Monday, February 26, 2007
The Hollywood Minute
Who's got a potentially life-threatening case of Oscar fever?
It's hard to know where to begin, really. I do absolutely have to call for a moratorium on superimposing animated characters on live shots of the audience, a practice that hasn't been cute since, well, ever. I mean, did we really need to see the children from Monster House reacting with shock and dismay to their loss? Shouldn't the producers have gone all out and just shown the title characters from Cars running over their competition in the parking lot? Or the penguins from Happy Feet menacing Academy members with knives? I'm an idea person; that's really what I am.
I should probably also complain that the ceremony itself was almost four hours long, but I'm kind of sanguine on that subject because it helped me to win money. The tiebreaker question on this year's Oscar pool was the length of the ceremony, and I hit it just about right, thusly netting a well-earned $7. It paid for almost half of my cab ride home!
As far as Ellen's hosting job goes, I was very much impressed with 1) the wide array of pantsuits, and 2) the multiple cutaways to Portia, who I love. I was less of a fan of the opening monologue, which I felt lacked the necessary references to Mr. Wrong. And I'm still searching for an Oscar host who can keep things moving, through the use of a stun gun, if necessary.
And for heaven's sake, people, if there are three of you accepting an award, you've got to know the first guy can't talk for a minute and a half. It only leads to heartache.
Who's got a potentially life-threatening case of Oscar fever?
It's hard to know where to begin, really. I do absolutely have to call for a moratorium on superimposing animated characters on live shots of the audience, a practice that hasn't been cute since, well, ever. I mean, did we really need to see the children from Monster House reacting with shock and dismay to their loss? Shouldn't the producers have gone all out and just shown the title characters from Cars running over their competition in the parking lot? Or the penguins from Happy Feet menacing Academy members with knives? I'm an idea person; that's really what I am.
I should probably also complain that the ceremony itself was almost four hours long, but I'm kind of sanguine on that subject because it helped me to win money. The tiebreaker question on this year's Oscar pool was the length of the ceremony, and I hit it just about right, thusly netting a well-earned $7. It paid for almost half of my cab ride home!
As far as Ellen's hosting job goes, I was very much impressed with 1) the wide array of pantsuits, and 2) the multiple cutaways to Portia, who I love. I was less of a fan of the opening monologue, which I felt lacked the necessary references to Mr. Wrong. And I'm still searching for an Oscar host who can keep things moving, through the use of a stun gun, if necessary.
And for heaven's sake, people, if there are three of you accepting an award, you've got to know the first guy can't talk for a minute and a half. It only leads to heartache.
