Amazing. Simply amazing. That’s what I thought of the Oscar ceremonies held earlier tonight up the street at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. So much was done completely right, and only a few things didn’t work very well. It was a very different show than in previous years, but refreshingly so.
BEST LINE OF THE NIGHT: “And now ladies and gentlemen, the Craigslist Dancers!”
I guess I’ll start off with Hugh Jackman as the Oscar host. I’ll be honest with you, I was really hoping to see him in the Wolverine outfit at some point and that didn’t happen. That being said, I was SO HAPPY to see an actual MOVIE STAR hosting the Oscars this year instead of some television personality. That’s been an issue of mine for a few years now. Call me crazy, but I think a night commemorating and celebrating the best of the year in the MOVIE business… should be hosted by someone IN the movie business. Hugh Jackman fit that description, and was a fantastic host for the show. I’ll go as far as to say it was the best job done by a host since Steve Martin did it. He was fantastic. I hope he returns next year.
I LOVED the way they presented the acting awards. Having 5 previous winners come out to name and honor the nominees was a brilliant idea and I thought made those categories very special. I was hoping they were going to do the same thing for the Best Director award as well. I hope this is a tradition they continue in the future for the show. It was also very symbolic having 5 performers who are already immortalized welcoming in the newest member making the ascension. Beautiful.
The one major misstep I think the show made was with the top hat musical number with Jackman and Beyonce. I can understand why they did it… and I thought it was a good idea… but it just didn’t work. It felt a little clumsy and lacked spark or any sense of excitement. Instead I just kept waiting for it to end so we could move on. Other than that I have no real complaints.
The 3 most obvious locks of the evening (Ledger for Best Supporting Actor, Man On Wire for Best Documentary and Wall-E for best animated) all won their respective categories. So really… besides Departures winning best foreign film over Waltz with Bashir, there were no real BIG surprises… which is fine.
I think most people knew Slumdog was going to be the big winner on the night. 8 Oscars was a wonderful evening. By the time it came down to Best Picture there was no more drama left… we all knew it was going to win. Well deserved win for a beautiful film.
Some people seem surprised that Mikey Rourke didn’t win Best Actor. I’m not sure why. He did indeed give an Oscar worthy performance in The Wrestler… but clearly (in my opinion anyway) not AS Oscar worthy as Sean Penn in Milk (which I contend is the best performance Penn has ever given. It was such a strong and wonderful group of nominees for Best Actor. You wouldn’t have heard me complain had any of them won. It was nice to see Richard Jenkins getting the recognition he so well deserves too!
I think there would have been riots in the streets if Heath Ledger didn’t win. He did deserve it and it was a nice touch that his family accepted the awards on his behalf.
Thank goodness they cut the “Best Song” nominees down to just the one medley. I’ve always hated that so much of the Oscar screen time got dedicated to one of the least important categories of the evening.
Less montages! Yay!
Once again the “In Memoriam” part of the Awards were very special. However I didn’t like how the director of the show kept pulling the cameras away from the screen so that I couldn’t really tell who was up on the screen or read their names properly. I wish they just kept it on the screen the whole time. Other than that it was well done.
The show felt like it had a really nice pace unlike some in recent years.
So that does it. Sorry… but the Oscar Party here at the house was a little too lively to do a Post-Oscar Podcast.
Viva the 2009 Oscar show. I loved it. Here’s hoping next year’s goes just a smoothly and is just as entertaining… just no more top hat song and dance numbers please.
