Last week, I was sitting in a hotel room when I saw the preview for Outkast’s soon to be released “Idlewild” movie. I was too disgusted to sit through this preview, because I had been expecting the release of this movie for a long time now. The movie, a Prohibition-era drama starring the members of Outkast (Big Boi and Andre Benjamin), and Academy Award nominated actor Terrence Howard, was set to be an HBO movie back in 2004. After deliberations, HBO decided not to get involved with the release of the movie, so the producers of the movie decided to go for a more traditional theatre release. Was HBO trying to tell us something by not releasing the movie on their network?

On paper, this movie comes off as an intriguing concept: Outkast using hip-hop as a tool to tell the story in an unexpected fashion. Intriguing or not though, this comes across as a sign that a group that has overstepped the boundaries separating musicians from actors. I could easily see this movie being a trainwreck, and warranting the full brunt of critical rejection upon its release.

But Outkast wouldn’t be the first artist or group to star in a movie that revolves around a singer acting in a movie about aspiring to be a singer. This is something we have seen time and time again as a way that a record company or movie studio can capitalize on the success of a musician. Sometimes, it can be done moderately well, such as Eminem’s semi-autobiographical “8 Mile” in which the first 100 minutes of the movie was decent, followed by an excellent final 15 minutes of the movie. But for every “8 Mile”, we have a hundred artists who make utterly horrific movies that make you question the existence of a higher power in this world.

Remember these classics:

Hard To Hold (1984) - Back when Rick Springfield was popular for ten minutes, he wanted to get back into the acting game (he was on “General Hospital”). He wanted a vehicle to show off his acting talent, so he did the logical thing. He played a hit musician, who toured across the country and romanced a psychiatrist. Wow, sounds like a stretch to me. It was hard to hold the remote while watching this excrement about three months ago. Was this movie the end of Springfield’s acting career? Maybe not, but it sure may have started the downward spiral.

Cool As Ice (1991)- Remember this line: “Drop the Zero, Get With the Hero!”. Vanilla Ice should have won an Oscar with that line. This movie revolved around the always cunning linguist (Ice) being an aspiring rapper and outsider in a town being bullied by corporate developers, so at least that is what the movie tried to tell us. Not even Michael J. Fox’s dad on “Family Ties” could escape this mess of a movie. 1991 was the beginning of the end for Vanilla Ice. First he had “Ninja Rap”, and then this cinematic “achievement”. Hard not to see the signs of his imminent demise here.

Spice World (1997) - Hey, this movie was about the Spice Girls being…… THE SPICE GIRLS! Talk about expanding your thespian horizons! Watch as the Spice Girls travel around England, screaming “Girl Power” about every fifteen seconds. I spent 90 minutes watching this movie, and didn’t even get to see Ginger or Baby Spice naked! I think this movie had something to do with Posh Spice falling in love with a famous soccer player, and stop eating… Oh wait, that’s real life.

On The Line (2001) - Lance Bass, from N’Sync, as a commuter on the L-train in Chicago meeting a girl, and trying to find her again. Lance, I’ve met a few girls on the L-train, but usually they’re not girls that you want to talk with again. I am pretty sure this movie has nothing to do with music (or so I think), but the concept of Lance Bass having a female love interest is the best comedy that I have seen in a while.

Crossroads (2001) - Britney Spears as a downtrodden girl who takes a roadtrip across the country to follow her dreams as a singer. You know what we get? Some crappy version of “I Love Rock & Roll”, and Britney’s character losing her virginity. I can already figure out the sequel of this movie: Her character starts chain smoking, gives up on her career, marries some loser dancer, and gets chubby!

That’s right, there was a sequel of this movie; it was called “Britney & Kevin: Chaotic”.

After looking at these other marvels of crapdom, “Idlewild” could be sad because I do respect Outkast for being different than most of their peers in hip-hop, and because Benjamin is coming along as an actor. But I enjoyed it better when Outkast were strictly the talented hip-hop artists of past albums. Also, the group could be on the verge of a breakup, and the record label and movie studio could be seeing this as a last ditch effort to make some money from the group.

But who knows; “Idlewild” could rise above the movies listed and actually be a watchable movie. So as long as no one recites the line, “Drop the Zero, Get with the Hero!”, the movie might have a chance.

(“Idlewild” is in theatres August 25th; the soundtrack to the movie is out on August 22nd.)