Oscars Recap

Well, I batted an even .500 for my Oscar picks, but my second place pick for Leading Actress pulled through. I was incredibly surprised to see Tom Hooper win for Best Director, especially after many thought Christopher Nolan to be the greatest directing snub of the past decade. Most thought for sure Aronofsky would finally win. As far as Best Picture, most people made a pick of The Social Network because the film that wins Best Screenplay and Best Editing, whether it be Adapted or Original Screenplay, has only lost Best Picture 3 times. After Aaron Sorkin predictably won (which I predicted, but not officially), it became even more apparent that The Social Network would win. The King's Speech winning was an incredible shock even though it was a favorite to win recently. I still think Toy Story 3 was the best movie out of the 10 nominees, but there is no way the Academy would let an animated movie win Best Picture, even though Beauty and the Beast came dangerously close to doing so.

Here are the big things that stood out to me:

• James Franco was either high or disinterested in the entire event, despite the fact he was clearly the runner-up for Best Actor.
• Anne Hathaway's little "We're not worthy" bow to Billy Crystal was uncalled for. Crystal has never been known for being a good actor and to have an Oscar nominated actress appreciate an inferior actor as superior is ridiculous.
• Melissa Leo's F-Bomb was muted on the West Coast, despite claims from ABC that the event was "live". I'll have to do more research on if the East Coast gets a straight feed and how many seconds a delay the West Coast gets. It's really sad how it seems every live event these days is aired on a 5 second delay just because of Janet Jackson's nipple.
• Christian Bale acknowledging his Terminator: Salvation rant was hilarious and makes me love him even more. I only wish that he could have given a line like "Batman got himself an Oscar!"
• Natalie Portman's acceptance speech was allowed to go on WAY too long and she thanked far too many people, but I was glad to hear her thank the director of Leon (The Professional) for giving her-her first acting role. She's come a long way since then, but has always been extremely talented.
• My favorite acceptance speech has to be from the guy who won Best Short Film. It was short, sweet, self-deprecating, and he managed to thank the most important person.
• Nobody thanked God. THANK GOD FOR THAT LOL! I absolutely hate it when people thank God for winning a stupid award. Thank God for giving you the opportunity of life, not for your talent.
• The Academy gave Inception a sweep in the technical awards, winning Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Cinematography. So why wasn't Nolan nominated for Best Director again? An incredible and undeserved snub. At least the Academy recognizes Inception for being the greatest technical achievement since The Matrix.
• The auto-tuned segment was ironically funny. Almost every year since Chicago, some stupid musical gets nominated in some way and gets recognition at the Oscars (like Nine last year *shudder*). I say stupid because no musical made today will ever compare to the classics; once The Sound of Music hit, the musical reached its peak.
• The funniest segment was definitely Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law presenting the award for Best Film Editing. The punchline had fantastic build-up while acknowledging Robert Downey Jr.'s previous problems with the law, and showcasing Downey and Law's incredible chemistry together.
• Unrelated to the Oscars, but will the ads for The Dark Knight Returns now feature ads like Oscar Bait movies do? You know the type, STARRING: Academy Award Winner Christian Bale, Academy Award Nominee Anne Hathaway, Academy Award Winner Michael Caine, Academy Award Winner Morgan Freeman. It will be interesting to see what happens!

All-in-all, the show was pretty predictable and not enjoyable. I'm glad I recorded it and watched the Knicks beat the Heat instead.