When I heard that Hugh Jackman was gonna host the 81st Academy Awards a few months ago, I knew this year's ceremony would not be the usual comedy show we usually get from people such as Billy Cristal, Jon Stewart or Ellen DeGeneres... I knew Hugh had made his debut in musicals and never missed an occasion to show his incredible talent as a dancer and a singer...
But oh my, what a treat did we get last night! Thank you, Baz Lhurmann, for staging that musical tribute. The musical is back!
I have no idea why but I'm pretty sure that last night was more rightly aimed at women who enjoy watching men shaking their booties in rhythm rather than at the regular movie aficionado...
It wasn't a bad ceremony, no, but it wasn't the best either. Thank god for the little Woopy Goldberg bit aimed at Amy Adams on the facts of being a nun on screen, and thank god for Robert De Niro messing with the way Sean Penn plays a better gay guy than any straight ones in previous movies...
And if Steve Martin was indeed funny... I can't say the same for Ben Stiller and Jack Black who both tried definitely too hard. I have to give credit, though, to Jack Black for the only little bit of controversy in the ceremony when he admitted making more money with animation films than regular ones, because every year, he just has to bet a whole load of cash on the Pixar movie to win. This year he was in competition with Kung Fu Panda vs Pixar's Wall-E and had the balls to make an ironic little "Yes!" when Wall-E (rather expectedly) won...
Now, let's talk about the movies, shall we?
I have to say I haven't seen all of them, well, just because they're not out over here yet (Milk, Frost/Nixon and The Reader) - How hilarious was Hugh Jackman when he admitted not having seen The Reader either in his opening song... hehehe...
Anyway, out of all the movies nominated I've seen, to me, none of them really deserved the big prize.
I'm really happy Danny Boyle got the oscar for best director and that the film also got best editing and best cinematography, cause that was what made the movie unique and original... But, best picture... I'm not sure... Better than Benjamin Button, yes, but better than the 3 others? Time will tell when I see them. No, what's really outrageous is that it got the award for best freaking adapted screenplay when they changed so many things that seemed so great in the book and made a very predictable (and even dull) story at times... The Academy had done the same mistake last year when they gave the award to No Country For Old Men which certainly didn't deserve it. They must have a definition of "best adapted screenplay" very different from mine since, in my opinion, Revolutionary Road should have been nominated and should have won hands down.
Another thing that the Academy has to explain to me is why they only selected three songs out of the hundreds of movies from last year - two of them being from the same film...
Now, let's take a look at poor Benjamin Button which didn't get much, last night, but art direction, make-up and visual effects... Ah well, I wouldn't even have given them those, so my dear old David Fincher, consider yourself lucky...
I found the 4 prizegivings for best actors and supporting actors really cool when a selection of 5 artists having already won the awards said a sweet thing about the nominees. Just a word about Sofia Loren: ...Aouch...
Of course I'm really happy Penelope Cruz got her award for best supporting actress and found both her and Kate Winslet's speeches really cute and moving. Heath Ledger's award was, I guess, just as deserved as it was expected. Talking about expected... Sean Penn's role in Milk was said from the beginning to be an academy-award-winning character... Ah well, I guess I was expecting a bit too much by wishing Richard Jenkins "to be recognized at last", as Adrian Brody so rightly put it. As much as I like Brad Pitt as an actor, I'm glad he didn't get an award for this film. He'll get it some day, I'm sure. I'm just sad that they gave it a second time to Sean Penn while for the sake of comedy/controversy/emotion, it would have been quite cool to hear Mickey Rourke's speech. Ah well.
So basically, I'll be able to judge more properly when I see Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon, but that ceremony was just as unfair and rightly-rewarding as any other academy award celebrations I've seen.
Oh and why in the hell didn't anybody tell me Isaac Hayes and Michael Crichton had died?
