Academy Awards 2008
Here's a list of things I liked:
1) Marisa Tomei's dress-beautiful
2) Hugh Jackman and his opening song and dance with Anne Hathaway-hilarious and she can sing-who knew?
3) Ben Stiller as Joaquin Phoenix and Natalie Portman telling him he looked like he lived an Hassidic meth lab
4) Sean Penn winning-I really did think his performance was wonderful-and I hate him
5) The way the announced the performance awards. When I first saw it, I thought "this will add 30 minutes to this show". But as others have noted-it's the first time ever that it put truth to the saying "it's an honor just to be nominated". When the actors introduced their nominee and spoke about their career and performance, you finally felt that it WAS an honor just to be nominated. I'll overlook the people who I didn't like (okay, Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard who seemed to be reading from cue cards) in favor of those who I did like and who seemed to speak from their heart-Whoopie Goldberg, Shirley Maclaine and Robert DeNiro.
6) Yay Kate Winslet-who probably should have won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Little Children or Sense and Sensibility...wel, you get the drift. It's always nice when the woman dubbed the finest actress of her generatin finally wins the big award.
7) Yes, I liked Sean Penn's speech. He acknowledged he was difficult, he gave a shout out to Obama, gay marriage and Mickey Rourke. It just would have been nice he said hi to the woman who has tolerated him for so many years and is a fine actor in her own right (oooh, bad pun. Sorry, Robin Wright Penn).
8) All the love for Slumdog-not a surprise but it was still nice to see.
9) Meryl Streep finally wearing something nice to the big show. She's looked frumpy so many times, but this was nice.
10) Phillippe Petit making a coin disappear and balancing the Oscar on his chin-so cool.
11) Kate giving a shout out to her parents and her Dad whistling so she knew where they were-awesome.
12) The Pineapple Express takeoff and hugh Jackman's-I didn't see The Reader, I didn't the Reader..I went to the multiplex but the lines were so long..-it was very funny. Good on Hugh that he was very genial and kept things moving. The people there hate it when they're mocked and Hugh did none of that-good job.
13) Tina and Steve. Enough said.
And some things I didn't...
1) I swear if Beyonce wears one more big mermaid gown in a flashy print/shiny color I'm going to scream. Just stop! Wear something else! Please. At least she didn't try to LOOK like an Oscar, like she has in times past.
2) The second musical number was unnecessary and annoying. Mixing the pop songs with classic Broadway songs just irritated me-it could have been handled better and frankly I expect better from Baz Luhrmann.
3) If I saw one more big dress with netting, I was going to scream. Everyone looked like it was age-inappropriate. Sarah Jessica's dress looked too fairy princess for her, Miley Cyrus's looked like it belonged on someone older, Marion Cotillard's was okay, not great and Penelope Cruz's looked like it belong on the top of a wedding cake-why is this hard?
4) Every time Jen Aniston was on (and thebit with Jack Black just about defined the the word "strained", they cut to Brad and Angie. Jesus, just stop.
5) And here's Angie-looking like the evil Disney queen who wasn't invited to the party but showed up anyway-with the mouse she turned into a handsome footman. Even her smile said "I'd rip you to shreds if I weren't on tv". I did want to get a better look at her earrings though-they looked like pair I saw in the Neiman-Marcus catalogue that cost 3,000,000,000.
6) The way they handled the In Memoriam (also known as the death montage). I was glad to see who I expected-Roy Scheider, Sidney Pollack, Anthony Minghella-but at the very beginning, the viewers at home couldn't see a thing-and they started off with frickin Cyd Charisse-who totally deserved better. And it was unnecessary for Queen Latifah to sing. I love her as much as anyone, but it drew attention away from the montage itself and was distracting.
So, I'd like to thank the Academy for a pretty good show. It wasn't perfect but these things never are. And who wants that anyway? Perfection is dull and boring-give me Mickey Rourke dressed in a white Gaultier suit with a picture of his dog on a chain around his neck any day.
