THE 2011 CHUD.com Academy Awards MASTER DISCUSSION - Page 3

I thought the show was ok overall, dragging in places and interesting in others.  I enjoyed Anne Hathaway and wondered about halfway through the show why Franco was even there.  Anne seemed to really be having a good time while Franco just looked bored.  No real surprises in the winners categories but I did like Christian Bale's speech, Colin Firth (always a class act) and Natalie Portman.  Melissa Leo brought a little trailer home to the show, and wow, Kirk Douglas. 

Someone said earlier in a few months they won't remember who won what...that's basically true, but hey, hope the winners will have a little time to sit still and enjoy their accolades.

 

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 "Thelma is cooked."

Aside from the opening riff on Inception, Franco seemed to have precious little to do.  I was actually surprised by how little material both of the hosts had.  Even Anne Hathaway, with her brief song and dance piece, was reduced to simply introducing some of the presenters with as much enthusiasm as she could muster (as someone else said, her whole presence appeared to boil down to "OH WOW I'M HOSTING THE OSCARS AND I'M SO HUMBLED!), never really bringing any perspective on the hosting gig.  I'll grant that she wasn't as bizarrely spaced-out as Franco seemed to be, though.

 

There were a few good moments (The Best Picture reel with Firth's omnipresent speech, Leo and Bale putting some energy into their acceptance speeches), but otherwise everything felt very standard and uneventful this year.  I would have preferred some more half-decent material like last year than nothing at all.

 

EDIT:

 

This article does an acceptable job of highlighting the disappointments with Franco and Hathaway:

 

http://oscars.movies.yahoo.com/blog/111-franco-hathaway-pairing-disappoints-at-oscars?nc

 

I like the interpretation that Franco seemed to be the one who doesn't really care about whether or not he's accepted into the "Academy family" with his peers, whereas Hathaway, in stark contrast, appeared to want to be as accepted as possible with her bubbly, humbled act.

I did Anne Hathaway did as well as she could under the circumstance, and personally I like her performance as a hostess of the Academy Award. She also had to carry the show on her shoulders, since her co-host James Franco probably gave the worst Oscar hosting gig in the history of the Academy Awards. Even David Letterman wasn't as awful as Franco. Franco should've taken a brief leave of absence from his duty as the student of Yale to concentrate fully on Oscar, and his fatigue and disinterest shown. Unfortunately, I think the producers will probably not give the hosting responsible to another young actor in Hollywood for years to come.

 

Hathaway was considerably better than Franco to be sure, but her bubbly, humbled act became grating fast.  I grant that the material she was given is partially at fault here, but if her appeal to the "younger demographic" meant looking like a fangirl and waxing poetic whenever she was introducing a presenter without introducing any unique perspective of her own, it just did not work.  Aside from her scant material, all she did was look happy and gush whenever some of the stars walked on the stage.

 

Well, Anne Hathaway did have to absorb Kirk Douglas' creepy/sad flirting oncamera. That alone cuts her paycheck.

 

Random thought: GASLAND had me at that short clip where the guy sets his kitchen sink on fire.

I'm happy that Inside Job won for Best Documentary, but Banksy's acceptance -- had he gone gold -- was the only chance the Oscars had to throw a real curveball.  Otherwise, it was all fairly standard, which I suppose should not come as much as a surprise given how many pre-ceremony locks were already pretty firmly in place.

I did love how every time Inception won or lost an award, 1, the winners made a point of praising Chris Nolan more than necessary, and 2, they would cut to Chris Nolan shortly after, looking absolutely PISSED.

I mostly agree with you, and if it was up to me, I would have given the statue to either Fincher or Aronofsky.  I just thought the comparison warranted mention, because both Social Network and King's Speech took subject matter inherently disinteresting to me and made great flicks of it.  What truly impressed me about King's Speech wasn't that it was well made, but HOW it was well made.  Hooper seemed to shun the standard Masterpiece Theater route of Royal British Dramas.  But yeah, the two films are definitely different beasts.  I wonder if Fincher being borderline too-modest about the film recently hurt his chances?
 

For the awards themselves:  mostly happy with the winners, despite them being pre-ordained.  I think the era of That One Surprise Major Award (your Adrian Brody, your Marcia Gay Harden) is kind of over, unfortunately.  Part of the blame is the SAG Awards have basically telegraphed all the acting awards and robbed them of any drama or emotion as these folks essentially make the same speech six or seven times before they even get to the Oscars.  Remember back when there were more than two credible winners in a category? 

