Oscar? Mediocre…
Well, another Oscar telecast has come and gone. Mercifully…
This show may not have been the worst in the history, but it sure tried to come close. The opening with Captain Kirk? Lame. The jokes at everyone’s expense? Lame. A song about boobs? …
Let’s face it. Hosting the Oscars is a tough gig. Everyone who has ever done it before has said so. Right down to Bob Hope and Johnny Carson. Seth MacFarlane? He knew this was a one shot deal and he played it as if it were. Did we really need an appearance by Ted to confirm it? You won’t be missed Ted, er Seth. The comment about bums and Redbox in front of supermarkets pretty much sums it up.
For a show that was supposed to be paying tribute to the musical heritage of the motion picture, there were some highlights. Shirley Bassey sang “Goldfinger” and literally brought the house to it’s feet with the highlight of the night. And Barbra Streisand was great with her performance of “Memories”, although how could the Academy overlook so many talented folks in it’s memorial piece? Especially Andy Griffith, Harry Morgan and Etta James. Could we have skipped a few lames jokes and had these folks (and more) added to the tribute?
Count me as one annoyed by the cut-off of the award winning FX crew from “The Life Of Pi” and their mention of Rhythm and Hues bankruptcy. In this era of increasing reliance on CGI in film, the public needs to hear more of how these folks toil to get a production completed. Green screens have become the tool of choice for so many films. And Pi may be the best yet as more people need to know that the tiger was not real, but the work of artists instead.
As to the awards themselves, mediocre may be the best way to describe the presenters and the choices made by Academy voters. As usual, the best did not win. And does Hollywood so devalue the talents of actors from its past that we are reduced to promoting the B list instead of asking the real stars to hand out awards?
Oscar may still be going at 80 plus years, but he sure needs a good swift kick in the pants to get back to what he used to be.