Oscar Wrap-up!
So last night's Oscars were filled with both awkward laughs and Hollywood taking itself way to seriously as usual. All the winners were horribly predicable, which hopefully means I might win the contest the local paper has every year with guessing the winners for 50 free movie passes because all the people I marked on my ballot won I think, which is pretty amazing considering the only movie I actually saw this year that was nominated for anything, besides the movies nominated for special effects, was Slumdog Millionaire. Here's some of what I thought was the good and the bad highlights of last night's show.
Good:
Hugh Jackman: I really like the guy, even if he isn't the best actor in the world, or the best singer, at least he's easy on the eyes and seems to have a sense of humor about his job. I'm still waiting for X-Men the Musical there Hugh.
Ben Stiller: I don't even like Ben Stiller but his impression of crazy mountain man Joaquin Phoenix was full of win! I love Joaquin Phoenix to death, but even I'll admit he's pretty wacked right now what with the beard and the glasses and wanting to be rapper. Not everyone watching may have gotten the joke, but I sure as hell did. XD
Queen Latifah: Her singing during the powerpoint presentation of all the people in film that had died this past year I thought was quite moving and beautiful.
Best Twilight Crossover: Rob Pattinson brought that sparkling undead charm of his to the Oscars by glaring at the audience the entire time. Seriously, someone needs to tell him he doesn't have to be in the character of Edward all of the time! Good try to get the younger crowd to watch your boring awards show Oscar producers.
Best Unexpected Showstopper: Wirewalker Philippe Petit, the absolutely entertaining subject of documentary Man on Wire, balancing an Oscar on his chin while a billion people watched and wondered if it would fall. But for a man who once spent 45 minutes walking between the Twin Towers, well, that's probably no big deal. I had no idea who this guy was before last night but rest assured I will be watching his documentary now!
Action Movie Montage: Most of the night I was sitting there going, "Haven't seen it. Haven't seen it. Haven't seen that one either." That was until they got to the montage of movies that people have seen which was a very nicely put together series of action scenes from all the movies that actually made some money at the box office last year. I laughed harder than I should have when Will Smith said something about how he liked to be in movies that there were actually fans for. Too true, Will. If more actors thought like him there might be more entertaining movies in Hollywood these days.
The Credits: While they were running the credits for the show they gave previews of movies that would be coming out this year and I must admit I think that was the best part of the show because a lot of those I hadn't even heard they were making. But what's up with not having a Transformers 2 trailer in there!? Lame. =P
The Bad:
Bizarre Random Musical Numbers: I'm all for giving homage to musicals, I really am, but when you have Hugh Jackman with Beyoncé, Zac Efron and the rest of the cast from High School Musical 3, sorry but I'm just not going to take your singing ability that seriously. This is not including the numbers who were up for best song, two songs from Slumdog and one from Wall-E. Those were actually very nice numbers and I'm glad Slumdog won for song and musical score because I think it did deserve that at least.
The super long and boring awards for best supporting/best actor/actress: It took what must have been at least an hour just to give out these four awards alone! Even though Kate Winslit's shout out to her Dad when she won for best actress was pretty funny, I think I fell asleep just waiting for the presenters to say the nominees names during these awards.
Slumdog Millionaire winning for best director, cinematography and editing: I tend to think any movie that's filmed with a steady cam the entire movie doesn't deserve to win for anything because, to me anyway, it's just lazy film making. Slumdog was better than most with the steady cam, at least it didn't make me motion sick, but to say it was the best cinematography is a real punch in the stomach to all those directors who set up their shots so to give the most emotional impact while Danny Boyle just shoves the camera in his actors faces and up their noses and calls it art.
Overall it wasn't a bad show really. It went on longer then it needed to, and Hollywood still hasn't figured out if you want people to watch the Oscars you need to actually nominate movies people have seen, but it could have been a whole lot worse. There was a lot less 'let’s pat ourselves on the back because we're so beautiful and awesome' than there usually is considering it was a Hollywood party. Don't worry though because when I win best original screenplay for the horror movie I'm writing, Even More Snakes on a Plane, I'll be sure to mention all you all in my acceptance speech. ;P Till later then!