 

As for the telecast itself, I don't think we're going to see duel co-hosts again.  It sure didn't work last night, and it didn't quite gel with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, either.  I'll bet the Academy folks are talking with Conan O'Brien this week about clearing his schedule next February. 

 

I still think it's possible that (provided Harry Potter 7 pt 2 doesn't totally suck), you'll see a clean sweep next year. The Oscars goes Populist every few years, and I'd argue there hasn't been a proper Blockbuster winner since Lord of the Rings in 2003. (I know Slumdog did good business, but that's a pretty Indie film at heart that just got lucky)

 

Edit: I guess Departed should count too, so 2006. Point is there hasn't been a populist winner for a few years, I think we're overdue and I'm betting Harry Potter is going to fill the void.

Mostly, I just think it's a goddamn shame they're never inviting Jon Stewart back.

It is kind of amazing that the Academy and the audience is soo goddamn humorless about people like Jon Stewart and Ricky Gervais coming into their little self-congratulatory party and throwing a few bombs.

 Agreed.   I thought he killed both times he hosted.  Is it common knowledge that he's no longer invited back?  I hadn't heard that. 

 

They will definitely go with a single comic host again next year.  Conan seems like the next likely pick to me.   Either that, or I can see them letting Tom Hanks go solo; he can do both goofy comedic and emotional/sincere. 

Stewart hosted the Oscars twice?  I thought it was only once.  Goes to show just how memorable these award shows are in general.

Seriously and this years was one of the more self congratulatory circle jerks they've had for a while which my god is saying something. 

 

What a bizarre midlife crisis of an oscars this was, desperately trying to court 'teh kids' while still making all the same old pandering safe grandpa mistakes they always do, this ceremony didn't know what it wanted to be.

 

Besides seeing Rick Baker win again and Trent fuckin Reznor become someone that will now have "Academy Award Winner..." mentioned in front of his name, what a crushingly dull, safe and predictable set of winners we got here. I liked Grizzly Bales acceptance speech, probably best of the night, but I still think Hawkes should've won. Hell I would have liked any kind of upset at all in fact.

 

The tributes to past Best film winners - why? Why have the visual tributes in the background even when someone was accepting their award for a film that had nothing to do with it? It was weird frankly.

 

Celine Dion singing during 'In Memoriam' to the point it became more about her - and why no applause audio during that section either?

 

The only person I'll give major props to was Hathaway, screw the haters I thought she was utterly delightful and lovable in her role as host. Franco just looked bored and surly to be there most of the time.

 

...and The Kings Speech? Tom Hooper???? Jesus wept, welcome to being this decades Shakespeare In Love, complete with Weinstein backroom manouvering no doubt. I'm not knocking the movie itself, but honestly, can anyone make a case for it being the BEST film of the last 12 months? Seriously? More entertaining than Inception? More of a classic than True Grit? More artistically electric or challenging than Black Swan? More gripping than The Social Network???

 

No once again, even with ten fucking films to pick from, the Academy went the safest choice yet again. Those other films nominated will be considered classics, they will be pured over, studied, written about and are the sorts of works that will inspire people to want to write and make movies themselves. Does anyone see The Kings Speech being in that sort of league or will people have trouble remembering it exists in ten years time*?

 

Anyways, they're my thoughts off the top of my head. All in all I wondered why I'd stayed up until one in the fucking morning to watch the ceremony this year and definitely considered not bothering next year - something I've never done before. It's all just gotten so fucking boringly predictable. Hollywoods intense lack of humor about and inability to laugh at the essentially over indulgent circle jerk that this ceremony is - the reason Stewart was so good and will never return along with the reason we'll never ever see Conan hosting - combined with the fact that the winners often have very little to do with who or what was actually the best of any given year, just leaves me getting pretty fucking over it.

 

I dunno, as someone who's only missed one ceremony in 25 years maybe I've done my dash with this humorless, self-fellating bullshit. I guess I'll find out this time next year.

 

 

 

*Seriously tho - Nick, Damon, Elisabeth, Renn, Josh - is there even the slightest whisper out there that Ole Harvey pulled another 1999 machiavellian fast one to get his little movie the big gongs it did? I'd love to hear any rumor mongering going on out there. You can't tell me there aren't a few noses at least a little out of joint today.

