Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Post-Oscar Thoughts

Here's a few Oscar fun facts about last year's and this year's acting winners for you to mull over:
Last year all the winners had been previously nominated at least once before and this year three out of the four winners won on their first nomination.
Last year three non-Americans and an American won and this year three Americans and a non-American won.
I've seen three out of the four winning performances from last year ("The Reader...I haven't seen The Reader". LOL, that song and dance Hugh Jackman did last year still makes me chortle) and I've seen three out of the four winning performances from this year.
The median age of last year's winner was 36 and the median age of this year's winners is 50.
Yep, that's all I got.
Now go amaze your friends with these fun facts!

I predicted ALL of the six main categories (plus Animated Picture) right, a feat I have never done before. Does this mean I'm just that good or has the show become ridiculously predictable? I'm going with the latter.

The show had a few highlights and laughs, but mostly I thought it was pretty awful. I mean, when a promo for Modern Family (when they're playing Oscar charades) is funnier than the actual Oscars, then, well, that's saying something. I'll start off with some positives:

-While I liked Hugh Jackman as host lat year (well, duh), Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did have a few funny lines and bits. I liked their Inglorious Basterd joke ("There's the Inglorious Basterds; and over there are the people who made Inglorious Basterds) and the Paranormal Activity spoof was funny.

-I know it was stupid, but I did laugh when Ben Stiller came out dressed a Na'vi native and started "speaking" in Na'vinese (or whatever they call it).

-While I'm ambivalent about her win, I did love Sandra Bullock's speech. Easily the best of the night. It was nice of her to acknowledge the other nominees in her category and hilarious when she called Meryl "such a gooood kisser" and told Carey Mulligan that her "grace, poise, and beauty make [her] sick".

-Yay for Kathryn Bigelow for being the first female to win Best Director. I didn't notice, but someone pointed out the band was playing "I am Woman; Hear Me Roar". :::rolls eyes:::

-Jeff Bridge's speech made me laugh every time he said "man". Made me think of "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski.

-Loved the "interviews" they did with the characters of the films nominated for Best Animation. Up was the best with Dug sniffing at the cameras. I also loved it whenever they showed Ed Asner in the audience applauding for the film; he reminded me of his cartoon alter ego. I love Up!

-I did like the introductions of the five leading actors and actresses being presented by one of their co-stars or close friend, but I wish they had done that with the supporting category too. Because you KNOW Ben Affleck would have done Matt Damon's introduction. I was scratching my head when Forrest Whitaker did Sandra Bullock's introduction; I had no idea he directed Hope Floats. I think they should have gotten Keanu Reeves for the Speed connection. I loved that Tim Robbins spoke for Morgan Freeman because of Shawshank Redemption .

Okay, now for the things I didn't like:

-I love Neil Patrick Harris as much as the next person, but the opening sing and dance number with him was dumb and not needed.

-I hated that they had all the lead acting nominees on stage...it was just weird and we already know who's nominated!

-That horror montage was completely stupid and unnecessary. First of all, unless you are a teen girl, nobody cares about Kristen "I can't stand up straight" Stewart and Taylor "I can't act" Launter being at the Oscars. And I'm guessing Twilight was in the montage because of who presented it, but that's not a horror movie (well, on second thought...). It's a crappy teen romance.

-I'm not liking the Academy inviting somebody to sing over the death montage because it's distracting and the moment should be about the people who died and not focused on the artist. I prefer it when they played the schmaltzy instrumental music. Surprised they left out Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur but I'm guessing that's because they were TV stars.

-And speaking of tributes, I'm surprised John Hughes got his own special tribute for a couple reasons: 1) NOBODY (unless they're Stanley Kubrick or Katharine Hepburn apparently) has ever gotten their own special Oscar tribute after they died...they're put into the death montage (unless the Academy "forgets" them :::rolls eyes:::) and also his movies, while entertaining, were never really on Oscar radar. I mean, I could understand if it had been somebody like Clint Eastwood or Martin Scorses because they're Academy vets, but John Hughes? Eh.... now every director is going to expect a tribute like this when they die, you know they are! I wouldn't have mind a Hughes' movie montage so much, it just got to be a bit overkill when they brought all those actors who had been in his films and showed his family and so on.

-Once the interpretive dancing of the best score nominations came on, I knew that was a good time to take a bathroom break and get a snack. I probably also had time to do the laundry, wash my hair, and bake some cookies and the thing still would have been on. I mean, seriously? Note to Academy: NOBODY CARES!

Best dressed of the night: Penelope Cruz
Worst dressed of the night: Zoe Saldana

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