Oscar Awards
By popular demand, I'll furnish a short review of the longest night in Hollywood. Now that I am an old married man, I actually pay attention to some of the fashion on the red carpet. This was a distinctly good year in that regard, with Jennifer Hudson's aluminum foil vest the biggest fashion problem. Meryl Streep with tacky beads and a dress that looked like a bathrobe was a bit on the Hippie side and the way Kirsten Dunst did her bangs mader her look younger than Abigail Breslin. Other than that, it was a good evening, with Best Dressed notices going to Penelope Cruz and Reese Witherspoon.
Ellen DeGeneres did one thing right and one wrong as hostess: she succeeded in her attempt not to steal the show from the nominees, but she tried way too hard not to steal the show. It would not kill her to dress formally and actually crack some better-than-lame jokes. She was not actively bad, but was passive in every regard. Is it just me, or do we hear every year that the show is TOO STINKING LONG(!!!) and then the next year they make it just as long again. Why can't they cut all of the elaborate introduction bits and just get on with the awards that no one cares about?! Jack Black and Will Ferrell were mildly amusing bemoaning the lack of Oscars for comedians, but that stunt should be scheduled for Saturday Night Live on the night before the Oscars show. Fundamentally, if they put the emphasis back on the actual winners of the awards, (and nominated more movies that people have actually seen) the Oscars could again rival major sporting events for popularity.
I watched part of the "Dogfights" marathon on the History Channel, but I could flip back every fifteen minutes or so and catch the next award presentation. Al Gore was actually funny as he did the botched presidential candidacy announcement. The straightest of all straight men has learned to laugh at himself - good job. The surprises for which the Oscars are famous hit us again this year in a few ways. First, how is it possible for the only foreign language movie with other nominations to lose the Best Foreign Language Film award? "Pan's Labyrinth" won - WON, mind you - Best Makeup, Art Direction, and Cinematography, but lost the trophy for Best Foreign Language Film. Stupid is the only word for that voting. The biggest other surprise was Alan Arkin's victory for Best Supporting Actor. Eddie Murphy was the sentimental favorite, but we have learned the lesson countless times that sentimental favorites do not win anymore.
After completing my German homework for the next day, I tuned in again to see the last four awards of the show. Had I not been suffering insomnia, I would not have seen the predictable outcomes of the big awards. Scorsese got his trophy at last, Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren added the most coveted award to their trophy cases, Peter O'Toole will have to try again, and "The Departed" won Best Picture. This will be a trivia question year akin to last year. Nothing swept the awards and the biggest box office hits were not in the running. The Best News is that Babel lost everything, so we will not see a string of devastating, depressing movies all vying for Best Picture next year. Hua.
Ellen DeGeneres did one thing right and one wrong as hostess: she succeeded in her attempt not to steal the show from the nominees, but she tried way too hard not to steal the show. It would not kill her to dress formally and actually crack some better-than-lame jokes. She was not actively bad, but was passive in every regard. Is it just me, or do we hear every year that the show is TOO STINKING LONG(!!!) and then the next year they make it just as long again. Why can't they cut all of the elaborate introduction bits and just get on with the awards that no one cares about?! Jack Black and Will Ferrell were mildly amusing bemoaning the lack of Oscars for comedians, but that stunt should be scheduled for Saturday Night Live on the night before the Oscars show. Fundamentally, if they put the emphasis back on the actual winners of the awards, (and nominated more movies that people have actually seen) the Oscars could again rival major sporting events for popularity.
I watched part of the "Dogfights" marathon on the History Channel, but I could flip back every fifteen minutes or so and catch the next award presentation. Al Gore was actually funny as he did the botched presidential candidacy announcement. The straightest of all straight men has learned to laugh at himself - good job. The surprises for which the Oscars are famous hit us again this year in a few ways. First, how is it possible for the only foreign language movie with other nominations to lose the Best Foreign Language Film award? "Pan's Labyrinth" won - WON, mind you - Best Makeup, Art Direction, and Cinematography, but lost the trophy for Best Foreign Language Film. Stupid is the only word for that voting. The biggest other surprise was Alan Arkin's victory for Best Supporting Actor. Eddie Murphy was the sentimental favorite, but we have learned the lesson countless times that sentimental favorites do not win anymore.
After completing my German homework for the next day, I tuned in again to see the last four awards of the show. Had I not been suffering insomnia, I would not have seen the predictable outcomes of the big awards. Scorsese got his trophy at last, Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren added the most coveted award to their trophy cases, Peter O'Toole will have to try again, and "The Departed" won Best Picture. This will be a trivia question year akin to last year. Nothing swept the awards and the biggest box office hits were not in the running. The Best News is that Babel lost everything, so we will not see a string of devastating, depressing movies all vying for Best Picture next year. Hua.
posted by Bountyhawk at 12:16 PM
2 Comments:
I don't think popular movies will ever dominate the Oscars. While Crash and the Departed, and some other movies like that, have done well, most of the time the masses are bored by things the critics love because the critics love long movies, surreal movies that don't really make sense and foreign language movies. This, however, does pose the question, "THen why do so many people watch the Oscars?" The answer is simple: everyone is signed up for Netflix, but come February, there are no more summer movies just-released on DVD, so the masses need suggestions. BAM.
Since clearly no movie has surpassed the quality of Return of the King back in good ol' '03, I move that we just keep awarding that film Movie of the Year until something better comes along (say, when the powers that be let PJ go ahead and make The Hobbit).
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