I watched the first half hour of the Academy Awards presentations last night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lamer opening number than last night’s. Neil Patrick Harris is incredibly unfunny. I suspect even his ad libs were scripted.
Normally, I only watch the Academy Awards program for the fashions. It was pretty clear the ladies in attendance had received some pretty detailed directions for what would and would not be acceptable wear. I thought the gowns were mostly a snooze. I must be getting old. I don’t find the present crop of Hollywood actresses particularly attractive. I vacillate between wanting to give most of them a sandwich and a quarter to go to the movies.
My wife watched the awards presentation. I watched The Walking Dead.
There was one thing I managed to catch last night that I’m glad I did. Gaga can actually sing. She has a pretty nice voice. As my wife pointed out, working with Tony Bennett has pushed her to up her game.
Neil Patrick Harris is incredibly unfunny. I suspect even his ad libs were scripted.
He’s usually pretty good at the Tonys, but it seemed like he was trying to hard last night.
Which gets me to another point: The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) and Zoe Saldana (sp?) were one of the best, if not THE best, of the presenting duos. They came across like they were actually bantering with each other, instead of reading a lame script, which they no doubt were. The Rock really crushed it, much better than the better regarded ‘actors’. He does, however, have much more experience performing live, though!
As for Gaga – I couldn’t get past the tattoos on the insides of her upper arms. Ugh. I don’t like ink on women anyway, but it is impossible to look elegant in an evening gown with ink. I’ll restrain myself from stating my opinion more bluntly. (You can imagine how bad it must be if _I_ feel the need for restraint.) At least Katy Perry had Left Shark to distract from her ink.
Try living out here. Most people want to take your sandwich away.
The Oscars generally ruin everything. When I was a kid, I thought the Letterman performance to be pretty funny.
Missing totally was Timothy Spall in Mr Turner. Mike Leigh’s films are always amazing. Thankfully the Harry Potter franchise will keep his actors afloat for years to come.
Maybe I should deconstruct the rules of the Academy Awards. For example, message pictures that aren’t too strident are at least good for a nomination. Unless they make a lot of money in which case, no. The best picture of the year rarely even gets nominated and, if nominated, will probably not win. 1939, the magic year, is a case in point. Does anybody really think that Gone With the Wind was the best movie made that year?
Ugly people rarely get nominated. Beautiful people who make themselves ugly for the role: Oscar gold!
I thought Birdman was a shoo in for Best Picture. A picture about a washed up actor being voted on by an academy consisting of a lot of washed up actors.
When I was a kid the Oscars were a family event. We all eagerly congregated around the tube and watched it from beginning to end.
How times have changed!
Last night, with great reservation I turned it on and literally spoiled the evening. Harris was not only a dud, but an embarrassment to comedic delivery. The “stars” all looked like indolent peacocks, clapping on cue like seals when the proper social justice comments were defiantly spoken on stage. I agree with ice that the most stunning, “natural” couple were the Rock and his beautiful co-presenter. I also second Dave’s comment about Gaga’s performance — adding that I was pleasantly surprised by her talent. Was that really her singing that medley of songs from The Sound of Music? It was also good to see how Julia Andrews has withstood the test of 50 years of time!
Finally, as the ratings are rolling in, it appears that the Oscars deservingly were down double digits from last year’s numbers. Next year, with people recalling their disappointment over this year, it will be down even more, IMO.
Oh yeah, Dave’s last comment reminded me that most movie critics predicted Birdman’s win, based solely on observations that Hollywood loves to vote for movies about itself, rather than based on content, quality, or public appeal of the film.
jan, Julie Andrews looked quite good!
Did Ellen do the Oscars last year? She seems like a good choice for this show. NPH needs to stick to the Tonys.
OT: But I thought when Dave was criticizing the trivialities of current political discourse, he should embrace the trivia that he enjoys. I am surprised we got no post on the Westminster Kennel Dog Show. I actually watched a bit this year, and man I do not understand best of show. Is this just random personal preference?
My wife points out a couple of things. First, Gaga apparently has something of a theatre background.
Second, doing a medley of Julie Andrews songs with Julie Andrews right there took a lot of balls. Balls with oak leaf clusters, in fact. So, much respect for that!
My wife also commented that Gaga looked totally freaked out at the end of the performance. We/I think anyone that has had to perform (including competitive sports & games) can recognize the release that comes from the end of a Big Moment.
I watched all of Westminster that was shown on TV and streamed a lot that wasn’t (especially the agility competitions in which many of my wife’s friends participated). We were surprised by BIS, too. We liked the Porty better. Didn’t much care for the Sam that won BoB.
I just remembering thinking that I liked a few of the dogs, a few I didn’t like (probably toy and poodle categories) that I could still see winning, and a couple that were too boring to win. I placed the beagle in the category of too boring to win.
My fave was probably Odin the Leonberger.
I went to the Westminster last year at MSG. The best in group? It was a lot of different breeds of dog. The crowd seemed to love the golden retriever and bloodhound. My girlfriend and I were taken by the dogue du bordeaux. I had no absolutely no idea what was going on, judge-wise.
Here’s something from Lady Gaga from a few years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZ8TFNQamc