Third Baseman

Chris Rock hosting.

ReservoirDog45

Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, need I say more

FinkPish

Yeah, that was pretty much the worst part of the show. I was just waiting for them to mention that they were starring together in the upcoming movie The Longest Yard, with special guest star Burt Reynolds. What infant wrote that bit and thought it would be funny, especially delivered that way?

Jericho

I forgot to mention this before, but there was one categorey which was handed out in the aisle, I think for one of the 'shorts' categories (animated, live action, or documentary), in which one of the nominees appeared to be asleep. He was nudged awake by the person next to him, but that can't look too good. Of course it was funny to me, but probably won't sit too well with Academy members, especially the next time the guy is up for an award.

Hendrik

...well... it was an incredibly dull, boring show, after all..

. . . . . .

david12

Overall, I enjoyed the show.
I guess everyone has their minor bitches here and there...but I expected the show to be what it was so I was fine with it. Having TiVo never hurts either. Honestly, how often is an Oscar nominated song worth a damn? Or when hasn't a star taken themselves too seriously? Yes, Penn was a turd. Beyonce sucks and Oprah giving the black power fist left a lot to be desired.

But the only thing that irked me was Sam Jackson presenting. Since I first saw Jackson in Pulp Fiction I thought this guy was made of stone. Honestly, there isn't another actor who seems to be as badass as Jackson. Just watching the IFC awards Saturday night kinda proved this. But he flubbed a word while presenting, and instead of moving on without a pause he rolled his eyes upwards and you could see him become self-concious about messing up. Would a badass really care? I think not...and that was the most embarrassing moment of the show. It really let me down.
Ransom

Abob Teff

As far as the last time an Oscar song performance was worth a damn -- Bruce Springstein performing "Streets of Philadelphia." Last year's performances from Cold Mountain were pretty good as well. I think that they Academy is trying to re-inforce the concept that the award is supposed to be for the song not the performace or the performer. At least we aren't getting the dramatic interp performances anymore . . .

However, I personally find it to be painfully disrepectful to the writer to slap the flavor of the week pop star on their songs. Let the nominee select who they want to perform.

Thankfully I did not pay any attention to the Beyonce performances (I didn't even realize that she had done 3 of them!). However I kept trying to figure out who the druggie was that they kept showing. Finally somebody made mention of JayZ (or Jay Zee, or whatever it is) and that explained who he was . . . still didn't explain why they kept showing him.

The Oscars seem to be having a real identity crisis. Are they supposed to be the serious awards that reward the top performances of the year, or are they supposed to appeal to the masses? Honestly, they seem to be trying to do both and it is not working. Let the Golden Globes or MTV appeal to the masses. Dump the schlocky "celeb of the moment" presenters, don't let Chris Rock host again, and for the movie gods' sake don't ever let Adam Sandler in the building again! Oh yeah, send the pop performers back to the Source Awards!

FinkPish

That looked like a joke to me. What wasn't a joke was Louis Gossett Jr. sleeping in his chair sometime during the show, I can't remember when I saw it.

FinkPish

I think you really need to understand the difference between an actor and a role he might play. Actors are rarely as badass as they seem in most movie roles. Most of the ones I've met are self-conscious and somewhat shy. They are usually as normal as the rest of us, they just get more attention because of what profession they are in. It seems a bit childish to let something like Sam Jackson flubbing a word upset you so much.

Rypro 525

prince at the oscars. it seemed like he was reading those forgein names for the first time, and had trouble with the promptor.

Brent L

Next year they'll just have one of these sitting up on stage.

Michael Corvin

That was definitely awkward. Why was he there anyway? Was Michael Jackson originally scheduled to give out that award?

baracine

Scott Feschuk, of the Toronto National Post, is the only columnist so far to talk - in a joking way - about the Beyoncé kerfuffle. After saying her song caused the flooring of a United Nations motion by France, he adds:

"This just in: Having discovered that Beyoncé is the girlfriend of Jay-Z, France has abruptly withdrawn its protests and gone into hiding somewhere in Belgium."

scott shelton

What? I must've missed that! Any screencaps?

FinkPish

No, sorry, didn't record it. Maybe someone who Tivo'ed it can track some down. It was towards the end of the show, maybe during one of the last songs. Sometime when they were getting crowd reactions to something on stage.

redinger

I had a similar complaint about having Andrew LLoyd Webber play the piano for Beyonce...and having Emmy Rossum introduce it. Since she's there anyways, why not have her sing it?

This wasn't meant as another Beyonce bash. Just about how stupid I thought that was.

shill66

MY big question is why do they have to have the songs performed in full in the first place? If you take a look at the amount of time spent on each category, "Best Song" gets far and away more attention than any other. (Figure about 4 minutes per song, that's 20 minutes spent on "Best Song" not even counting the actual presentation of the award - insanity!) What did "Best Song" do to deserve such favoritism? Why is it that for "Best Score" we get 5 seconds of each, when the songs (arguably a lot less important to movies in general) get their full-blown production?

Get rid of the songs. I don't want to watch a variety show, I want to watch an awards show. If a 5-second snippet is good enough for score, it's good enough for song.

Rypro 525

maybe ahe was too shy to sing it live. remeber 2 years ago when Renee didn't sing that new song from chicago.

Wazootyman

My professor is actually friends with Jorge, and she had talked with him beforehand about who they were having sing it. He said originally the producers approached him and said "We're thinking of having Beyonce do it." His response was "... does she even know Spanish? No, we can't do that..." they then asked him who should do it. He said "I can... it's my song" But they wanted a name, so they went with Banderas, and Jorge wasn't the happiest about that, but figured at least he knew Spanish

jeffkjoe

The guy asleep in his chair was a JOKE. He was playing to camera!!!!


It was a joke!!!!!!

ReservoirDog45

I agree with having best songs preformed. It's not the Grammy's, I want to see movies get awards not people singing and dancing

wmansir

FinkPish was referring to Louis Gossett Jr., not the best short nom who pretended to be asleep when the were announcing his catagory.

I have to agree with those who said Rock and Sandler. Good God was that hack material, and they just kept running the same joke into the ground.

The Ferret

...when I admitted to someone that I actually watched that heap of shit.

(Only joking, I enjoyed it).

Abob Teff

[Sean Penn]For those of you who don't know . . . [/Sean Penn]

BizRodian

I think Sean Penn is friends with Law, and that's why he said it. I can see why he felt he needed to say something. If I were Jude Law, I'd have felt a little better afterwords. Didn't seem like a big deal to me. Rock wasn't just saying Jude Law had been in a lot of movies in the past year, he said more.

Anyways, poor Tobey got no love