For some reason I tune in year after year to watch the Academy Awards. Year after year I am disappointed.
I sit through the sound mixing awards and the best costume design for those few awards at the end that actually interest my trivia-addicted mind.
Who won best actor? Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Other than that even when I am surprised by the awards given out I am really never that surprised. “Crash” won best picture instead of “Brokeback Mountain.” Who really cares? They both are great movies that relatively few people have seen.
The real surprise of the show is how it fails to adapt to the need for action in modern times. Viewers think that the Oscars are for an older set and if you watched last night you realized…they are.
Once the film clips start to outdate even the honorary award recipient perhaps we have gone too far back.
The Oscars need to take a look at MTV and update the show for a younger audience. How about new categories like best gunfight or funniest screenplay? These are awards that may seem hokey but actually are important parts of the movie industry. They would also be entertaining to watch and you might get an acceptance speech that you haven’t heard a thousand times before.
I mean, when someone gets up there, we already know what he or she is going to say. Stop thanking the production company and agents. They know who they are. Say something funny or something inspirational. You have the ear of the world. Be original, for God’s sake.
The one thing the Academy Awards did do this year was hire a genuinely funny host who can draw laughs on a wide variety of levels as well as think on his feet.
After the rap group “Three 6 Mafia” won the best original song award for “It’s hard out here for a pimp,” Stewart joked “You know what? I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp.”
He also brought his unique “Daily Show” style parodies to the show by showing fake mudslinging political commercials intended to sway the academy to choose a particular nominee.
My only regret about Stewart’s performance was that he did not bring enough of “The Daily Show” with him. I would love to see mock interviews with celebrities. Really, I would love to see anything that breaks up the monotony of the show.
The only other memorable moment was George Clooney’s acceptance speech. He explained that he was proud of the fact that people accuse Hollywood of being “out of touch”. That is if “out of touch” refers to Hollywood’s exposure of social injustices long before they become common issues in the mainstream.
That’s not the only way Hollywood is out of touch though. The fact that the Oscars keep putting on the same tired old awards show truly proves Hollywood is out of touch. I wonder if you are proud of that George?
If the Oscars hope to survive in the modern age of car crash TV then they must update or get out of the way.
