Oscar Night

Last night, I went to my annual Oscar party with a few co-workers. Or, as Dorene would say, I went to a boring party with a lot of strange people that sit around and talk about movies that nobody in the country has gone to see. I take offense to that, WE saw the movies. Okay, she has a point, the combined grosses of contenders Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Milk, The Wrestler, and Vicky Christina Barcelona are still less than that of Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

The show was quite different than in past years, and at times it was a good thing and at times it wasn't.

• Host: Hugh Jackman started off good with a musical number similar to what Billy Crystal always did. Overall he did pretty good. Although the whole song and dance thing got a little old. Anne Hathaway can sing.
• Excellent bit with Tina Fey and Steve Martin. Also good was the piece with Seth Rogan and James Franco, where they bust up laughing at serious films like The Reader.
• That musical number with Beyonce was pretty lame and just kinda strange at times. Mixed a whole bunch of songs at the same time which just didn't really work.
• Bringing in 5 previous winners to talk about the current nominees? Okay at first, but it got kinda old. Besides, these were just acting awards, they weren't up for a Nobel Prize. Kinda overboard on showering each nominee with praise. I mean, it's not going to change the world that Marisa Tomei and Michael Shannon were nominated for movies no one saw.
• No real surprises with any of the awards.
• Will Smith gave out 4 Oscars. Let someone else help out.
• What was Sophia Loren saying in her tribute to Meryl Streep?
• Where was Jack Nicholson? Tom Hanks? Or last year's Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis? Or last year's Best Actress (bet you can't name her, it took a few of us a while last night to remember).
• Jerry Lewis has been doing the "Jerry's Kids" thing much longer than I realized.
• No memorable acceptance speeches, except maybe when Phillipe Petit balanced the Oscar on his chin.
• Yawn, Sean Penn getting political. Points for making light of his gruff nature though.
• Certainly the moment everyone was waiting for was Heath Ledger winning, and his family coming up to accept on his behalf. That was a good moment.

I did miserably on the Oscar pool. Picked most of the major nominees correctly, but botched everything else. No one correctly guessed that "Smile Pinky" would win Best Live Action Short. I stood alone in picking "Slumdog Millionaire" to win Best Sound Mixing (yes, you should be in awe of me for that).

Did "Slumdog Millionaire" deserve to win Best Picture? Yes, absolutely. Much more deserving than last year's "No Country for Old Men." If you haven't seen Slumdog, I highly recommend it. Certainly one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It's well worth seeking out and needs to be seen on the big screen. Be sure not to hop right out of your chair when the movie ends.