American Idol Final Four at the movies

So Jamie Foxx is back as guest mentor. I still don't see him as all that great of an artist, but his mentoring last season was decent. We'll see how the duos break out this season, as I recall Adam and Allison not getting any credit for beating the crap out of Gokey and Allen.

Lee - Kiss From A Rose - Lee picks a cheesy Seal song, and he kicks it off with a way too weak falsetto note. Instead of having soul, he just gravel-voices his way through it and it sounds odd. This was totally not the right song choice. This guy is definitely good by Idol standards, but this performance was not up to top 4 level snuff. The judges actually called him out on his singing out of tune, so perhaps people will listen and know that this was not that good.
GRADE: C-

Michael - Will You Be There - Michael takes on a soulful MJ song, which I couldn't remember the artist of until Kelley reminded me. Unlike Lee, this was a brilliant song choice and may get pity votes for being a Jackson song. In any event, the performance was solid. The judges were kind of harsh on Michael, but I think the choice of the choir was a solid one.
GRADE: B+

Lee and Crystal - Lee and Crystal turns out to be a cute match with the two acoustic guitars, and they actually sing this pretty well when they sing together. Lee tries a bit hard when he's on his own, and Crystal maybe does too but she can pull it off better. This was one of the best performances of the season and way better than anything the duets did last year.
GRADE: A-

Casey - Mrs. Robinson - You can tell Casey breathed a sigh of relief when this song list came out as Sinatra week was somehow survived. This is an interesting song choice...not as good as Michael but not as weird as Lee. Casey does a nice different sounding rendition of the song, makes it more personal. However, the believability was a little off I thought. Considering how popular Lee has gotten, this could be a swan song.
GRADE: C

Crystal - I'm Alright - After hearing her perform this for Jamie Foxx, the fact that she arranged it with a bongo player was a real surprise. She definitely changed the song up a bit and made it totally memorable. I don't think this was her best performance but it will be the one people remember for good reasons. Considering how well Crystal did with Lee, there's no doubt she will be in the Final 3, barring a catastrophe of silly voting.
GRADE: B+

Michael and Casey - These guys can't have the cute moment Crystal and Lee had, and it was a weird choice being completely solo for the first two verses of the song. When they sing together it sounded good until Casey tried to hit a high note with Michael, and then it just sounded bad to me. Overall a good try, but they were outclassed earlier. Nevertheless, this performance can only help Casey, who will need it to overcome the other two guys.
GRADE: C

At this point, I'll be honest. I'm just guessing. This is a very close season although you can pencil in Crystal for the championship at this point. So here goes.

TOP PERFORMER - Crystal (thanks to the duet)
BOTTOM TWO - Lee, Casey
GOING HOME - Casey