Good:
Hugh Jackman: I really like the guy, even if he isn't the best actor in the world, or the best singer, at least he's easy on the eyes and seems to have a sense of humor about his job. I'm still waiting for X-Men the Musical there Hugh.
Ben Stiller: I don't even like Ben Stiller but his impression of crazy mountain man Joaquin Phoenix was full of win! I love Joaquin Phoenix to death, but even I'll admit he's pretty wacked right now what with the beard and the glasses and wanting to be rapper. Not everyone watching may have gotten the joke, but I sure as hell did. XD
Queen Latifah: Her singing during the powerpoint presentation of all the people in film that had died this past year I thought was quite moving and beautiful.
Best Twilight Crossover: Rob Pattinson brought that sparkling undead charm of his to the Oscars by glaring at the audience the entire time. Seriously, someone needs to tell him he doesn't have to be in the character of Edward all of the time! Good try to get the younger crowd to watch your boring awards show Oscar producers.
Best Unexpected Showstopper: Wirewalker Philippe Petit, the absolutely entertaining subject of documentary Man on Wire, balancing an Oscar on his chin while a billion people watched and wondered if it would fall. But for a man who once spent 45 minutes walking between the Twin Towers, well, that's probably no big deal. I had no idea who this guy was before last night but rest assured I will be watching his documentary now!
Action Movie Montage: Most of the night I was sitting there going, "Haven't seen it. Haven't seen it. Haven't seen that one either." That was until they got to the montage of movies that people have seen which was a very nicely put together series of action scenes from all the movies that actually made some money at the box office last year. I laughed harder than I should have when Will Smith said something about how he liked to be in movies that there were actually fans for. Too true, Will. If more actors thought like him there might be more entertaining movies in Hollywood these days.
The Credits: While they were running the credits for the show they gave previews of movies that would be coming out this year and I must admit I think that was the best part of the show because a lot of those I hadn't even heard they were making. But what's up with not having a Transformers 2 trailer in there!? Lame. =P
The Bad:
Bizarre Random Musical Numbers: I'm all for giving homage to musicals, I really am, but when you have Hugh Jackman with Beyoncé, Zac Efron and the rest of the cast from High School Musical 3, sorry but I'm just not going to take your singing ability that seriously. This is not including the numbers who were up for best song, two songs from Slumdog and one from Wall-E. Those were actually very nice numbers and I'm glad Slumdog won for song and musical score because I think it did deserve that at least.
The super long and boring awards for best supporting/best actor/actress: It took what must have been at least an hour just to give out these four awards alone! Even though Kate Winslit's shout out to her Dad when she won for best actress was pretty funny, I think I fell asleep just waiting for the presenters to say the nominees names during these awards.
Slumdog Millionaire winning for best director, cinematography and editing: I tend to think any movie that's filmed with a steady cam the entire movie doesn't deserve to win for anything because, to me anyway, it's just lazy film making. Slumdog was better than most with the steady cam, at least it didn't make me motion sick, but to say it was the best cinematography is a real punch in the stomach to all those directors who set up their shots so to give the most emotional impact while Danny Boyle just shoves the camera in his actors faces and up their noses and calls it art.
Overall it wasn't a bad show really. It went on longer then it needed to, and Hollywood still hasn't figured out if you want people to watch the Oscars you need to actually nominate movies people have seen, but it could have been a whole lot worse. There was a lot less 'let’s pat ourselves on the back because we're so beautiful and awesome' than there usually is considering it was a Hollywood party. Don't worry though because when I win best original screenplay for the horror movie I'm writing, Even More Snakes on a Plane, I'll be sure to mention all you all in my acceptance speech. ;P Till later then!