I think a big part of the problem is that the movie sat on a shelf for a couple years before it was released, so almost all the music in the movie was, well, out of date. And I don't mean it's 1930s period music. The overwhelming majority of the music in the movie was from "Speakerboxx/The Love Below," which, while an excellent record, is still 3 years old. In 2004, this would have been great and like, totally current, but now it just makes it seem like the boys weren't too interested in making any new music for the film (save a couple songs and the credits music).

Oh, and the plot. Whoo boy, the plot. No, I wasn't expecting a film festival winner, but, come on, Cicely Tyson's character in the movie is only in there for the sake of a plot point. And she's a cliche on top of that. It's glaring, and a waste of a great actress. Ving Rhames' character is a cliche, too, even though Ving Rhames is cool enough to make it seem less egregious. The death of a main character is so anticlimactic and coincidental that it all but retcons her place in the movie. She goes from being a major character to a plot device that is meant to get Andre's character to finish out his arc and make his big turnaround.

And while I'm usually willing to give period piece movies, especially ones that play fast and loose with history on purpose like this one does (I mean, come on, Big Boi raps), the benefit of the doubt on their big mistakes, some were just so glaring in the movie that I can't help but mention them. First off, Prohibition apparently lasted for like, 25 years in Idlewild, because Big Boi is running liquor at both age 8 and age 30. Likewise, Idlewild apparently has no police department, even a corrupt one, because something like eight murders just never get investigated at all.

As far as Big Boi and Andre are concerned, like I said, they give serviceable, though not particularly inspired, performances. Big Boi does what he does -- broad comedy and tough-guy posturing -- and does it as well as ever. He's uncompromisingly likeable, in part because he's not overly complex. He's clearly in over his head in some of the more emotional scenes, like when his wife and kids walk out on him, because by all appearances he's still just his happy-go-lucky self. Of course, that's what makes you like the guy to begin with -- nothing really gets to him that badly, even when it probably should.

Dre, on the other hand, goes to great lengths to try to illustrate his character's introspective complexity and genius, but it comes off as just being dour all the time. I think that Dre has a good actor somewhere in there, but this wasn't the role where it could come out. Part of the problem was the whole "Purple Rain"-style domineering father/music is the only way the real artist inside can come out story arc he got stuck with. He put out his version of a Prince album three years ago and now he's playing his version of a Prince role. Honestly, the only time in the movie that he actually seems like Andre 3000 is when he sings over the credits, and it's, hands down, the best thing in the whole movie.

And that's true across the board. The movie's musical sequences -- which feature some excellent choreography and music-video-style direction -- are head-and-shoulders above anything else in the film. OutKast pretty much proved one thing with this movie. Unfortunately, we already knew it. They're incredible musicians. C+.

Unfortunately, they're incredible musicians who just put out the worst album of their careers.

That's a pretty strong statement, I know, but it's their own fault, because they've set such a damn high standard for themselves. I mean, even their last album, a totally fractured, bloated mess, was an amazing showcase of creativity and innovation.

In all honesty, the OutKastiest thing on all of "Idlewild" is maybe the first 45 seconds of the intro, until the track's funky little instrumental piece gets interrupted by people talking about the movie coming out. This is pretty indicative of the whole record's problem, I think.

A lot of stuff I've read about this record make reference to this being the soundtrack to the movie, but, like I said before, most of the music in the movie comes from the previous album. Maybe three songs from this album are in the movie -- and at least one of those just play over the credits.

A more appropriate label might be that this album was inspired by the movie, since a big chunk of the songs are performed in character and flesh out the film's storylines. Dre's songs in particular try to get into his character's head, and several of Big Boi's songs delve into the husband/wife relationship that's a big focus of his character's story.

Trouble is, rather than helping OutKast expand its horizons and stretch out into new musical territory, trying to tie the album into the movie seems to have handcuffed them to themes that didn't really warrant that much investigation. Okay, Dre's bored with where he is in life and wants to move on to something or somewhere else, and Big Boi's in trouble with the little lady. Simple enough. Do we need 40 minutes-plus worth of songs about it?

In the end, the best tracks on the album have basically nothing to do with the movie at all. "Morris Brown" may very well be the whole thing's saving grace -- a song produced by Andre that features a marching band background track that Big Boi can just settle right into. (The Andre-producing/Big Boi rapping combo seems to have produced all of OutKast's most successful recent efforts -- Speakerboxx/The Love Below's best track by far, "Ghettomusick," had the same basic makeup.) The album's first single, "Mighty O," explores the whole "Dre is bored" theme, but hey, he raps on it for once, and it's great. "N2U" sounds vaguely like a Blackalicious song but still gets the job done. "In Your Dreams" is just a funky slice of awesomeness.

The songs that Dre obviously made solo in the studio have the ability to grow on you ("Idlewild Blues" sounds horrible the first time you hear it, then gets more tolerable over time and "PJ and Rooster" is a toe-tapper), but alongside tracks like "Mighty O" and a small part of "Hollywood Divorce," it just makes me long that much more for our outer-space hero to just get out of his rut and get back to rapping, which is what he does best.

I think that there's a great 50-minute album in this 80-minute monster, but as long as OutKast insists on putting all its ideas on display in their records without any seeming discretion (the nearly 9-minute long "A Bad Note," which closes out the record, is just what the title says it is), they're never again going to put out an ear-popping, mind-blowing record like "Aquemeni" or "Stankonia." Honestly, the boys could benefit from adding to their album what their movie had a little too much of: editing. C.

--------