Oscar turned 80 this year! I only wish his party could have been a little more exciting, but then the Oscars are always somewhat exciting even if the show itself could have used a bit more zip. I love the Oscar ceremony and look forward to it every year, but sorry, Jon Stewart just doesn't do it for me as a host. He's spectacularly unfunny (with a few exceptions), has zero charisma, charm or edge, and is just plain boring. Somehow he just didn't manage to make the ceremony seem special. I enjoyed the retrospectives of 79 years of Best Picture winners plus clips of the previous winners of the acting categories, but the musical numbers for Best Song nominees were outright pathetic. Hard to believe such drivel was selected while Eddie Vedder's exciting songs from "Into the Wild" were completely ignored by the Academy. Politics as usual.
The winners of the acting categories were all worthy for a change, with the possible exception of Tilda Swinton as Best Supporting Actress for "Michael Clayton". She was good in the movie, but I would have preferred to see Amy Ryan ("Gone Baby Gone"), Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There") or Ruby Dee ("American Gangster") take home the gold. What a thrill to see the deserving French actress Marion Cotillard score as Best Actress for her incredible performance as Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose", and charming Javier Bardem's acceptance speech (for Best Supporting Actor) was my favorite of the night. Glad that the fabulously weird Cohen brothers scored Hollywood's biggest prize with their Best Picture win for "No Country for Old Men" (along with their writing award). All in all, a pretty good night for Oscar.
Things to love about this Oscar show: Helen Mirren "knighting" Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis with his Oscar; Marion Cotillard's uninhibited joy as she picked up her Best Actress trophy
Things to hate about this Oscar show: Jon Stewart as host (PLEASE choose another host next year);uninspired musical numbers (kudos to brave Amy Adams for doing a good job with "Happy Working Song" all alone on stage); rushing winners through acceptance speeches (as usual); pregnant actress jokes (and pregnant actresses for that matter-- I'm so sick of it); seeing young Heath Ledger in the tribute to entertainment figures who have passed on
Pleasant surprises: Bringing back Best Song co-winner Marketa Irglova for a touching acceptance speech after she was prematurely played off by that annoying kiss-off music
Unpleasant surprises: "The Bourne Ultimatum" a winner for Best Editing???? Yikes.
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