In summing up our reaction to last night’s 83rd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS, we’re not being facetious when we ask, “For the love of all things holy is it over yet?” we’re actually asking! Seriously. To give you an idea as to just how painful last night’s OSCAR telecast was — for the first time ever — your very own TV Addict packed it in early, calling it a night around the time Natalie Portman predictably wobbled away with a much-deserved Best Actress award for her work in The Black Swan. Yes, the show was just that bad. But before we get to why, in the interest of fairness, here are a few positives.
From The King’s Speech to Christian Bale nabbing his first of what we suspect will be many career wins for his remarkable work in The Fighter, it’s hard to argue with any of last night’s winners. Also hard to argue with, the fact that host Anne Hathaway tried her absolute best under the circumstances. Unfortunately, no amount of singing, dancing or “Woo-Hooing” could mask the fact that the other half of last night’s hosting entity, James “Jack of all Trades” Franco finally came face-to-face with something he couldn’t do.
Suffice to say, the grand experiment to inject some young blood into last night’s telecast simply didn’t pass mustard. From the tired movie montage opening that saw hosts Franco and Hathaway placed inside many of the year’s biggest films Inception-style, to their tepid banter that lacked both chemistry and spark, the not-so-dynamic duo simply weren’t up to the task. Particularly in contrast to old pros Alec Baldwin, Billy Crystal and the digital projection of Bob Hope, all of which were peppered throughout the evening to the delight of both the audience and viewers.
Also not helping matters were the presenters and winners — which usually help to make or break any award show — were for the most part both instantly forgettable and completely uninspired. So much so that polarizing appearance by Kirk Douglas aside (love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no arguing with the fact that we’re still talking about him), we find ourselves hard-pressed to recall one memorable bit.
Worse still, with the exception of screenplay winners Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and self-professed “late bloomer” David Seidler (The King’s Speech), acceptance speeches were completely devoid of those magical “didn’t see that coming” moments that so often end up as part of OSCAR lore (Sorry folks, the only thing more rehearsed than Melissa Leo’s exemplary acting in The Fighter was her “shock” over winning last night!)
Agree, disagree, post away. 