83rd Annual Academy Awards - Random Thoughts

From time to time I like to use my "1001 Movies I (Apparently) Must See" blog to talk about other goings on in the world of film. Since I did it last year, I figured I'd post a quick write-up about this year's Oscars, which have just concluded.

THE OSCARCAST

If you're a follower of Roger Ebert on Twitter, you may have seen the following tweet that he tweeted a mere moments ago:

"The worst Oscarcast I've seen, and I go back awhile. Some great winners, a nice distribution of awards, but the show? Dead. In. The. Water."

I could not agree more. Anne Hathaway and James Franco (and especially Franco) just did a horrible job as hosts for the Oscars this year. At least I can give Hathaway a little credit for the effort, but Franco just seemed like he'd rather be longing back in one of the seats of the Kodak Theatre and being a nominee instead of a host. In fact, much of the show just ran flat, with a lot of unenthusiastic appearances. When the 94 year old Kirk Douglas is the first one onstage getting laughs, then you know you're in trouble. I was almost hoping that someone like Kevin Spacey, Billy Crystal or the combination of Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. would just kick Hath' and Franco off the stage and take over the hosting duties.

Also, I realize that the Best Director, Lead Actor, Lead Actress and Picture awards hold the most interest, but those need to be spread out a little more. I mean, I admire costumes, music and set design in films as much as any avid film goer, but the whole middle portion of the awards always seems slow and I'm sure there aren't that many people out there who care to hear technical guys thanking their wives and kids.

And another thing - there are way too many people appearing onstage. When you have to have host Anne Hathaway introduce Hilary Swank, so that she can introduce Kathryn Bigelow, so that she can present the award for "Best Director"...that's just too many people. What's the host for, if not to introduce the presenters. Let's cut out the middle man (or middle woman), quit harping about the show going long and get this thing rolling!

THE REST OF MY THOUGHTS

Anyway, it was nice to see some people that I enjoy walk off with Oscars tonight. Glad to see Christian Bale finally get that "OSCAR Winner" title before his name, as well as Natalie Portman. Eventhough he didn't win it was super cool to see "The Dude" Jeff Bridges get nominated for the second year in a row...here's to three! It seems as though this is only Tom Hooper's second feature film, so hopefully we see the rise of a new great director.

FYI - Out of the films nominated for major awards tonight, I've only seen: "Inception", "Toy Story 3" and "The Social Network"...Yeah I don't get out to the theatre that often. So much like last year I really have no business talking about my approval or disapproval of the nominees or the winners. I will be talking more in depth about the three films that I HAVE seen in the upcoming "February Recap" post, but if I had to choose a winner out of those three, I'd probably go with "The Social Network".

As for the rest of the movies, I'm very much interested in seeing: True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, Rabbit Hole, Biutiful, Another Year and I guess, since it won Best Picture, The King's Speech.

Well that does it for yet another year of Oscars. I highly doubt that I'm going to bang out another 780 movies in the next year, which means I'll still be chugging along at this blog when the 84th Academy Awards are on the air and I'll probably be right back here talking about them again. Maybe next year I'll be more prepared...as far as what I've seen and haven't seen among the noms.

February 28, 2011 12:20am