I've talked enough about Oscar-nominated movies lately that I figure I have to dedicate a little space to the ceremony itself.
I was psyched in advance to see Jon Stewart hosting, and I thought he delivered. The whole "I don't expect to ever be asked to do this again" vibe worked well for him, and he and his joke staff from The Daily Show did a great job. It would be nice if he was indeed asked to host again.
The opening short film about all the other past hosts turning down the hosting gig was probably the funniest material of the night.
The "gay cowboy" clip montage was pretty good, but The Colbert Report tipped the joke a little early, presenting one of those particular clips on their Thursday night show.
Kinda sad to be Nicole Kidman, first to present after Jon Stewart's "presenters appear in order of talent" joke.
Helena Bonham Carter, married to Tim Burton, and thus obligated to hope Corpse Bride pulls an upset and wins Best Animated Feature... yet she provided a voice in Wallace & Gromit, one piece of the whole that made it clearly the film to beat.
What award show would be complete without the obligatory "award presented by animated characters" segment?
Will Ferrell -- sometimes I think he's great, sometimes I think he's as annoying as it can possibly get. But paired with Steve Carell tonight, it was definitely the former.
AAAAH! These creepy makeup morphs are really disturbing!
Ha! Hard to make Russell Crowe look like he's been in a fight. How long had the writers been saving up that line?
Now I just feel bad and embarrassed for Lauren Bacall. Couldn't someone have moved a teleprompter closer for her?
The people making up the presenter pairings thought a Speed reunion with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves would be a good idea.
Why, oh why, oh why, in the montage about "films with a powerful message," are we getting a clip from The Day After Tomorrow? As a message piece about global warming, that film was about as deep as an episode of The Simple Life.
But the "epics" montage was even worse. Mary Poppins was an "epic?" Back to the Future (much as I like it)? Speed?
Somewhere right this moment, dozens -- maybe hundreds -- of studio execs are trying to find a new movie in which to pair Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep. And why not? They were freakin' funny.
Ah yes, "Short Cuts," the most ironically named film in all cinema history.
From this day forward, the words "pimp" and "Oscar" will have an association. Wow.
Will Smith gets to walk out to music from Men in Black. Of course, now with the whole "pimp" thing, the Oscars can't really claim to be highbrow and elite anymore.
The whole time Reese Witherspoon gave her acceptance speech, the director of the TV broadcast is just itching, waiting, dying for her to forget to thank her husband Ryan Philippe. Because they showed him almost as much as they showed her.
Ang Lee apparently did not learn from James Cameron that the one thing you do not do when accepting your award is quote your own movie.
Jack Nicholson looked even more completely drunk than he usually does at these award shows. And thus could make no effort to hide his shock that Crash won Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain.
Play me out, Bill Conti... I have nothing more to say.
7 comments:
I thought there were more embarrassing moments in this telecast than the previous several years combined. Stewart's monologue was a complete bomb and you could tell that he knew it. And how many times did he say "..I really don't have a joke for that"?
A rap song winning best song?
I laughed at the Ben Stiller gag, although Spielberg snuck in the funniest, lip-read line. Farrell and Carell were just stupid.
Even the montage "In Memoriam" was lame and flat.
All in all, an awful year for the movies.
Reeves and Bullock are doing a new movie together, it wasn't just a Speed homage. I liked it when Jennifer Garner said, "I do my own stunts" after nearly tripping. The Robert Altman intro and his speech were terrific. I'm happy just to see Salma Hayek again. I thought it was pretty good, and Stewart did fine.
I thought Jon Stewart was best playing off things that happened that night - though the Bjork joke was hilarious... if you knew the reference.
I appreciated that the audience actually got into Dolly Parton's song and clapped along. That was something you don't expect to see at the Oscars.
The fake-political ads were good. I especially like the line about the Dame throwing up.
Yeah, the "In Memoriam" was lame - I think this is the first time in years they didn't use actors talking in it.
Overall... it was better than last year. At least the minor award nominees didn't have to stand akwardly on stage. I was also happy for it to end at a reasonable hour (11:28 EST) and not drag on for four hours.
The non-obit montages were unnecessary. Stewart's jab at them was spot-on.
Funny that make-up would be parodied in the coming age of Hi-Def domination. HDTV will force make-up artists back to the drawing board.
The negative campaign ads were at least cute. I can't say they were outright hilarious.
I think the "gay cowboy montage" will put an end to the Brokeback meme. At least they ended it with a shirtless Heston with Peck.
It was nice to see Whacky Tom Hanks again, if only briefly. And it was nice to see George Clooney play along with just about any joke.
I don't have a lot to add to this. Other than his opening monologue, I thought Stewart did a good job. I wouldn't say he was amazing, I was about as amused by Chris Rock last year. The pre-filmed stuff (opening scene, campiagn ads, the heterosexual cowboy movies) was very good though.
I was happy to see Wallace and Gromit win, but I imagine it was becaue that movie got more exposure and Miyazaki has already won an Oscar.
The montages were awful. Aside from it being fun to name every movie, they were unnecessary. Evan is totally spot on about movies like The Day After Tomorrow and Speed being out of place. And the in memoriam one didn't seem as well done as previous years. And I remember thinking that they forgot someone, though now I can't remember who.
I felt so sorry for... the make-up award winner I think it was when a guy and a woman went up and the guy talked so long and when the woman finally went to the microphone they cut the mic.
It's a shame the live performance of "It's hard out here for a pimp" was so poor. I think the song deserved to win, but just judging from the perfomances at the Oscars, it was the worst of the three.
I liked the Tomlin and Streep bit and it was cute to have them do it in the dialogue style of an Altman film, but it went on too long.
I found it amusing that Reese took her moment to say everything she possibly could. After all, it's not like she'll be up there again.
And Nicholson (among others who were on stage) did look totally drunk and the way he delivered Crash as the winner was priceless. It was obviously not what he was expecting and so he sort of slid the word in there.
I guess I would agree that Stewart's monologue wasn't as good as the "prepared material" and the "quick quips" throughout the show. But I still thought that overall, he was a great host.
After the show Nicholson said he was shocked that 'Crash' won - he, himself, voted for 'Brokeback Mountain'... however, the best part of Jack's night was his "hitting on" Nicole Kidman before the ceremony began. Same ol' Jack!
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