Oscar Follow-up

I've got to say, this years Oscars did not live up to last years in terms of the overall show. Hugh Jackman was straight up hilarious, and that opening song and dance last year was just too good to be true. This year, it was just failures left and right. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin flat out sucked together, although they had a few good jokes when they were on their own. It makes me feel the two hosts thing just really doesn't work. That strange stare-down with George Clooney at the start was incredibly odd, like an inside joke no one understood. The opening song, well, it was fine and all but nothing special. It really didn't compare to last years.

As for the actual awards, I'm pleased to say of the 20 predictions I made, I got 15 correct. I'm surprised I missed some of the biggest awards though, namely both the writing categories as well as picture of the year, which was a pleasant surprise. I officially picked Avatar to win but of course I did say it would be ideal if The Hurt Locker won. I'm terribly disappointed Inglourious Basterds didn't pick up any of the awards I thought it would, minus Christoph Waltz for best supporting. The little introductions to each of the best pictures throughout the show, well, I'm sure if I hadn't seen any of them I'd be loving it, but the problem is I'd seen them all so it was a bit of a bore. The introductions to each best acting category seemed very dragged out at times, and some of the speakers, unfortunately, weren't very good at telling their stories.

I was actually quite shocked at some of the award winners, since I was fairly confident in those predictions that ended up being incorrect. The White Ribbon of all things I was under the impression it was a certainty for best foreign film, seeing as how it won the Golden Globe as well as the Plame d'Or, only the most prestigious film award in the world. As for Precious winning best adapted screenplay, I just don't know about that. Content wise, yes it's compelling but I don't know if it was all that well written, especially in comparison to the magic of Up In The Air. When Inglourious Basterds didn't pick up best original screenplay it was like a knife in my heart.

Here are the winners:

Editing - The Hurt Locker

Visual Effects - Avatar

Makeup - Star Trek

Costume Design - The Young Victoria

Art Direction - Avatar

Cinematography - Avatar

Sound Editing - The Hurt Locker

Sound Mixing - The Hurt Locker

Original Score - Up

Original Song - The Weary Kind - Crazy Heart

Animated Short - Logorama (I called it based on the short clips they showed so I though I'd include it)

Documentary - The Cove (I also called it, but it was purely based on publicity)

Animated Feature - Up (as a side note, seeing Coraline just hours before the show, I felt it should have won)

Foreign Film - El Secreto de Sus Ojos

Original Screenplay - The Hurt Locker

Adapted Screenplay - Precious

Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz

Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique

Actor - Jeff Bridges

Actress - Sandra Bullock

Director - Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

Best Picture - The Hurt Locker

Also, what was up with the Best Picture award being the most rushed thing in history? They went over time either way, they might have as well done a proper introduction.