So the Oscars came and went last night, and I gotta say, it was a great show. It ran along smoothly, but there were lots of surprises and highlights to fill in the three and a half hours that can really drag on if not done properly. Here are some of my standout moments, hopefully in chronological order.
Neil Patrick Harris' opening number. Funny, toe-tapping, and made even better with his opening line. "I'm Neil Patrick Harris. I know; What am I doing here?"
Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin as hosts. Very humorous, with some great one-liners. Case in point: "When working with Meryl Streep, people can't help but think two things. What a great actress she is, and what's with all the Nazi memorabilia?" I'm still wondering about the menacing staring between Baldwin and George Clooney. Who would ever have a beef with Clooney? Anybody know?
Christoph Waltz wins Best Supporting Actor. Like I had any doubt after seeing Inglourious Basterds.
The stars of the nominated Best Animated Films got to introduce themselves and say a few words about being nominated. Ahh, the magic of cinema.
The tribute to John Hughes. Molly Ringwald and Mathew Broderick came out on stage to pay tribute to a great director. A montage of film clips further highlighted his work. Then more actors, like John Cryer, Judd Nelson and Macauly Caulkin came out to say a few more words. Tasteful and touching.
Having a modern and hip hop dance troop performing to the Best Cinematic Score nominees. I would've never thought of that, and it worked surprisingly well. Way to think outside the box.
The tribute to Horror films, which was way overdue at the Oscars. Though some of the films shown in the montage are ones I would not classify as horror. Edward Scissorhands? Really? But, Evil Dead was thrown in there, so all is forgiven.
Fellow actors and actresses paying tribute to this year's Best Actor and Actress nominees. Very heartwarming, and some of the stories were really interesting. Oprah was even there!
The surprise Best Actress win for Sandra Bullock. Good for her, but whaaa? She just won a Razzie for heaven's sake! At least Halle Berry won her Oscar first and then spread it out a little.
Kathryn Bigelow (pictured above with presenter Barbara Streisand) is the first woman to ever win Best Director. You go girl!
Hurt Locker winning Best Picture over Avatar. I have not seen either film but I do get a smug sense of satisfaction seeing an independent movie winning out over an over-blown, over SFX'd big budget picture. Just because more people have seen it, that does not make it the better movie.
All in all, an excellent evening, and I felt my weeks of waiting were rewarded handsomely. Most of the acceptance speeches were short and eloquent, but the producers were willing to let some of the winners speak, even if it means going long. And I think it's important to keep a balance there, because winners should have their moment and some of the most memorable occurrences can happen during an acceptance speech. Also, there were no major fashion faux pas, or at least none that I noticed. What moments did you find most memorable?
Oh, one last thing. What was with that red-headed lady pulling a Kanye West and cutting off the winning director's speech for Best Documentary Short? What the heck was that about?
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