The Academy Award for Most Intrusive Music during an Acceptance Speech goes to...

Well, the Academy Awards just ended, and frankly I was not that
impressed. I know these shows are always a bit tedious, but for some
reason this year's show seemed particularly so. A few comments.

patty1...

I thought it moved along fine. But then, I was more interested
in the nominees this year than I normally am. In fact, I can't
remember when I last paid this close attention to the Oscars.

deering24...

Was it shorter than last year's ceremony? It seemed as if they had cut
something out--for a moment, I thought they had off-loaded the two best
screenplay awards to the other Oscar show...g!

- Whose idea was it to play music *during* the acceptance speech? That
has to be one of the worst ideas the Oscar show producers have thought
up in a long time. And that's saying something. Playing music to get

patty1...

I agree. It was distracting to me; it must have been doubly so to
the nervous winners trying to remember what they wanted to say.

deering24...

Boy was that _awful_. Was that subtle pressure on the nominees to hurry
up or what? And it also gave the show a real snobby feel--"Aah, you're
just "Best Foreign Documentary" producer, so you don't deserve silence
during your speech." :P

deering24...

Hey, if we start agitating now...

C.
**
(One never can tell, can one...g!)

ANIM8Rfsk...

I kept thinking they'd talked to long and the band was 'warning' them.

somebody to shut up? Ok, a necessary evil. I understand. But playing
sentimental music during the speech? Horrible. One of the best things
about those speeches is when somebody makes an impromptu joke, but with
that awful music playing it just throws off the rhythm. Hopefully they
won't do it next year.

record.hunter...

I haven't watched the Oscars in such a long time, I just assumed it had
come to this. It was so distracting, I kept muting the volume, and
eventually gave up watching. I watched with the sound mostly off, then
after best supporting actress, I turned it off. It was too distracting
watching Rachel Weisz speaking in such a distracted manner.

- Speaking of music, don't they usually let the "big" winners get a
little longer to talk? Particularly for best picture? They played off
the winner of best picture! And it was a surprise win! It was the last
award, couldn't they have let it go on just a smidge longer?

- The host. I really like Jon Stewart. He's great on the Daily Show.

patty1...

I'm not familiar with him, but I thought he did a good job. I assume
that, since satire is his forte, he contributed to the writing of
those political ads as well as his own lines?

deering24...

I like Stewart on TDS, but he didn't flourish in this gig. It's

ANIM8Rfsk...

I take it you disagree with Mr. Ebert then (good for you)

zaryzary2003...

On this I definitely do. I read Ebert's article and he said that
Stewart flourished and so forth. I wouldn't go so far as to say that
he was a complete disaster, but I don't think it was all that great.
Despite the fact that the Oscars have disappointed a lot over the
years, people still have very high expectations for it.

deering24...

You're damm skippy I do--g! Stewart was off from the beginning of his
monologue and except for a few funny moments (his observation that the
Three 6 Mafia was happier than anyone else at the Oscars) never really
hit his stride. And what made things worse was that _he_ knew it, as
well--he was visibly uncomfortable every time the show came back to him.
I was expecting the Gravediggah from the Apollo in Harlem to come
onstage and haul him off. It probably would have been a mercy--:).

C.
**

It's

ironic--the offhanded irony and uniqueness that make him and Letterman
so much fun to watch on their own shows don't "expand" well to the
Oscars. If anything, it's the more extroverted, impersonal types (like
Crystal or Martin) that do better.

C.
**

ANIM8Rfsk...

He had a credit for 'special material written by'

But I think most of his material, which had a similar tone to the Daily
Show, just didn't translate to this setting. His opening monologue
wasn't that great, and while I think he had some good lines here and
there during the show, overall I was disappointed.

- The montages were pretty weird. I don't mind seeing clips of movies,
but those clips were probably an average of 0.75 seconds long and
seemed pretty arbitrarily put together. Movies that "challenge" us?
Um, ok, but don't expect that to be a coherent group, because it
wasn't.

Patrick Joseph McNamara...

They ran too quickly. I constantly found myself trying to figure out what
movie they were showing.

- The mock campaign commercials for the various things. I liked them. A
bright spot in a show that needed more.

- I know they can't exactly change the songs that are nominated, but
those were some pretty weak songs. And how come there were only 3 of
them? Actually, considering how poor they were, I'm glad there were
only 3. I don't think I could have taken 5 songs like that.

Patrick Joseph McNamara...

I think they cut down the number of nominees so that they could shorten the
awards. It was surprising not to see at least one from an animated film.

- Was that Dolly Parton singing, or just her wax museum doll?

Patrick Joseph McNamara...

Give her a break. She's not as young as she use to be.

zaryzary2003...

I don't have a problem with her aging, it's that she had so much botox
and plastic in her face that she probably needed FDA approval to appear
on TV. Almost (but not quite) as bad as Burt Reynold's new "face."