1) Marisa Tomei's dress-beautiful
2) Hugh Jackman and his opening song and dance with Anne Hathaway-hilarious and she can sing-who knew?
3) Ben Stiller as Joaquin Phoenix and Natalie Portman telling him he looked like he lived an Hassidic meth lab
4) Sean Penn winning-I really did think his performance was wonderful-and I hate him
5) The way the announced the performance awards. When I first saw it, I thought "this will add 30 minutes to this show". But as others have noted-it's the first time ever that it put truth to the saying "it's an honor just to be nominated". When the actors introduced their nominee and spoke about their career and performance, you finally felt that it WAS an honor just to be nominated. I'll overlook the people who I didn't like (okay, Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard who seemed to be reading from cue cards) in favor of those who I did like and who seemed to speak from their heart-Whoopie Goldberg, Shirley Maclaine and Robert DeNiro.
6) Yay Kate Winslet-who probably should have won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Little Children or Sense and Sensibility...wel, you get the drift. It's always nice when the woman dubbed the finest actress of her generatin finally wins the big award.
7) Yes, I liked Sean Penn's speech. He acknowledged he was difficult, he gave a shout out to Obama, gay marriage and Mickey Rourke. It just would have been nice he said hi to the woman who has tolerated him for so many years and is a fine actor in her own right (oooh, bad pun. Sorry, Robin Wright Penn).
8) All the love for Slumdog-not a surprise but it was still nice to see.
9) Meryl Streep finally wearing something nice to the big show. She's looked frumpy so many times, but this was nice.
10) Phillippe Petit making a coin disappear and balancing the Oscar on his chin-so cool.
11) Kate giving a shout out to her parents and her Dad whistling so she knew where they were-awesome.
12) The Pineapple Express takeoff and hugh Jackman's-I didn't see The Reader, I didn't the Reader..I went to the multiplex but the lines were so long..-it was very funny. Good on Hugh that he was very genial and kept things moving. The people there hate it when they're mocked and Hugh did none of that-good job.
13) Tina and Steve. Enough said.
And some things I didn't...
1) I swear if Beyonce wears one more big mermaid gown in a flashy print/shiny color I'm going to scream. Just stop! Wear something else! Please. At least she didn't try to LOOK like an Oscar, like she has in times past.
2) The second musical number was unnecessary and annoying. Mixing the pop songs with classic Broadway songs just irritated me-it could have been handled better and frankly I expect better from Baz Luhrmann.
3) If I saw one more big dress with netting, I was going to scream. Everyone looked like it was age-inappropriate. Sarah Jessica's dress looked too fairy princess for her, Miley Cyrus's looked like it belonged on someone older, Marion Cotillard's was okay, not great and Penelope Cruz's looked like it belong on the top of a wedding cake-why is this hard?
4) Every time Jen Aniston was on (and thebit with Jack Black just about defined the the word "strained", they cut to Brad and Angie. Jesus, just stop.
5) And here's Angie-looking like the evil Disney queen who wasn't invited to the party but showed up anyway-with the mouse she turned into a handsome footman. Even her smile said "I'd rip you to shreds if I weren't on tv". I did want to get a better look at her earrings though-they looked like pair I saw in the Neiman-Marcus catalogue that cost 3,000,000,000.
6) The way they handled the In Memoriam (also known as the death montage). I was glad to see who I expected-Roy Scheider, Sidney Pollack, Anthony Minghella-but at the very beginning, the viewers at home couldn't see a thing-and they started off with frickin Cyd Charisse-who totally deserved better. And it was unnecessary for Queen Latifah to sing. I love her as much as anyone, but it drew attention away from the montage itself and was distracting.
So, I'd like to thank the Academy for a pretty good show. It wasn't perfect but these things never are. And who wants that anyway? Perfection is dull and boring-give me Mickey Rourke dressed in a white Gaultier suit with a picture of his dog on a chain around his neck any day.
posted by SHbookworm at 4:45 PM
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