The Oscars Sucked Balls... But Sacha Baron Cohen Gets The Last Laugh!!!
The Oscars were soooo boring last night that I actually fell asleep... and I do not mean that figuratively! I literally passed out a bit after Octavia Spencer won her Best supporting Actress award and woke up right before The Artist won Best Picture. For those of you keeping score, that means the Oscar broadcast put me in a coma for approximetly 2 hours. I am no expert, but I DO NOT think that the goal of the show is to induce sleep in it's viewers... but I digress. The show is a mess, and even though I swore I wouldn't watch it I was right there up until I passed out. For a movie lover like me, this is disheartening. Someone like me should be looking forward to the Oscars, but with the slights of epic movies/acting performances (Drive, Bridesmaids, The Muppets, Tin Tin, Harry Potter VII and Ryan Gosling all caught multiple hoses in the nomination process) and the lame ass actual show I am no longer anticipating the show anymore. But leave it to Sacha Baron Cohen to semi save the night and make it something more than a total loss. Click after the jump for what Cohen did on the Red Carpet that most people didn't even see...
Sacha Baron Cohen has a long history of acting up at Award Shows, and the Oscars tried to limit his antics by telling him he was not allowed to attend the ceremony dressed as the character from his new upcoming movie "The Dictator". They were afraid he would use this costume as an opportunity to do something crazy. After taking lots of flack for telling someone what to wear on the Red Carpet, the Oscar crew relented and allowed him to attend the show in costume. Then this happened on the Carpet:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Cohen dumped Kim Jong Il's ashes all over Ryan Seacrest, ruining his tux for the rest of the pre game show and maybe even the show itself. Judging by Seacrest's reserved yet pissed off reactions after the ashing took place, I do not think he was privy to the joke. Good for Cohen... who got the last laugh now Academy? It's sad when some pre show shenanigans are the most interesting thing to talk about after a 3 hour plus award show... get it together Oscars!!!!
Definitely the highlight of the night for me. This prank was so great that everything kinda went slightly downhill each moment after.
I'm over the standpoint that 'The Oscars are just a bunch of rich people sitting around and patting each other on the back'that some haters, including myself, seem to have developed over the years. I think deep down everyone would kind of love an award ceremony for their hard work each year at their career...even if it's just to drink an applaud for a co-worker.
That being said, why does it seem so EASY for a lay person like me to see the gaping flaws in this award show and how to fix them. Here's just a few.....
-The beeping on the microphone all night. Who's the sound guy at the Oscars? This was a problem last year...you mean NO ONE told him since then?! Get this sound malfunction fixed by next year! You have over 300 days to get it done! Being able to hear what people are saying is a big part of this show especially when the host is singing over a loud orchestra. Which brings me to my next point.
-The movie montage at the beginning with Billy Crystal was really cool/fun. His dated song & dance wasn't. Especially when the sound was terrible and I missed 75% of the jokes within the songs. Just skip the musical number next year & do a monologue of observational humor like was done for the rest of the evening. Billy Crystal is a funny guy and would have killed a Ricky Gervais/Chris Rock type of Monologue.
-Does No one on the Academy staff pay attention to internet buzz? How did they miss the web chatter requesting that the Muppets host...or do a musical number...or present at least!? They discounted ALL of that internet chatter and they relegated the Muppets to a 1 minute intro to prerecorded actors waxing nostalgic about cinema. I liked what the actors had to say but the Muppets should have been ALL over this award ceremony. Which brings me to my next point..
-The Cirque du Soleil bit was very cool and stylized..but, maybe it should have been broken up into 5 sequences. The show needs the 5-8 song interpretive dance numbers to break up the monotony of actors yapping. Or better yet, why not nominate some more songs!? Where all the Best Song nominations this year? How is it that Brett Mckenezie et. al. came up with at least 3 inspiring songs for the Muppet movie but only 1 was nominated? And a song from 'Rio' was the only other nomination this year? What about songs from 'Winnie the Pooh', 'Rango', 'Puss in Boots', 'Hoodwinked 2'....'Happy Feet 2'.....'Footloose' or 'Glee' even!? The lack of song noms made for nowhere to go with the entertainment aspect of the show. Had they found just 1 other song from a 3rd film to nominate, that plus the extra Muppet songs would give them 5 or 6 great noms and would have made for great stage numbers...with costumed dancers taking the place of the 'Rio' birds..and THE FUCKING MUPPETS DOING THE MUSICAL NUMBERS!!!
-This was really Ryan Gosling's year and he was completely snubbed. 'Drive' may not be everyone's cup of tea but, it got everyone abuzz & I assure you will reach cult status within a few short years...because the story was great and the characters were excellent. But mostly because Gosling rocks! Gosling was everywhere last year in completely different roles spotlighting his versatility as an actor. Coming off of 'Blue Valentine' which was snubbed last year..Gosling not only jumped into 'Drive' but also supporting roles in...'Ides of March' & 'Crazy Stupid Love'. You mean none of these performances rivaled Jonah Hill's in 'MoneyBall'? C'mon!?
