Oscars Wrap-Up
Well it was most definitely a big snoozer last night, although no real surprises there. The Oscars are always laborious and drawn-out and last night was no exception. Ellen fizzled as a host and I really felt bad for her. Those shadow human puppets were pointless, Celine Dion just plain scary, and the entire thing looked cheap compared to every other year (although that probably had something to do with everything been ‘green’ this year).
Highlights (few and far between) included Martin Scorsese receiving the Best Director award from his old ‘Rebels on a Backlot’ crew Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Spielberg. As soon as they arrived at the podium, it was quite obvious Marty would win. Helen Mirren accepting her Oscar was all class and I didn’t mind the Will Farrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly skit. Sure it was obvious, but occasionally funny.
I scored 62.5% with my predictions which is pretty shit and not my best effort by far (Last year I scored around 80%!). A few surprises in there including Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor although I had hoped he’d win. A big shock came from Pan’s Labyrinth losing out to The Lives of Others (which I haven’t seen) in the Best Foreign Film category. Since Pan’s is so loved by critics and fans alike, I thought that was a no-brainer. And even Melissa Etheridge winning best song over the three Dreamgirls nominations was a surprise. Not that I liked any of the songs, but I’m sure Dreamgirls fans were shocked.
Next year they really need to radically change the format. Get someone like Sacha Baron Cohen to host the event for one, play a sample of the nominated original songs only and cut all the pointless crap out. Even the recipients can speed things up. For example, if there are four people nominated in a category, at least time it out better so everyone gets to talk. I good 5 seconds is plenty for each person and I even noticed some disappointed winners who didn’t get a chance to thank even one person. Plan it out better you mofos!
But yeah, next year I think I’ll either tape or download the show and skip through most of it. Give me the MTV Movie Awards any day of the week.
4 Responses to “Oscars Wrap-Up”
I missed the Oscars, but most awards shows are non events so I don’t think I missed anything. Glad Scorsese finally won, but even though The Departed is a very good film, surely its a cut below his classics. Babel should definitely have won best film, but it was predictable that The Departed would win. I would love Colbert to host the Oscars.
I basically watch the Oscars nowadays to see how bad it is. Degeneris’ comic relief made it all play like a tired broadcast of David Letterman. Note also how King Kong was snubbed for best special effects. And Scorcese winning for a remake…ahhhh fuck it all.
I thought you did pretty well! Especially considering many of your ‘hopeful but doubtful’ wins came through, eg. Pan’s Labyrinth picking up art direction and Happy Feet getting best animated feature.
However, I too was extremely bored. Did you notice they changed the presentation format? Normally Best Supporting Actress is up first, then they mix up the crew and post prod awards with the writing and acting awards, keep things interesting. This year things got lumped together. After watching the fourth sound award in a row, I gave up and switched off.
Also the only two speeches I enjoyed were Alan Arkin and Ari Sandel (best short film “West Side Bank”). They were eloquent and stuck to the request to not thank everyone including the family pets, that was in the hour and a half I was watching of course. Maybe it got better?
Wayne: Colbert would be interesting. Even Seinfeld would be decent enough.
Rod: Ahahahaha yeah I think the academy finally came to their senses and gave Scorsese the much deserved recognition. Unfortunately it wasn’t for his best film
Sez: No it didn’t get any better, apart from maybe Helen Mirren’s speech. I was also glad Ghost Dog himself won but his speech was a little too ‘Oscar’ for me.