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Ten Oscar Observations -- A Morning After List
by Allison Waldman, posted Mar 8th 2010 2:00PM
"The morning after ... we ask the right questions. The morning after ... we make the suggestions." Those are the lyrics to a song Barbra Streisand once sang and it occurred to me this morning after recovering from the long, long and rather uneventful 2010 Oscar ceremony last night on ABC.
Looking back through the bleary-eyes of my memories, there were quite a few things that could have been better, a few that were just plain lousy, and a few moments that lived up to the hype. Danny shared his view. Check out my ten Oscar observations list:
1. Neil Patrick Harris lied ... but he's forgiven. See, Nikki Finke's column was right, sort of. Neil Patrick Harris did sing the opening number. He didn't sing it with Martin Short, so in that she was wrong. But Neil Twittered that he wasn't going to be the opener for the Oscars. Liar, liar pants on fire! But the number was energetic and fun, so Neil Patrick Harris is forgiven. It wasn't as good as his Tony song, but still pretty, pretty good.
2. Too much John Hughes and not enough Lauren Bacall. It was lovely that they gave the late writer/director John Hughes a big tribute. But after the film clips, the line up of stars sharing a thought -- Jon Cryer, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick, Macauley Culkin and Molly Ringwald -- was superfluous. This was especially true in light of the short-shrift given to Lauren Bacall, Gordon Willis, John Calley and Roger Corman who were presented Special Oscars that were not included in the night's celebration. WTF? Why not? The separate awards on some other night was not good enough for a Lifetime Achievement Oscar.
3. Give us more Tina Fey and Robert Downey, Jr. They were the funniest presenters. They actually had good material. Better than Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Hmm ... could it be that Tina Fey is the right person to host next year's Oscars? Let's start the campaign now.
4. Horror films? Why the salute to horror films? Was this a super year for horror? And when did thrillers like 'Psycho' and 'Marathon Man' get lumped in with horror? Most of the classic horror, the Universals, were slapped onto the end, while Hammer horror was ignored completely. But back to the main question, was there an outcry for horror film making to be recognized?
5. Lord ... that dance! Granted, Adam Shankman is a choreographer. He wanted to get dancing into the Oscarcast. However, as great as the dancers were -- and they were great -- all that flipping and grinding to the nominated film scores was dumb. The winner, Michael Giacchino's score for 'Up,' was incorporated in a lovely pas de deux that wasn't connected to the original.
6. Rushing at the end. Even at three-and-a-half hours, they were still rushing to end the show before midnight ET. While they took time for the five nominees in Best Actor and Best Actress to get great tributes, which were appropriate and lovely, by the time Streisand came out to present Best Director, the clock was nearing midnight and everything was compressed. Streisand didn't even say she was presenting Best Director, and then Tom Hanks decided not to mention the Best Picture nominees, just read the winner. Timing is everything ... the Oscars didn't have it.
7. Did you catch the wonderful 'Modern Family' Oscar commercial? Now, that was funny. Cameron and Mitchell were wiz kids at movie charades, Jay declared they would never play again after Gloria got stuck on one word. Excellent promo, ABC. Oh, the Jimmy Kimmel in bed with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner was also a hoot!
8. Predictability. This is not the fault of the producers, but last night was the most predictable Oscars since 'Titanic' swept the awards in 1997. Every major winner was predicted. There were no curve balls. Even the ten nominees for Best Picture failed to bring a shocker. Once 'The Hurt Locker' was winning for editing, writing, directing, it was obvious that it was taking the top prize. 'Avatar' won the techie awards and all the money in the world.
9. Sacha Baron Cohen yanked. Ben Stiller was supposed to do the blue man bit from 'Avatar' with Sacha Baron Cohen. The gag was deemed offensive and Stiller ended up doing the schtick on his own. It wasn't very funny. Whoever axed Sacha blew it big time. He would have been funny for sure.
10. Overall, a dud. Executive Producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic promised to be innovative and creative. If creative means putting enough steps on the stage to scare the hell out of every actress in high heels on the stage, they succeeded. If innovative means playing it safe, they succeeded. A week from now this will be a lost memory. Nothing will stand out as great television. Ho hum, yes. Great, no.
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