitch Perfect and The Office, and have more hit songs from hit albums.  Her career didn’t stall because of the movie.

She also managed to keep her acting career going.  Every few years, she’d pop up in a guest spot on a television show.  Reba, American Dreams, and Phineas and Ferb had her come in for roles.  This year, she’s going back to a starring role in an animated musical that features a bunch of musicians.  UglyDolls seemingly put Kelly Clarkson in a leading role, surrounded by the likes of Blake Shelton, Nick Jonas, Charlie XCX, Janelle Monae, and Pitbull.  This could be the musical that shows she can do musicals, because From Justin to Kelly surely didn’t.

As bad as From Justin to Kelly was, with the running joke of the police officer always giving tickets to Brandon, or the horrible comic relief that came with Eddie, or even the horrible backstabbing friend storyline with Alexa, the movie wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  It’s still bottom tier entertainment.  That’s a fact.  But Kelly Clarkson managed to come out of it and be the big star that North America needed.  The whole entertainment industry would be different without her contributions, and if it meant making From Justin to Kelly to get those contributions, it was worth it.

Reality television has helped shape the modern entertainment landscape.  It gave us shows like Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, and anything else that Gordon Ramsay has done.  It also gave us the talent shows like American Idol, which have led many musicians to some form of stardom.  Justin Guarini and Kelly Clarkson were the first to come out of it, and they made a movie soon after.  Just as important, American Idol helped lead to other shows on American television like America’s Got Talent, The X-Factor, The Masked Singer, and The Voice.  Television was changed forever with the first season of American Idol.  As were bad movies.  And that’s what we’re here for, right?

We’re also here for these notes:

• Here are some other movies that have been featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies with musicians in major roles.  Glitter (week 22), Surf School (week 42), New Year’s Eve (week 57), Anaconda (week 80), Money Train (week 109), Leprechaun in the Hood (week 120), Sextette (week 141), Valentine’s Day (week 168), Road House (week 200), Xanadu (week 216), Gigli (week 225), Sandy Wexler (week 231), Street Fighter (week 280), Wild Wild West (week 296), The Wash (week 303), and Snow Dogs (week 322).
• Robert Hoffman made his third Sunday "Bad" Movies appearance in From Justin To Kelly.  He was previously in Shrooms (week 92) and Gigli (week 225).
• Four other actors from Gigli (week 225) were in From Justin to Kelly.  They were Brandon Henschel, Dondraico Johnson, Melanie Lewis, and Brandi Oglesby.
• Nancy O'Meara, Lurie Sposit, and Jason Yribar were all in Showgirls (week 170) before showing up in From Justin to Kelly.
• Nancy Anderson was in the Sunday "Bad" Movies in Date Movie (week 164) before appearing in From Justin to Kelly.
• Finally, Kristin Denehy was an actress in both From Justin to Kelly and Norbit (week 227).
• Have you seen From Justin to Kelly?  What did you think of it?  Probably bad things.  Let me know about them in the comments.
• You can also use the comments to suggest movies that I should be checking out.  I’m always open to new suggestions there or on Twitter, and I’m trying to collect a list of movies to watch after losing my other one.
• There’s an Instagram account for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Check it out for updates and stuff.
• While you’re at it, you could also add me on Snapchat if you want to see the clips of bad movies that I sometimes share there.
• Sometimes I run into trouble doing the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Yes, I ran into major trouble late last year, and that delayed posts.  This one isn’t nearly that catastrophic.  I accidentally watched movies out of order last week, which means I’ve already watched next week’s movie.  It’s nothing that is throwing over the apple cart that is the blog.  It just means I’ve been sitting on the movie while I watched and wrote about From Justin to Kelly.  My memory of it might not be as fresh as it should be.  Anyway, next week, I’ll have a post up about The Terror of Tiny Town.  You’re in for something special.  See you then.