At some point, the Oscars just have to accept that they're not young, hip, and edgy. Quite the opposite in fact as the Academy is dominated by aging Baby Boomers.

They'd be a lot better off trying to fight it, and embrace what they are. Go for class. Go for glitz. Produce a show like you would a Sinatra Vegas show. That would at least fit what they are.

Didn't they try that with Hugh Jackman and it was a ratings disaster?

The fact is last years ceremony was one of it's best raters in years - but the majority of the audience watching were over 50. That crowd aren't getting any younger and unless the Academy tries to court younger viewers in some capacity the awards will be relegated to cable pay per view or some such and lose a lot of the prestige that comes with them.

Frankly they have to modernize or die.

If last night is the best they can come up with tho, my predeiction is - they gonna die.

Some folks I talked to were bitching that the Best Picture montage was playing favorites by prominently using The King's Speech.  I thought it was brilliant.

The opening skit was all about Inception so I don't see the problem.

This was the first year that I actually wondered "why the hell do they even televise this?" ... It just felt like a bunch of people who have nothing to do with me giving each other awards and slapping each other on the back.

If Christian Bale is actually English, why did he deliver his speech in a fake English accent?

 

He's preparing for his lead role in Dick Van Dyke: The Mary Poppins Years...

Hathaway's one moment of awesome was when she started dancing in her flapper dress. Or maybe that was more just that I was enjoying it. 

 

Mostly happy with the awards, but like I said a few months ago when Franco and Hathaway were announced, you need an actual ringleader for this circus. Bring back Stewart, bring in CoCo, let Martin solo it again, something, but let there be an actual running of the show. This felt like a bunch of half-baked ideas thrown together at random moments. The whole themed awards remembering winners of yesteryear that they only did like four or five times the whole show? Could've really done something with that, outside of just throwing up each film's poster and playing a 15 second clip of their themes. Projection set? Just sat there. 

 

If they want to draw in a younger crowd, get subversive. Get creative. Oscar's an institution, yeah, but this year it almost felt like homework that's due Monday morning that you're scrambling to finish Sunday night.

 

Also, Melissa Leo's speech was so outrageously acted that I almost wanted them to take it from her and pass it over to Helena. From the "Oh ME? REALLY?" fake surprise to the eighteen hour long acceptance speech, it felt fake, like an adlibbed performance. Not a particularly good adlib, either.

 

Also also, bring back the Lifetime Achievement Oscar for real already. Don't just trot the old codger onto stage for 15 seconds and throw a graphic over the screen announcing your commercials. Show some respect, show some class.

 

Also also also, get the fuck rid of Celine Dion. Every time that harpy struts onto stage, whatever she is doing becomes about her and not, say, the In Memorium segment, or in 2006 when she crooned some half-baked love song version of the theme to Once Upon a Time in America in what was supposed to be a tribute to Ennio Morricone.

Patton Oswalt was on Ferguson last night and did a great bit about using the Franco/Hathaway scale to measure one's response to a crisis. Do you give it everything until your energy is actually glowing through your skin, or do you just shut down in defeat?

I did enjoy Hathaway's Hugh Jackman song. And that blue number she had on later. Otherwise? Eh.

It was all about that red Versace she wore for like one segment near the end.

 

Why'd she change so fast? Someone make a mess?

Edited by Hammerhead - 3/1/11 at 1:01pm

That is great.  Such a perfect way to characterize what happened.

I didn't watch the awards, but a friend that did commented that he found it weird that the prominence of The King's Speech in the montage coupled with its win right after was slightly suspicious.

 

It may have been suspicious, but whatever. It worked. Really well, I might add. Better in that context than the film. That would've been the case even if it lost.

Here's the clip. Jump to 2:45.

As always, there has to be a delicate balance between tradition and wooing younger audiences.  The last thing I want is the Oscars to try and emulate the fucking MTV Movie Awards.  That way lies madness.  I think trying out Chris Rock and Jon Stewart (both in their 40's, by the way) to find a new audience is a step in the right direction, even if it misfired this year. 

 

I agree about bringing back the Lifetime awards.  Coppola might have given a great speech, but we'll never know now. 

Next year, just have the presenter for the Technical Awards send a text saying "I'm done. Can I come back now?"

 

Seriously, they didn't even say who was getting honored for what this year.

This man speaks for me.

 

Ken Grubeman sums things up rather nicely as well and goes so far as to call it the worst oscars ever - and he's watched every one since 1958.