Oscars

People that know me, know that I have always been a big movie fan, so I always enjoy to watch the Oscars every year.

Tonight I got around to finally watching the end of the Oscars from this year. It wasn't the best one this year, though. I wasn't sure I would like Ellen as host, but she actually was mildly funny- I guess I just don't like when she does that dancing bit on her talk show. Last year I thought was much funnier with the always funny John Stewart hosting.

A couple of natural funny laughs in the show. I had the biggest chuckle near the end of the show when Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Speilberg and George Lucas came out to present the Best Director award. They started talking about how great it feels to win the Oscar when Lucas reminded the other two that he has never won anything. It was a good laugh- of course I am sure Lucas' confidence is safe- he is pretty much a billionaire between the money made from Star Wars, THX and ILM.

Another funny moment when Robert Downey Jr, who is well known for having a drug problem in the 90's was introducing the special effects award and said “Visual effects: they enable us to see aliens, experience other universes, move in slow motion, or watch spiders climbing high above the city landscape. For me, just a typical weeknight in the mid-’90s.” (thanks to MSNBC website for the quick copy and paste here).

Ritsy and I watched American Idol a few years back when Jennifer Hudson was a contestant. We really felt that she was a pretty good singer and got a bad rap from Simon and the other guy (oops can't remember his name). It's amazing to see her win first the Golden Globe and then the Oscar this year, she was all class too- she never once called out Simon for his rude comments. To be honest though, when they performed she was seriously out-performed by Beyonce- and you know I don't like that type of music so that says a lot.

Final thought from the show was Peter O'Toole. He is about 75 years old now- but he has had an incredibly long and amazing career- most memorable for Lawrence of Arabia. Well he was nominated for the 8th time and was passed over again, the poor guy was shown on camera and you could see he was totally nervous before they read the name and it took a moment for him to realize that it wasn't his name they called. I hope Forest Whitaker's performance was something special- I would have been okay with a sentimental nod in that category.

It was good to see the Departed win the big award too- Scorsese has made so many memorable moves, this one will stand up with the others.