Yeah, he's been working with Sheila E. (who's doing percussion up there too). Not sure who the violinist is.
Crystal has been good tonight, but not great, which is fine. The opening monologue should have been longer. And I was very pleased with the gratitous Dodger joke he had.......niiiiiiice.
Predictable, but yes, I mad. [image=http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp39/darthramza/SilentMovie.jpg]
Everyone knew from the moment they saw it that The Artist was going to win Best Picture, so it's rather difficult to muster up any feelings about it getting the statue. It's probably not the greatest film of the year, and it's Hollywood again fawning over a film about Hollywood, but it was good enough so that its win wasn't appalling or anything. Tree of Life winning would've made me feel something-- the need to burn the Kodak Theater to the ground.
Well, if you substitute "brilliant movie" with "piece of depthless fluff with lazy cinematography and an artsy-but-not-too-artsy aesthetic gimmick layered in heaping helpings of safety and forgettability that tries to make itself an homage to the films of yesteryear while utterly failing to recapture their magic" we basically have the same opinion, really. To say nothing of the soundtrack, which is a whole different rant. And to the Tree of Life naysayers in this thread - you were polarized by a polarizing film? Oh nooooooooo, all is lost.
I dunno, man. I was really-- I was aided in my enjoyment of long montages of cinematography and visual effects porn, and I still hated it.
It was a decent show, but certainly not one of the best. Billy Crystal was bleh. I liked Hugh Jackman and Jon Stewart. Bring them back. Or someone new who's not like James Franco in any way. I knew The Artist would probably end up winning, but I still held out for Hugo. Curse you Academy! At least I still liked The Artist as well, so it wasn't a huge disappointment. And I think it totally deserved the awards for Dujardin and the score. And I'm pleased that Midnight in Paris won the Original Screenplay, even though I wish Hugo had won Adapted and not the mediocre The Descendants. I also would have been happy with The Ides of March winning, but it didn't stand a chance. I'm glad Octavia Spencer won. She totally deserved it. Finally, THANK YOU for giving Meryl another Oscar! She's already gotten two, sure, but they were both in the early 80's, and those many, many nominations without wins in between do matter. This was well deserved. I hope she's wrong about never being up there again, because I think she's easily the best actress alive today. She might be the best actor period. Oh, and thank goodness Tree of Life won nothing. Horrible film. Couldn't finish it. Same with Bridesmaids. And thanks for not giving anything to Transformers. It doesn't deserve recognition. EDIT: And I'm glad James Earl Jones got an Honorary Oscar. I've always kind of felt like that's the best one you can get out of any of them, because it shows recognition for a lifetime of work and all of the contributions you've done, instead of being an award for a single film. He deserves it. Oprah deserved hers too. So did the make-up guy, I'm sure. People generally do deserve them. And those are one of the main reasons I watch each year, along with the really major awards and the "in memoriam" (which was also appropriately melancholy- and I can't believe I didn't know Lumet was dead. Sigh.).
I did the 22 hour marathon yesterday/last night, only got a few hours of sleep, and then did the party today. I managed to guess 10 ones right! I really didn't have any major qualms, except for Makeup.
Who did you want to win make-up? I was kind of hoping for Albert Nobbs, but it's really one of the categories I care least about, so whatever.
Midnight in Paris absolutely deserved the one thing it won. It absolutely earned best original screenplay. I don't think The Descendants was Best Screenplay material, but it was solid, better than mediocre I think. I think Best Score was earned by The Artist. Also don't think that The Artist SHOULD have been the winner for Best Picture but it's the one I knew was going to win. I don't think it was horrible.... just wasn't the best film out there. When I see The Iron Lady the pressure will be on. I think Viola Davis had a great performance in The Help, so I want to see if Streep's performance was better.
