The Oscars have come and gone, marking the end of award season ( I feel like it just started. Wah!). This year the academy decided to listen to its criticism and go younger, starting with having Seth McFarlane host the show. This was a bit daring because Seth, mostly known for his tv show, Family Guy and most recently the movie, Ted is an equal opportunity offender. Producers for the Oscars this year were Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who are Broadway producers also. Add that fact, McFarlane’s love of showtunes and a “Music in Film” theme and we were bound to have a night with a lot of song and dance.
I quite liked McFarlane’s opening monologue, it made me laugh. 5 seconds in, Ron Jeremy’s name had already been mentioned and you just knew that it wasn’t going to be your grandmother’s show. Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron had a pretty little dance number, Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt also had a little song and dance ditty. McFarlane broke into a “We saw your boobs” song, poking fun at actresses who had bared their chest in various movies over the years. I didn’t have a problem with it till this morning when I found out a few of the scenes mentioned were rape scenes and I cringed a bit. The “Flight” sock bit had me laughing, I was meh about William Shatner, there was a bit more song – yes, it did go on for too long a bit and then we were off to the first award.
Christoph Waltz won the first acting award and all went well and most zoned out as the technical categories and the quirky winners came up to the podium to receive their prizes. I have to say the jokes for the presenters this year were pretty terrible and ended up making most of them awkward. In between that, we had the musical tributes that I was not looking forward to. Shirley Bassey, did a number in honor of the Bond anniversary and while it was good, I honestly didn’t/don’t have any [nostalgic] connection to her so it just…was. Adele, did her song for Skyfall which was good but the Adele we know and love can do better. The movie musicals tribute was reduced to just Chicago, Dreamgirls and Les Miserables – which I totally did not understand. Where was Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge, Mary Poppins? etc. Anyways, Zeta-Jones lipsynched her way through, Jennifer Hudson showed us her talent and Les Miserables managed to give me a headache. I have to also give kudos to Barbra Streisand, who sang “The way we were” for the In Memoriam segment. I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised.
The biggest surprise came when Ang Lee won for Best Directing for “Life of Pi”. Jennifer Lawrence took a tumble down the stairs while going up to receive her statuette for Best Actress, Daniel Day Lewis gave a funny speech for his Best Actor win, Ben Affleck gave a moving and touching speech with tears in his eyes for Best Picture “Argo” which was announced by surprise guest, Michelle Obama. The show ended with yet another (unnecessary) musical number by Kristin Chenoweth and Seth McFarlane. Overall, I thought it was an enjoyable show. It did drag out longer than it should have but I almost consider it tradition now, it’s not the Oscars if it doesn’t run over. Did you watch it? What did you think?