The 82nd Annual Academy Awards

The 82nd Academy Awards will be remembered as the first time in many years that the Oscars featured ten Best Picture nominees and clips from all ten nominees were presented separately spread throughout the broadcast. However, let's face it, not much changed as only AVATAR and THE HURT LOCKER had a chance to win. Also, ever since the SAG Awards have been announced before the Oscars, the acting awards have become very predictable since the acting branch's votes naturally match the SAG votes nearly every time. This year's Oscars were also simplified for the public like most movies these days to a high concept pitch, in this case, it was billed as James Cameron vs. his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. Regardless of any changes to the Oscars this year, they were guaranteed to have a good ratings year because of the presence of AVATAR, the new all-time box office champion. It didn't matter that the Best Picture field was expanded to ten nominees or who produced or directed this year's show, it was guaranteed to do better than it has in recent years.

The biggest change I noticed was the remodeling of the not very old yet Kodak Theatre, the seating looked different and was changed from red to blue. My favorite change (and one I hope will remain this way) was dropping the performances of the Best Original Song nominees and putting that award much earlier in the show. For years, so much time has been devoted to this music award at a movie award show while in the past the Best Picture nominees (the biggest and most important award) would be lucky to get a 30 second clip each while each song would be performed in its entirety. My least favorite change was dropping the lifetime achievement Oscars and Thalberg award to a private ceremony simply because it was felt that the show was slowed down by lengthy tributes to old people - not my opinion by the way. I wouldn't mind the show going over three hours by paying homage to great contributors to cinema like Lauren Bacall, Roger Corman, and Gordon Willis. Besides, let's face facts, they will be remembered for impacting the history of film a lot longer than Oscar winners like Mo'Nique! Another big change I noticed was having the presenters say, "the winner is" rather than "the Oscar goes to" for the first time in years. At first, it seems less appropriate, but on second thought, considering how many awards have been virtually "won" (and purchased) by relentless campaigning, maybe saying "winner" is more accurate. I am glad that the In Memoriam tribute was kept and I loved the tribute to John Hughes whose body of work has endured and will not be forgotten. However, some things never change: the obviously written and read jokes by the hosts and presenters, lame song and dance numbers (Neil Patrick Harris' show opening song and the choreographed dances to the Best Original Score nominees highlighted by doing the robot to UP!), and the awesome awkward reaction shots of actors not laughing at jokes and of actors not having anything to do with the film that just won an award.

Other highlights for me were: *Elinor Burkett rudely cutting off fellow winner Roger Ross Williams (MUSIC FOR PRUDENCE) to steal the short speech time! *The nervous young actresses who either flubbed their lines on stage (Miley Cyrus & Zoe Saldana) or coughed really loud (Kristen Stewart) while presenting *The hurry to present Best Picture by Tom Hanks without naming the ten nominees again, possibly an attempt to end the show at exactly 9pm Pacific/Midnight Eastern or because by then everyone knew that THE HURT LOCKER was going to win? Maybe they shouldn't have let Ben Stiller hog so much airtime dressed as a Na'vi or they should have cut the endless butt-kissing introductions of the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees by fellow actors.

This has to have been the most boring Oscar show that I have ever seen and the least funny hosts that I can recall. It speaks volumes when Sandra Bullock's five minute acceptance speech got more laughs than everything before it. I hope that I am not becoming a stuff shirt but I don't recall finding hardly anything else funny and thought that the Jewish jokes were very poor taste to say the least.

I hope that, whoever presents the Oscars next year will make major changes next year, among them getting rid of the writers for this year's show and whoever thought of the improvisational dance and lack of set design that had no relation to the themes that were being played by the orchestra. Another major change would be a return to the solitary host but allow the host to improvise a little, albeit within some basic guidelines so, if the show does drag, at least it will not be as painfully boring. Some of the presenters should also be able to say non-scripted tidbits within the same guidelines. Even if many of the awards would be predictable, at least the element of surprise would be alive in the presentation.

My score - 3 - would have been lower without Sandra Bullock saving the day.

"The 82nd Annual Academy Awards" wasn't one of the best Oscars, and still not one of the worst. However it was history making and a little different than those past as the hosting was a tag team duty(Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin)and it featured for the first time since 1943 ten films were nominated for best picture. And for the first time in history a female would win best director(Kathryn Bigelow)and her film "The Hurt Locker" would knock off the all time box office grossing king "Avatar" for best picture! And it was nice to see two well deserved overdue veterans win for best actor(Jeff Bridges) and best actress(Sandra Bullock).

