James Franco and Anne Hathaway, hosts of the forgettable 83rd Academy Awards.
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
We have a lot of things to get to this evening. The Oscars were on last night, and as one of the 30 million poor bastards to end up watching this horribly produced telecast, I do have some opinions (and, for that matter, complaints) to get to. All of the four big Thursday night comedies aired last week, which means that I have a new edition of the power rankings ready to go. And then there were the thoughts over the past weekend that had to do with people like Forest Whitaker, Joel McHale, and others. So, let's get started immediately, shall we? The following were on my mind between Thursday, February 24th and Monday, February 28th:
- Look, I knew from the beginning that this year's Oscars would disappoint, but I didn't expect it to be THAT bad. I mean, my goodness, where to begin? For starters, the writing was pretty weak, as it usually is when a non-comedian hosts the awards show, and the planning of the show seemed ill-conceived. Second, James Franco was even worse as a host then I expected for him to be (so much so, in fact, that David Letterman's hosting job looked comparable to Jon Stewart's in 2008). I mean, at least Anne Hathaway was very enthusiastic and tried her best to make the show's poor writing at least enjoyable, too much in fact. Franco looked most of the time that he didn't want to be there, making lazy jokes and not even bothering to even look at Hathaway at times. You could tell that even the audience were beginning to hate the ceremonies when Billy Crystal arrived and everyone gave him a standing ovation like he was going to save the day, even though his bit ended up being as bad as the rest of the show.
Furthermore, why try to appeal to the younger demographic with Hathaway and Franco in order to hide from the fact that it was going to be a three hour tribute to "The King's Speech" while proclaiming that this was going to be the young and hip Oscars, and then show footages and images from old Oscar winners and Oscars telecasts in general? From the minute they started this poorly directed and designed "tribute" with little scenes from "Gone with the Wind" shown way downstage, I got a little bit confused. Finally, I felt that the moment where a dead Bob Hope introduced Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law was incredibly poor taste, and one of the lowest moments that I've seen the Academy Awards doing in years. During one of the many minutes during the telecast wasted on pointless speeches, ABC announced that they renewed the broadcasting rights of the show through 2020. Let's hope that they start they're new commitment off right with a decent 2012 awards show. Might I suggest Tina Fey as the next host, or Justin Timberlake?
Anyways, here are some other thoughts that I had on the awards:
a. Admit it, 94 year old Kirk Douglas is basically the live action Abraham Simpson, isn't he?
b. About the Melissa Leo speech: I wasn't so much mad at her F-bomb that many other people seem to be (I actually thought that was pretty genuine and slightly sincere), but rather on how surprised she looked that she won. Yes, I know that Hailee Steinfeld was gaining some buzz over the past few days, but it's not like this was the first award she won during this past awards season. Over the past few weeks, she has won the Golden Globe, the SAG, the New York Film Critics Award the Broadcast Film Critics Association award for the same category that she won last night, just to name a few. I'm pretty sure that she could have at least written something up before her name was called instead of looking like she was some huge underdog.
c. At least the ending with PS 22 was nice, right?
d. Oh, David Seidler! How can I possibly not like you for winning the Best Original Screenplay award over Christopher Nolan when you're speech was so fantastic? This is why the world needs good writers, people?
e. I like how when Ricky Gervais made fun of Robert Downey Jr. at the Golden Globes, everyone in Hollywood thought it was in poor taste, but when Jude Law mocked RDJ in very similar fashion last night everyone seemed to laugh and enjoy it.
f. During Sandra Bullock's presentation of the nominees for Best Actor, she called Jesse Eisenberg's performance captured "the spirit of a generation" . At first I was puzzled, but then I got to thinking and it actually makes sense! After all, Eisenberg did play a narcissistic asshole.
g. One of the few things that I enjoyed about this awards show was that they didn't allow for the audience to clap during the "In Memoriam" portion and instead wait until the montage is all over. I always felt that the tradition felt like some dead people popularity contest.
h. Of all of the awards won, I thought that Tom Hooper wining Best Director over David Fincher was the biggest mistake of the night. Don't get me wrong, Hooper did just fine in "The King's Speech" (the movie did end up winning Best Picture, after all). But he was helped by an extraordinary cast and an Academy Award winning script by Seidler. But to reiterate what I wrote yesterday, Fincher had the difficult task of trying to make a movie about Harvard nerds sitting in front of a computer and creating a website interesting, and he did it exceptionally. I would figure that the Academy would at least take that into consideration. But then again, I guess it seemed pretty obvious that Hooper was going to win from the moment that he won the DGA award (an award that has correctly predicted 90% of the Best Director winners since the late 1940s).
i. Yes, "The King's Speech" won Best Picture. And, yes, it was a pretty good movie, don't get me wrong. But I'm just going to say right now that if I were to ever look back at the movies to come out in the year 2010 in the future (say, a decade from now) I will most likely remember it as the great year in film that brought out such classics as "Inception," "The Social Network," and "Toy Story 3" among others. "The King's Speech," meanwhile, will probably just become a nice little sidenote in my nostalgic look back while also joining films like "Slumdog Millionaire," "Shakespeare in Love" and "Around the World in 80 Days" as Best Picture winners that didn't deserve it.
j. 8-2 picking the major awards for the second year in a row (Oh, Best Original Screenplay category! Why must you be so uncomplimentary yet again?) Maybe it's about time that I start using this Oscar luck for actual monetary purposes rather than for some recreational activity.
