Okay, be prepared for a long entry. First of all, I won the Oscar picks this year 7 to 5 (Marisa won last year). My picks that won were Best Supporting Actress (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Best Animated Feature (Spirited Away), Best Costume Design (Chicago), Best Documentary Feature (Bowling For Columbine), Best Makeup (Frida), Best Sound Editing (LOTR), and Best Visual Effects (LOTR). Marisa’s picks that won were the last four of mine plus Best Original Score (Frida). I tried to set up a spreadsheet to grid all this, but Xanga won’t accept it so you’ll just have to find the winners on your own.
I wish they’d done a better montage of the previous Best Picture winners. The bubbles were confusing and dizzying, and most of them didn’t stay around long enough for me to figure out what the movie was (And was it just me, or was that quote from A Beautiful Mind not actually in the movie?). I would’ve preferred it being like the montage they did five years ago (Yeah, I’m pathetic. I tape the things, and that’s how I remember all this).
I’m not a big fan of Steve Martin’s hosting style, at least not the kind of hosting he did the first time around. I remember him jokingly accusing Tom Hanks of stalking Russell Crowe, and neither one of them looked amused. Last night he actually started out funny, but quickly went downhill. Occasionally, a joke would work (such as saying hi to the three guys at Circuit City watching the awards in HDTV), but most of the time they were simply not funny or downright tasteless (such as making really bad jokes about Mickey Rooney and the memorial tribute; speaking of which, does anyone know what movie that music is from-as well as the music used during the montage about the actors’ reactions when they won their Oscars?). He’s still better than David Letterman, but I miss Whoopi Goldberg.
There were some bits that I rather liked, such as the montage of clips from all the previous acting winners, though I wish I knew who half of them were. I also really liked the “Oscar’s Family Album” reprise, and noted that there were a lot of different people there this time. You have to wonder where they were the first time around (except for those who hadn’t won yet, of course), and where those missing this time around were. Hey, I didn’t know Louise Rainer (who’s 93 or somewhere around there) and Olivia de Havilland were still alive.
And then there were other bits. First of all, why did they get rid of the traditional clips of the actors in their movies while the nominees were being read? If it was to save time so that they could show stuff like Jennifer Garner presenting with Mickey Mouse, that producer needs to be fired. Now. Also, if I were to list things that were not meant to be computer-animated, Mickey Mouse would be somewhere near the top. Then again, I didn’t understand Sean Connery’s ruffled shirt, either.
I was pleasantly surprised that Spirited Away won Best Animated Feature, but I do disagree with Chicago’s win for Best Sound, because, well, it wasn’t. The dubbing was very obvious, and the volume level fluctuated a lot. I was very happy that Michael Moore won, although it’ll give the Academy a few headaches (They don’t like it when people give political speeches, although it happens almost every year. But why was Michael Moore the only one who got booed? All the others who voiced the same opinion got unanimous applause). However, that wasn’t nearly as entertaining as Adrien Brody’s passionate kiss to Halle Berry. Or the look on Harrison Ford’s face that clearly read “awkward moment” after he announced that Roman Polanski won Best Director. (Speaking of which, I still think a lot of people are being unfair to James Cameron over his “I’m the king of the world” acceptance speech five years ago. He was quoting Titanic, not trying to be conceited. Sorry. I’m not a big James Cameron fan or anything like that. It just gets on my nerves when people draw negative conclusions without having the most obvious piece of information). Like I said, although I rooted for LOTR, I was not upset when Chicago won (although I was a bit sick of hearing “All That Jazz” over and over and over), just as I wasn’t upset last year when A Beautiful Mind won. If the movie you’re rooting for loses the Best Picture Oscar, it’s a surprisingly effective consolation when it loses to another good movie (Hey, The Shawshank Redemption lost to Forrest Gump). However, there are times when I just don’t understand the Academy. Gladiator is the first thing that comes to mind. I understand Russell Crowe as Best Actor, but the movie definitely did not deserve Best Picture, especially when compared to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I didn’t see the other 3 nominees, so I can’t vouch for them). I saw both of those movies. Crouching Tiger was good. Gladiator was okay. Just okay. Not a bad movie, but certainly not Best Picture-quality. There’s really nothing original about it, and I couldn’t get myself to care about the characters all that much. The score was good, though. But that was two years ago, so I digress. I’m satisfied with Chicago, and LOTR still has one chance left (and from what I hear, it’s a pretty good chance).
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