Oscar Recap
I went 20/24. Either I'm very good at the predicting the Oscars or there were relatively few surprise winners tonight. I think it's a mixture of both.
Despite the awards generally going as expected, the show was an elegant and smooth affair. Credit must go to show producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon for organizing the evening into a "movie production story" narrative, and for the smart idea of having five past nominees present each acting award.
The show looked stunning (it didn't hurt that I was watching it on my parents' HDTV). I especially liked how all the monitors were integrated into the sets (e.g. during the sound-editing, sound-mixing, and film-editing awards, the TV monitors were arranged to look like floating mirrors).
Hugh Jackman was an agreeable master of ceremonies, but I think you got to stick with comedians for this gig. The show's best moments were comedic ones, such as the banter between presenters Steve Martin and Tina Fey, or the hilarious montage video starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Janusz Kaminski (of all people!).
As for the awards themselves, I'm fine with "Slumdog Millionaire" winning Best Picture, Director, etc. But did it really have the best sound mixing (I think "The Dark Knight" did). Did it really have the best score? Debatable, but oh well.
I'm thrilled "Milk" won two major awards for screenplay and best actor. Special props to Dustin Lance Black for his inspiring acceptance speech. Hopefully a few more people who voted "yes" on Prop. 8 will seek out the film, but probably not.
All in all, a very fine show for a very mediocre year of movies. And now it's onto 2009, which promises to be a vast improvement.
Despite the awards generally going as expected, the show was an elegant and smooth affair. Credit must go to show producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon for organizing the evening into a "movie production story" narrative, and for the smart idea of having five past nominees present each acting award.
The show looked stunning (it didn't hurt that I was watching it on my parents' HDTV). I especially liked how all the monitors were integrated into the sets (e.g. during the sound-editing, sound-mixing, and film-editing awards, the TV monitors were arranged to look like floating mirrors).
Hugh Jackman was an agreeable master of ceremonies, but I think you got to stick with comedians for this gig. The show's best moments were comedic ones, such as the banter between presenters Steve Martin and Tina Fey, or the hilarious montage video starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Janusz Kaminski (of all people!).
As for the awards themselves, I'm fine with "Slumdog Millionaire" winning Best Picture, Director, etc. But did it really have the best sound mixing (I think "The Dark Knight" did). Did it really have the best score? Debatable, but oh well.
I'm thrilled "Milk" won two major awards for screenplay and best actor. Special props to Dustin Lance Black for his inspiring acceptance speech. Hopefully a few more people who voted "yes" on Prop. 8 will seek out the film, but probably not.
All in all, a very fine show for a very mediocre year of movies. And now it's onto 2009, which promises to be a vast improvement.
posted by John | 11:40 PM
1 Comments:
I almost agree with you on everything. However, you really enjoyed the 5 actor thing? I thought that was really boring and a waste of time. I'm sure it was great for each of the 19 nominees, but as a viewer, I thought it was too much.
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