Can't wait to see the slate of movies to come out during the rest of 2011! Now, let's keep this program rolling...
- What happened to you, Forest Whitaker? One moment, you were winning an Oscar for Best Actor and now you're starring in the God-awful "Criminal Minds" spinoff, "Suspect Behavior"? My how the mighty have fallen!
- I honestly believe that, instead of the D.A.R.E. program, elementary and middle schools should instead show news stories of the Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson escapades during the past three years. I know that I would've been more prone to stay off drugs than had some non-threatening lion mascot gave me reasons as to why I shouldn't do it.
- I hate what Hulu has become these days. It used to be a wonderful little website that allowed you to watch a bunch of full episodes of your favorite NBC Universal, FOX and Disney shows the day after it aired, free, with only one commercial that never lasted past 30 seconds. Now, it's become a website that shows a minimum two commercial per breaks, shows that wait up to a month to air an episode (ex: "House" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") and makes you even pay a fee to watch some of their episodes. Thank goodness that I have a DVR to save the day.
- Oh, Joel McHale! Everything about you, from your character on "Community" to your jokes on "The Soup" just screams "douchebag" and "asshole," and yet I still enjoy watching him, nonetheless.
- My NBC Thursday Night Comedies Power Rankings for the episodes that aired on 02/25:
1. "30 Rock"- "TGS Hates Women" (40 points)
For the first time in a while, I actually laughed and enjoyed a "30 Rock" episodes more than any of the other Thursday night comedies to air the rest of the night. There were plenty of great one-liners, as all good "30 Rock" episodes do, and there were many parts of the episodes that I really enjoyed. The opening period jokes that ended with Liz getting her period and reacting by firing the entire staff was hysterical, Cristin Milioti and Chloe Moretz were great in their respective role, and the big reveal as to why Abby Grossman became Abby Flynn was totally unexpected. And the scenes with Jack Donaghy and Hank Hooper's granddaughter? Pure comedy gold! Not a bad rebound for a stretch of episodes that I thought were not as good compared to the other three shows.
2. "Parks and Recreations"- "Indianapolis" (30 points)
Just a fun episode to watch, especially when the episode either took place in the Snakehole or involved Ron Swanson in his quest to find some good ass steak in the big city. Overall, a nice wrap to one of the show's best six episode stretches ever.
3. "The Office"- "Todd Packer" (25 points)
One of the funniest episodes of the season, and one that actually felt like a classic 'Office' episode. So why do I have this ranked so low? Well, David Koechner, for one, who basically dragged down the rest of the show. I felt that the scenes without him and ones that dealet with the reaction to his return were more enjoyable than scenes with him general. The second was the Pam B-story, which I found to be off at times. But because I felt their good moments outweighed their bads, I'm giving it a 25 instead of the regular 20 that I would have given a 3rd place episode.
4. "Community"- "Intro to Political Science" (15 points)
I don't know. On one hand, I did enjoy the great Easter egg that was the Greendale College Circuit TV Channel's bottom news bar, and the Abed subplot was pretty cute. On the other hand, I have seen just how good of an episode "Community" can make this season, and this was not one of them. But then again, when you have been on a roll like the show has been for the past month and a half, I suppose that you are allowed to have a few bumps on the roads once in a while. What did you think, Magnitude?
"Pop, pop!"
Delightful. Now, here is my current season tally after six weeks of new episodes from all four shows:
1. "Parks and Recreations"- 200 points
2. "Community"- 180 points
3. "The Office"- 165 points
4. "30 Rock"- 150 points
Despite the fact that "30 Rock" had a big bounce back in the points this week with their first solo 1st place finish of the year, it still only ended up gaining only 10 points on 1st place comedy "Parks and Recreations," and are officially trailing the show by fifty. "Community," meanwhile, after being oh so close to finally gaining that #1 spot ended up having an episode that I thought was one of their bottom five this season, so they have fallen behind by 15 points. "The Office," meanwhile continues to roll along in the middle of the pack as it has seemed to be doing all winter long. All four comedies are off for the next two weeks, so don't expect the power rankings to return until March 21st at the earliest (following the return of comedy on NBC primetime March 17th). Until then, this is mj15 saying: did you know that you can make napalm out of common dishsoap and catfood? It's true!
More random thoughts to come this Thursday. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to try to find any other footage of 94 year old Kirk Douglas doing any other public appearances. This man right now is comedy gold in the making.
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or
tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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