Wednesday 25th February 2009, 23:17
Post-Oscar thoughts from a layman
I didn't watch the Oscars live, as I have not Sky, but I did find that this year within a day you can watch most of them on youtube. I didn't watch the lot (by the time you get to Best Editing, you think the Best Editor would have been the person who trimmed the show to under an hour and a half), but some notes of point:
- Hugh Jackman was an excellent host. I didn't expect good things, being a fan as I am of comedians, but he proved that when it comes to the Oscars, light-ent is the tone of the day, rather than scathing wit. He had a few funnies, granted, but Huge Ackman's main skill is song-and-dance (and looking hot for the laydeez), and he sang-and-danced his way through some great musical medleys. Having said that, the best musical medleys were always done by Billy Crystal, so I like to think we haven't seen the last of him as host...
- I quite liked the idea of 5 previous winners of each acting category toasting the present nominees. It was a bit cheesy - great actor of yore talks directly to current flavour of the month in glowing terms, sounding sincere and improvised - but it did give all the nominees a chance to have their 'moment', rather than just making do with a sour face and faking being pleased for whoever did win. Plus it was just plain pretty cool to see 20 balls-out great actors lining the stage in 5-part chunks. I liked seeing the montages of loads of old winners giving their speeches too.
- Man On Wire man balancing his Oscar on his chin. Nice.
- No Mickey Rourke win (and therefore speech)? Boo. Get on youtube and search for his acceptance speech at the Spirit Awards the day before. He funny. And he rude.
- Ben Stiller sticking it to Joaquin Phoenix. Harsh, but quite funny. Bewildering if you haven't seen Phoenix on Letterman, so youtube that first. (Is 'youtube' a verb?)
- Tina Fey and Steve Martin. Very funny. Far funnier than anything in either Baby Mama or The Pink Panther 2.
- A good night for Brits. Slumdog taking 8 Oscars - the deserved winner. The other Best Picture nominees were great too but Button dragged a little, Milk was a bit too worthy and political, Frost/Nixon was cracking but didn't have the layers of Slumdog, The Reader didn't quite have the heart to it I'd have liked. There. It nearly sounded like I knew what I was talking about.
- They should really show it on the BBC. And hold it in the afternoon so it's not on at 4am our time.
- More Oscarian thoughts on me Movie Banter podcast in a day or two when episode 16 appears on itunes...