‘The X Factor’ UK review: 4th Impact, Lauren Murray, Che Chesterman perform in Movie Week

It’s Movie Week on “The X Factor” … otherwise known as our least favorite week. No amount of hype or glossy graphics is going to make us excited about seeing some of the same songs time and time again. Bonus points to anyone who at least does something original, which brings us to the start of our live review of the week!

Mason Noise, “Men in Black” – This was a dozen times better than we thought it would be! We’re not sure why Mason or Nick Grimshaw got it in their head to try to make him any different than what he is. he’s a performer, a rapper, a singer, and a guy with good dance moves and a lot of swagger. This was all of that, and very entertaining to go along with it.

Max Stone, “Secret Garden” – Kudos to Simon Cowell and Max for actually doing a song that hasn’t been done to death. Here’s the problem: It is really not edgy enough for what we know Max can be. We’re still waiting for him to get to back to where he was doing “Gangster’s Paradise” with his guitar, which was really outstanding. We suppose we’re in the minority after hearing the judges’ comments.

Louisa Johnson, “Everybody’s Free” – It’s clear at this point that the show would love nothing more than to see Louisa win, and we understand why. She could easily get out there right now and be a pretty big pop star. This performance probably will not be one that we remember a few weeks down the road, but that doesn’t mean that it was anything short of excellent. She hit all of the notes, conveyed emotion, and did what she needed to do.

Monica Michael, “What Is Love” – We give Monica a lot of credit this week. It would’ve been understandable if she was really rusty doing a song that she only recently got a chance to learn after having to switch at the last minute following the horrific events in Paris. She sang this very well, and it was extremely emotional to go along with it.

Reggie ‘n Bollie, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” – We had no idea that we would be singing the praises of these two guys at this point in the show. Yes, they are not great singers, and this was probably worse than the One Direction cover last week. Yet, it was a lot of fun! Sometimes, that’s all you need, and we appreciate that these guys know who they are. Our favorite part of the entire performance may be Simon Cowell learning that “The Rugrats Movie” was a thing.

Anton Stephans, “I Have Nothing” – We hate the song choice. It’s just so overdone, and Anton couldn’t really bring anything new to it. Originality is a fail. We did like Anton’s vocals, and the production here with the lighting and the blue jacket was rather nice.

4th Impact, “Work It Out” – This was a super-smart decision by Cheryl Fernandez-Virsini to give them a song choice that had a little more sass to it. We feel like this showed a very different side of the ladies than what we’ve seen so far, and given that they performed after what seemed to be an emergency, it’s impressive.

Lauren Murray, “One Last Time” – We’ve never heard this song, but loved it. This was Lauren’s best performance for us by a mile, and she made us love the song. Remarkable for only having less than 24 hours to prepare this song, and all of the headlines about her “going home” during the night.

Che Chesterman, “When a Man Loves a Woman” – We’re going to give Che big ups for taking a tough song and delivering it. The only issue that we have is that after what we would say was one of the biggest moments of the season, this felt so much more predictable. We just knew where it was going to go almost throughout.

Who was your favorite during the show? Vote now in the poll, and head over here to get some other updates on “The X Factor” right now! Also, be sure to sign up here to score some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ITV.)