Starting off with a bang the tag team of Martin and Baldwin kept the show funny with crude jokes and well written one liners. Proving they were the funniest men in show business especially Steve stood out. However their stage time seemed to take a backseat to presenters, music skits, and speeches. Many past award winners were presenters as always, somewhat surprising was a tribute to the late romantic comedy and teen coming of age director and writer John Hughes. Odd was a montage tribute to horror films? And as typical as this year with music played by James Taylor a homage montage was given to stars that past away why was Farrah Fawcett left out? And the awards given out were predictable no real surprises.

The strongest performance wins were in the best actress category sweetheart Sandra Bullock walked away for her caring sympathetic role in "The Blind Side" clearly the kind of roles that pleases voters. It's nice the down to earth Sandy can take home gold as her speech was emotional almost bringing tears. Most pleasing was seeing the hard working talented Jeff Bridges win best actor for "Crazy Heart". Jeff was long deserving of receiving an award. His acceptance speech was happy go lucky he's a good likable guy too nice pick by the academy. If you saw "Crazy Heart" his performance was talented and amazing for how his character battled pain and hardship on the way to redemption.

Next history was made Kathryn Bigelow was the first female ever to win best director as she won for her film "The Hurt Locker". And to add the icing on the cake "The Hurt Locker" won best picture defeating all time box office champ "Avatar" as Kathryn was two and zero against her ex husband James Cameron who directed "Avatar" and was up for best director. The academy liked a bomb stopping crew over blue aliens! Overall good Oscar show that could have been better it seemed a little rushed and really no surprises in the awards to predictable. It will be most remembered for Bigelow's history making win and well liked for Bullock and Bridges well long overdue deserved wins.

I always look forward to the Oscars! This was the most enjoyable one for me in a long time. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were great hosts -- very funny. Baldwin is the epitome of cool. The only real disappointment was that there were no real surprises in most of the categories. So I made a pact with myself next year not to read magazines newspapers or watch television shows that pertain to Oscar predictions. Just so there will be an element of surprise next year.

Regardless of that it was one of the best Oscar telecasts in a long time. The tributes to the lead actors and actresses prior to the announcement of the winners in those categories was a bit tedious for me, even though, as I said, I pretty much knew who would win. Even at almost 3 and a half hours, it was pretty entertaining.

This year's Oscar show was not exactly inspired (with rather sparse input from hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin) but quite tolerable altogether. As such there was little novelty (surprisingly, the individual presentation of the nominated songs was dropped but, then, there was still the usual ostentatious dance number which tried to 'illustrate' the nominated scores – the one for THE HURT LOCKER was particularly idiotic!), and the embarrassing display of reverence for the acting candidates (though this time it was restricted to the leading roles) from last year was reprised. Though appropriately featuring the accompaniment of The Beatles' track "In My Life" (beautifully played on guitar and sung by James Taylor), the "In Memoriam" section was not as moving as that of previous shows (due to the fact that, thankfully, no true cinema giant passed away during 2009); the individual tribute to John Hughes – by several of the (grown-up) actors he had honed – was an unexpected but pleasant surprise…as was the presence among the audience of Lauren Bacall and especially Roger Corman (recipients of an Honorary Oscar in a smaller-scale ceremony held back in November). The apologetic ode to Horror movies really came out of nowhere and, despite the obvious inclusion of clips from beloved classics and popular modern fare, mostly stuck out like a sore thumb! Again, none of the 'Thank You' speeches were particularly stirring – though Jeff Bridges dedicated his victory to his late parents, Mo'Nique acknowledged Hattie McDaniel (who had set a precedent with the first black win back in 1940), and costume designer Sandy Powell saluted those of her field typically involved in projects boasting contemporary settings (which she readily admitted were seldom recognized by the Academy). With respect to the results, apart from the AVATAR fiasco, the only real unforeseen victories were those of the Best Adapted Screenplay (won by PRECIOUS, complete with pretentious and baffling subtitle, rather than UP IN THE AIR) and Best Foreign-Language Film (Austrian Michael Haneke's highly-touted THE WHITE RIBBON missing out in favor of the Argentinian entry THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES). Typically, the night culminated with the Best Actor, Actress, Direction and Picture statuettes – all of which saw the winners venting their elation uninterrupted; though it was a given that Kathryn Bigelow would triumph (and receive a well-deserved standing ovation into the bargain) over her ex-husband James Cameron, thus awarding a woman director the first Oscar after 82 years, this became even more obvious when Barbra Streisand turned up to present that particular category. In the end, while hardly memorable, the show emerged (as ever) to be worth a watch for hardened movie-buffs.