-Lastly I know they save the best for last, but there's got to be a better way to distribute the award presentations so that the viewers don't become fatigued after sitting through all the smaller awards at the start and fall asleep by the time they get to the bigger ones at the end. Start the show right away with the Best Supporting awards....and do the Actors at the midway point...and Director and Film at the end. this way the show has it's peaks and valley's as far as the major award hand-outs go.
-And speaking of peaks and valley's...where the f*ck did the host go about 3/4s of the way in? No matter who's hosting it seems like there's no life...no host to keep things going before the home stretch. Why are film laborers poking fun at Angelina Jolie's leg kickstand when that's Billy Crystal's job? Get him out there after EVERY award to keep things moving. That sounds pretty simple, no?
Definitely the highlight of the night for me. This prank was so great that everything kinda went slightly downhill each moment after.
ReplyDeleteI'm over the standpoint that 'The Oscars are just a bunch of rich people sitting around and patting each other on the back'that some haters, including myself, seem to have developed over the years. I think deep down everyone would kind of love an award ceremony for their hard work each year at their career...even if it's just to drink an applaud for a co-worker.
That being said, why does it seem so EASY for a lay person like me to see the gaping flaws in this award show and how to fix them. Here's just a few.....
-The beeping on the microphone all night. Who's the sound guy at the Oscars? This was a problem last year...you mean NO ONE told him since then?! Get this sound malfunction fixed by next year! You have over 300 days to get it done! Being able to hear what people are saying is a big part of this show especially when the host is singing over a loud orchestra. Which brings me to my next point.
-The movie montage at the beginning with Billy Crystal was really cool/fun. His dated song & dance wasn't. Especially when the sound was terrible and I missed 75% of the jokes within the songs. Just skip the musical number next year & do a monologue of observational humor like was done for the rest of the evening. Billy Crystal is a funny guy and would have killed a Ricky Gervais/Chris Rock type of Monologue.
-Does No one on the Academy staff pay attention to internet buzz? How did they miss the web chatter requesting that the Muppets host...or do a musical number...or present at least!? They discounted ALL of that internet chatter and they relegated the Muppets to a 1 minute intro to prerecorded actors waxing nostalgic about cinema. I liked what the actors had to say but the Muppets should have been ALL over this award ceremony. Which brings me to my next point..
-The Cirque du Soleil bit was very cool and stylized..but, maybe it should have been broken up into 5 sequences. The show needs the 5-8 song interpretive dance numbers to break up the monotony of actors yapping. Or better yet, why not nominate some more songs!? Where all the Best Song nominations this year? How is it that Brett Mckenezie et. al. came up with at least 3 inspiring songs for the Muppet movie but only 1 was nominated? And a song from 'Rio' was the only other nomination this year? What about songs from 'Winnie the Pooh', 'Rango', 'Puss in Boots', 'Hoodwinked 2'....'Happy Feet 2'.....'Footloose' or 'Glee' even!? The lack of song noms made for nowhere to go with the entertainment aspect of the show. Had they found just 1 other song from a 3rd film to nominate, that plus the extra Muppet songs would give them 5 or 6 great noms and would have made for great stage numbers...with costumed dancers taking the place of the 'Rio' birds..and THE FUCKING MUPPETS DOING THE MUSICAL NUMBERS!!!
-This was really Ryan Gosling's year and he was completely snubbed. 'Drive' may not be everyone's cup of tea but, it got everyone abuzz & I assure you will reach cult status within a few short years...because the story was great and the characters were excellent. But mostly because Gosling rocks! Gosling was everywhere last year in completely different roles spotlighting his versatility as an actor. Coming off of 'Blue Valentine' which was snubbed last year..Gosling not only jumped into 'Drive' but also supporting roles in...'Ides of March' & 'Crazy Stupid Love'. You mean none of these performances rivaled Jonah Hill's in 'MoneyBall'? C'mon!?
ReplyDelete-Lastly I know they save the best for last, but there's got to be a better way to distribute the award presentations so that the viewers don't become fatigued after sitting through all the smaller awards at the start and fall asleep by the time they get to the bigger ones at the end. Start the show right away with the Best Supporting awards....and do the Actors at the midway point...and Director and Film at the end. this way the show has it's peaks and valley's as far as the major award hand-outs go.
-And speaking of peaks and valley's...where the f*ck did the host go about 3/4s of the way in? No matter who's hosting it seems like there's no life...no host to keep things going before the home stretch. Why are film laborers poking fun at Angelina Jolie's leg kickstand when that's Billy Crystal's job? Get him out there after EVERY award to keep things moving. That sounds pretty simple, no?
Agree? Disagree? Loved to hear your feedback.