Oscar Watch: 2011

"So you thought the Oscars were weird?"
(beat)
"You didn't think they were weird?"

Well, not initially...

Oscar Watch: 2011!
Cambria was sweet enough to host an Oscar party! It was lovely. Pizza, truffles, gingersnaps....mmmm. Lots of good food. Lots of fun people. I always like watching awards shows with company. Eric won the Oscar Ballot race with 12, while Brad and I tied in last with 7.

The Hosts
I can wrap this one up pretty quick. I thought James Franco was mostly a dud, but that Anne Hathaway was lots of fun.

Quick Thoughts
Honestly, I went in with low expectations. I expected Hathaway and Franco to be fun and lighthearted, which at least Hathaway was. And for the most part, I don't remember anyone getting really ragged on this year (except Hugh Jackman which was all in fun and one poke at Charlie Sheen). The lack of cruel ribbing was nice.
I have to say, I did love the backdrop this year.
I wished they would have incorporated the history of the Oscars better, if they were going to go that route. Suddenly Gone with the Wind was in the background and none of us knew why. (I was disappointed that for Best Animated they decided to feature Shrek in the background, but eh.)
I had heard a few days earlier that the show choir was going to sing, so it didn't strike me quite as random as it seemed to strike everyone else. Had I not known that was planned, it probably would have seemed strange.

The Movies
As I stated at the end of 2010, I really didn't see too many movies last year. The only ones I had that were up for Best Picture were Toy Story 3, Inception and True Grit. And let's face it, none of those were actually in the running for Best Picture.

The Winners...
....were mostly not surprising. I hadn't been following too much Oscar talk, but didn't see much upset either. Their speeches were mostly expected.

Disappointment
Okay, I know Toy Story 3 was a lock. There was no doubt. Nonetheless, How to Train Your Dragon was the better movie and should have won. (And not just because I want a Toothless.)
I liked TS3. I thought the ending was perfect and it was a lot of fun. I'm glad they completed their story. But I still think HTTYD was put together better overall. The story, the characters, the animation...all of it was beautiful. My favorite film of 2010.

After Effects...
I'm really interested in Social Network now and I certainly wasn't before. I think the plan is to see Black Swan tomorrow night, and hopefully sometime between now and Awesome Summer Blockbusters come out I can see Social Network, Fighter and Kings Speech. That's the hope anyway (because if it doesn't happen by then, it probably won't happen at all.)

The Interviews
I watched the ones that mattered to me. Christopher Nolan (director of Dark Knight Rises) deftly tossed away all attempts at discovering tidbits about the film. Practiced ease, I'm sure. And now it seems Hathaway just dropped a rather large (although entirely expected) spoiler. Nonetheless, I'm a little disappointed in that, especially after just watching Nolan avoid the subject entirely. Oh well.

Memorable Moments
I wouldn't really pull any from this Oscars. BUT you SHOULD watch this. (Embedding was disabled.)
I stumbled across this a few days ago. This is an acceptance speech by Gerda Weissmann Klein, who was a Holocaust survivor. She won an Oscar for the Best Documentary Short Subject "One Survivor Remembers" in 1995. You can skip to 1:30 where she starts. Can you imagine what would have been lost if they had pulled her off the stage? Beautiful speech.

By the way, this is my 95th post. Can you believe you've stuck around that long? Almost to 100....

Also, it's almost MARCH. Almost SPRING!