Notes on the Oscars

[Note: I intended to post this entry last night, but just as I finished typing it up, the powers that be decided to cut off my internet connection. Hmmph.]

As tempting as it is, I can't make a genuine assessment on who was rightly awarded last night and who was robbed. There were Oscars awarded in 24 categories, and in not a single one of those categories have I seen all the nominated films (not even Visual Effects or Animated Feature Film). But, being the dork I am, I humbly offer my hodge podge assortment of observations and assessments of the show.

The people that are awarded these golden statues are supposed to represent the very best of the entertainment industry, and it is oh so very disappointing when they get up on stage to accept their award in front of a billion people, and so miserably fail to entertain. There's hardly an excuse for setting your new Oscar down on the floor and grumpily pulling out a scrap of paper with a long list of names, like Alan Arkin did when he won Best Supporting Actor. The best acceptance speeches are the ones that are teary eyed and spontaneous like Jennifer Hudson, or self-assured with a message like Al Gore... heck, I even prefer Helen Mirren's cheesy and over-rehearsed monologue.

Speaking of Al Gore, it's awesome that he got to speak up on stage at the Oscars (twice!) and poke fun at people that were hoping he would seize the moment to announce he was running for president. But no, he took the moment to spread his message on the importance of doing something about global warming, a cause that he clearly cares about very deeply. I did see An Inconvenient Truth yesterday... I don't know if it's good as far as documentaries go, but Al Gore does well to convince you that it is important. By the way, that guy has gotten quite portly since we last saw him.

This isn't related to the show itself, but I have to mention that RPN-9 has got to be one of the worst television channels on the face of the earth. Apparently unsatisfied with the number of advertisements they can cram into a commercial break, the have decided to actually air commercials during the show. This means that two seconds after they come back from a commercial break, they switch back to a Casino Filipino ad that replaces 30 seconds of the actual show. That is such bullcrap, and has to be illegal in some sense. Anyway...

Martin Scorsese is not one of the directors I particularly care about. Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are exactly the kind of "great" movies that unfortunately I just don't "get". But the guy is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest movie directors out there, and the fact that he's never been awarded an Oscar before is a blow to the credibility of the whole ceremony. Also, unlike most of his movies, I found The Departed hugely entertaining. "This is the first picture I made with a plot," Scorsese once said. Maybe that was the ingredient he was missing all these years. I'm glad he finally got what he's due.

And Scorsese was presented the award by no less than three of the biggest directors ever! George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Copolla... those are exactly the three directors of my personal three favorite movies ever, as you can see from my Blogger profile. It made me fear that the mere presence of these four great directors at once on the stage of the Kodak Theater would rip open a tear in the space-time continuum and give birth to a new dimension of overwhelming movie awesomeness.