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| Billy Crystal being fabulous |
The 84th annual Academy Awards were held last night in Hollywood. I tweeted throughout, so if you missed it, go back and check out my wall of tweets to get my full thoughts on everything.
I won't bore you here with all of that, but I did want to recap what I felt were the highlights of the night.
Click "Read more" to follow me after the jump and see my thoughts on the highs and lows of this year's Academy Awards:
+ First off, I have to go on record as saying I find Billy Crystal to be intolerable. He was good in City Slickers. I'm drawing the line there.
I don't think he's funny. I think he has a smugness about him that is unearned.
At one point, after Octavia Spencer won the Oscar for "Best Supporting Actress," Crystal made the following joke:
"After I watched 'The Help,' I felt compelled to hug the first black woman I saw...which is about a 45 minute drive from Beverly Hills."It came off really crappy and politely racist. I'm not easily offended but it just was stupid.
I'm not even going to get into the fact that he started off the show in "blackface."
+ Hugo basically won a clean sweep. It made me think I may need to break down and go ahead and watch it. It got so bad that I swear audience members were rolling their eyes after a while, each time the movie won another new award for something else.
+ Nick Nolte was in the crowd and looked a million years old. Maybe it's just been a while since I've seen him, but I didn't know he was looking like THIS, these days.
+ Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianikis presented the Oscar for "Best Original Song." It was possibly the best segment of the show for the following reasons:
- Ferrell and Galifianikis were hilarious (IMO) as they marched to the stage with clanging cymbals and then joked about being "serious musicians." I'm biased. The both of them could probably just stand there and I'd crack up.
- "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets" won the award, which made me super happy since I loved that movie with all of my heart.
- Apparently, the song was written by Bret McKenzie from "Flight of the Conchords." Did you know that? I didn't. Awesome.
Those were just some of the highlights. I'd love to hear yours in the comment section.
Oh yeah, you probably wanna know who won the contest.
Drumroll please...
It was a three-way tie between Clay, Jamie and Vac. I decided to be a giver and bestow a prize on all three of you. Shoot me an email at kevinrhaggerty AT yahoo DOT com.
What were your Oscar highlights?
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I didn't watch the Oscars and I haven't seen many movies lately, but I did see and enjoy Hugo. I'm glad it got it's recognition. I was turned off by the commercials that made it look heavily CGI'd and fantastical. I got the opposite feeling after watching it. My mom thought it was a bit slow, which surprised me (usually her kind of movie). Probably helped that it paid homage to the early days of the film industry.
ReplyDeleteI would also recommend it. Thanks for the recap!
I'm definitely going to see it. We have it at home, we just haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Tonight may be the night!
ReplyDeleteI agree about Zach and Will - funny just breathing.
ReplyDeleteI'll disagree on Billy (minus the racist lapse). I preferred him over Anne and James by leaps and bounds. Ultimately waiting on Chris Rock to host...
I too despised Crystal's performance. Please modernize it. Tina Fey. Chris Rock. Whatever. Whoever.
ReplyDeleteAnd Meryl Streep got a bigger laugh during her acceptance speech than Crystal did.My highlight was Christopher Plummer's win, and not just because he is Canadian and his win is overdue. His acceptance speech was a stellar example of grace, charm, humor and sincerity.
I wasn't able to watch the Oscars...as I was driving back from taking Jonathan to Lynchburg College. So I can't comment on much of anything, except that I thought I liked Billy Crystal, but now I'm not sure! You said, he started out in blackface...........OMGolly! I didn't think anyone did that anymore. Come on, it's the twenty-first century. And the joke about hugging the first black woman...! He should have been booed off the stage! How racist!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Hugo or most of the movies that were up for Oscars. But, like you Kevin, I think I will break down and see Hugo. Curious now.
One of the ways you and I are different, Kevin, is I don't think anything Will Farrell does or says is funny. But then, that may be an age thing. Way back a million years ago, I couldn't stand Bill Murray. Then he grew on me and I thought he was hilarious. So maybe one day I will think Will is funny, too. (Although I'm kinda doubting it.)
Thanks for sharing about the Oscars. As always, you brought a few chuckles to this old lady's life :)
You're a great writer!
When Harry Met Sally...
ReplyDeleteYeah, Bret McKenzie wrote most of the songs from The Muppets, actually. I learned that after seeing the film, and it made me love it all the more.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea. That is awesome. I'm a huge FOTC fan. I heard that Jason Segel may actually be making another one at some point. I'd see it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mom :) For the record, I love Bill Murray!
ReplyDeleteDuring our tweet conversation, you broached the idea of Ferrell and Fey hosting. That's a fantasy duo.
ReplyDeleteI I feel like saying he did better than Anne and James is calling him the shinier turd. :)
ReplyDeleteYes? Go on.
ReplyDeleteKevin, aren't you on record as saying that you thought James was funny, and you enjoyed his hosting stint?
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I watched the awards. I was mostly bored. The highlights came early--Octavia Spencer, Christopher Plummer--but the rest? I didn't feel a connection to it. Maybe it was Crystal, or maybe it was due to the fact that I hadn't seen most of the movies nominated for awards. <--yeah, it was probably that. That, and the fact that me and my whole family were fighting the crud. I watched, but couldn't muster the energy to care.
ReplyDeleteYou know who they should get to host? Shatner--he's actually funny, and at 80, far livelier than Crystal.
Or how about Robert Downey, jr.? The guy's got both the class, and the wit, to pull it off.
Jamie cheated by picking better movies than I did.
ReplyDeleteI'm down with Shatner.
ReplyDeleteWill Ferrell and Zach Galifianikis... definitely needed more cowbell.
ReplyDeleteNick Nolte... I had to actually google that to make sure you weren't pulling my leg... So Nick Nolte... definitely needed a paper bag.