Oscar 2011 aka The Snoozer

Well, I just sat through the entire Oscar broadcast and all I can say is, "Thank God it's over!" It has to be one of the most boring award telecasts I've ever had to sit through.  Kudos to Anne Hathaway for doing everything she could to carry the show because, the writers and James Franco (high as he might have been) did her no favors.

But still, there were a few moments of fun.  Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Billy Crystal and Sandra Bullock were all good sports and highlights of the evening.  The ever changing set was pretty cool.  And of course, there were lots of pretty dresses.

But first and foremost, it was still Hollywood's biggest night for movies.  My voting, which only carried weight in my apartment, wasn't very good.  It seems I vote more with what I love and apparently, not so much with what's supposed to win.  Anyway, here are the winners and who I picked:

Category: Winner/Who I Picked
Best Short Film (Live Action): God of Love/The Crush
     Never saw or heard of any of these until the awards.  I chose The Crush because it reminded me of the Alicia Silverstone/Cary Elwes movie.  The guy who DID win gave the funniest speech of the night.

Best Visual Short (Animated): The Lost Thing/Let's Pollute
     Same as above except, none of these films reminded me of anything.  Let's Pollute just sounded funny.

Best Documentary (Short): Strangers No More/Sun Comes Up
     Same as above.  Sun Comes Up just sounded positive.

Best Visual Effects: Inception/Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1
     The first category where voting with my heart got me squat.  I guess, Inception was a shoo-in but, I love Harry Potter so I couldn't help it.

Best Sound Mixing: Inception
     Did the others really have a chance?

Best Sound Editing: Inception
     See above.

Best Makeup: The Wolfman
     The most "showy" of the nominees always wins.  And I agree with Ms. Cate Blanchett, "Gross."

Best Cinematography: Inception/The King's Speech
     Another given for Inception but, I thought TKS might take it.  I was wrong.

Best Film Editing: The Social Network/Black Swan
     This was a tough call but, I thought BS would pull it out.  Another incorrect guess for me.  If we were ranking them, I would've put TSN second.

Best Documentary: Inside Job/Waste Land
     Another one where I saw none of the nominees and felt shame for having not heard of them.

Best Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network
     I loved that Reznor and Ross' dark score pulled out the victory.  Of the nominees, I felt, theirs' was the music that added the most to the respective film.

Best Original Song: We Belong Together/I See The Light
    Congrats to Randy Newman for writing the same song that has been nominated 20 times and now won twice.  Judging by the telecast, I thought the song from Tangled (I See The Light) should've gotten the win.  If they'd used Donna Murphy in the performance, they probably would have.

Best Costume Design: Colleen Atwood - Alice In Wonderland
    The movie with the showiest costumes also produced the winner with the worst speech of the night.

Best Art Direction: Alice In Wonderland/Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1
     Another one where my love for Harry Potter clouded my judgement.  Common sense would've told me to vote for AIW.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network
     Aaron Sorkin won for THE best screenplay of the year!

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler - The King's Speech
     David Seidler won for the 2nd best screenplay of the year!

Best Foreign Film: In A Better World (Denmark)/Biutiful (Mexico)
     Denmark beat Mexico in the Miss Universe category.  Foiled again!

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3                                  
     Really? Did the other nominees think they had a shot?

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo - The Fighter/Amy Adams - The Fighter
     Another one where I went with my heart.  I knew Melissa Leo would probably win but, I'm on the bandwagon for Amy Adams to get the little gold man.  She's always solid and gets overshadowed by people in the showier roles.  Her time is coming!

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale - The Fighter
     Speaking of solid actors who always get overshadowed, Christian Bale (hateful as he may sound on those Terminator recordings) is a great actor who got the recognition he deserved, finally.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman - Black Swan
     Probably the category that will have had the most dispute this year but, I loved Portman's portrayal of the ballerina who JUST wanted to be perfect.  It was creepy and weak and powerful and great!  I know others think Annette Bening should've won but, I'm not so sure.  To me, she's always so big on film I'd love to see her on stage.  Bring the woman to Broadway!

Best Actor: Colin Firth - The King's Speech
     Another shoo-in winner, this year.  Amazing and should have one for simply being the ONLY actor (I love you, Meryl!) to come out of Mamma Mia unscathed.

Best Director: Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
     Deserved win.  Plus, he got bonus points for giving credit for the idea of the film to his mum.  She saw a play called The King's Speech and said it should be his next film.  Like he said, "The moral of the story, listen to your mum."

Best Picture: The King's Speech

     Tough call but, I also went with TKS!  I went in expecting a "typical" boring, British film and was greatly surprised by what I saw.  Colin, Helena, Geoffrey and the rest of the cast were great!  Plus, the script was funny and poignant and everything you'd want in a Best Picture winner.  Congrats to all involved!


So, I had a not so great 54% voting percentage (13 of 24) Anyway, those are my comments.   What do you think of the night?


Until next time...