The Oscars

The producers were hoping The Oscars 2023 would prove to be knockout for the viewers instead of the presenters like last year.

Presenter Jimmy Kimmel took his cue from Billy Crystal, inserting himself into footage of the Best Picture nominees.

Unfortunately his jokes lacked Crystal's sure touch. I thought maybe Steven Spielberg was going to slap him for poking fun of his parent's marriage.

It took a while for the ceremony to get going. Only one award was handed in the first half hour.

The two best supporting acting awards indicated that this would be the night for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Ke Huy Quan no longer a Trivial Pursuit question. Whatever happened to the kid from Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom?

Jamie Lee Curtis showing she was always an acting talent to reckon with. Charismatic but the Hollywood bigwigs took a while to notice her outside of genre movies.

Brendan Fraser who seemed to have disappeared for a few years and them emerged on television got the Best Actor award. He was championed by Ian McKellen 25 years ago. He said once Brendan gets older, the looks go, the Hollywood executives will notice just what a good actor he is. The Mummy films might have been silly but Fraser always had the effortless star quality.

Michelle Yeoh took a leap from the martial arts genre. The first Star Trek captain to be an Oscar winner.

The songs were boring It was a good job Naatu Naatu had the infectious dance moves.

Overall rather safe and predictable. Apart from an impromptu Happy Birthday sang out at the auditorium.

Sticking to the tradition of watching the oscars the day after it airs, this installment was actually quite good. Most (if not, all) of these films that either got nominated or won were most deserving, as the films I did see out of the bunch were exceptional films. Most of the speeches were great (most notably everyone that won for best picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once) and I found the musical performances more entertaining than past Oscar ceremonies. My only gripe is that when the winners would be on their way upstage, the announcer who's giving information about the said winners was just way too quiet, and was barraged with background music, so I wasn't ever able to hear what she was saying. Jimmy Kimmel nailed it as the presenter though, making a few Will Smith jokes that seriously made me laugh out loud, and we got an appearance from cocaine bear, so honestly, win. This oscars was a win IMO, and am excited to watch these movies that were either nominated or won.

. . . of this year's Academy Awards program. There were songs. There were dances. Celebrity cameos. Jokes galore. Some of the Favorites won. Some of the Dark Horses triumphed. Half of the ten Best Picture nominees reaped a total of zero shiny statuettes between them. The remaining quintet garnered 14 top prizes, with one lucky Mega Ball winner grabbing 7 of them, and another streaming service entry notching a quartet of trophies. Who cares if a few--or even most--of the glitterati in attendance wouldn't be caught dead in an actual movie theater, despite their frequent hypocritical tributes to flicks which had drawn in the Paying Public to see "movies like they were meant to be seen." Most of we normal, regular people also would prefer to stream the latest films--or view them on free "screen-er" discs--in the comfort of our own homes, if this were an affordable option available to us. To argue otherwise would smack of "sour grapes."

The winners weren't just exciting. Everything Everywhere All at Once earned the sweep! Brendan Fraser earned this comeback award.

But this was also a solid ceremony. The jokes weren't terrible and most of them actually landed with me.

I just want less comedy and banter between presenters to give more time for speeches. It's so frustrating. We don't need every presenter to have banter with another person.

RRR winning song was one of the best wins of the night.

Only wins I was disappointed with were All Quiet winning production design and score. Even those I know who weren't fans of Babylon thought those elements were deserving.

But this was actually a very good ceremony.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this years Oscar's.

Eight years after #OscarsSoWhite movement the Academy took steps toward racial and cultural diversity in its structure. Today however we continue to debate on exclusion, which I think stems from selected overrate and selected overlook.

Award winners Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh are undeniably good actors but what about Cate Blanchett or Austin Butler and the movies like Tar and Elvis? The little multiverse mudder Everything Everywhere All At Once is a mediocre film lacking a heart to relate. Academy maybe demonstrated its stance for diversity but also overlooked the artistic merits as sole benchmark for awards.

My personal awards this year go to Tar, Elvis and Belgium film Close.