Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
Well, the 83rd Annual Academy Awards are officially behind us and as normal with the awards, there were virtually zero surprises. The Oscars are typically a “whatever is hot right now” award show and THE KING’S SPEECH peeked right at the perfect moment. It’s frustrating because I liked it when I saw it in December, but all of this hype makes me kind of sick of it at this point. Keeping with Flix66 tradition, let’s recap the night’s events and give our own wrap up to the 2010 movies.
This is the first year that Oscar went “young” with the hosts and chose two non-comedians in James Franco and Anne Hathaway. I thought they hired them to be hosts in order to attract a younger audience and to keep the show hip and fast paced, but after watching them host, it was clear that they hired them to do commercials for the show. I can’t remember a time watching the Oscars that the show has taken it so far out of the hands of the host(s) than this year. They really had little to nothing to say and even the opening bit was overly short. They didn’t have much of a monologue and aside from Anne’s quick number halfway through, they didn’t really put on a show. As for their actual performance, I thought Anne Hathaway was surprisingly good while Franco looked like he was stoned the entire show. For a guy full of emotion and spunk, he looked like he was sleepwalking through the entire thing. Overall, having them up there was awkward and a little boring, at least when compared to last year’s duo of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.
This year was also one of the most boring as far as speeches go. The closest thing we had to controversy was Melissa Leo dropping an F-bomb on the audience for no apparent reason. Poor Leo, after her embarrassing self-promotion for the award, she goes up there and reminds the world she’s white trash. I think everyone in Hollywood lost what little respect they had for her. Everyone else gave the typical thank-you-everyone acceptance speech and shied away from controversy. It should be noted that I did like Randy Newman’s quick speech, even though he didn’t really say anything. The presenters kept it pretty tight as well, although I did enjoy Sandra Bullock’s presentation of Best Actor. She seemed calm and comfortable up there when compared to some of her peers.
As for the winners, there were zero surprises. I think we can make the argument that Tom Hooper winning for THE KING’S SPEECH instead of DAVID FINCHER for THE SOCIAL NETWORK was a bit of an upset, but Speech won Best Picture and those awards are usually tied together. But when I say there were no surprises, that’s not to say there weren’t any disappointments. I think every award INCEPTION didn’t get is a disappointment, but it was a real travesty it didn’t get Best Original Screenplay. I always think of that award as the film the Academy wishes they had the guts to name Best Picture, so I was hoping to hang my hat on that win for Nolan.
Overall, I felt the ceremony was boring. It’s the Oscars, so I get excited no matter what, but I think they really messed up with the hosts. I like the opening numbers and witty jokes that guys like Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and even Hugh Jackman sprinkle throughout. Let’s hope one of them can make a comeback next year.