Wednesday, April 29, 2009

FILM: Oh, yeah...the Oscar winners, too

*Posted March 4, 2009*

Slumdog's momentum was too much as they took home 8 Academy Awards, which begs the question. Do Academy voters get caught up in the hype? I'm curious as to when they vote for these movies, but when you see something like Slumdog sweep all the big awards at the Globes, the DGA, SAG, WGA, Critic's Association Awards, etc., that probably sways your vote, right? In other big news, Sean Penn narrowly edged out Mickey Rourke (my first round fantasy Oscar pick; yet another reason why I hate Sean Penn), and then made some cool political comments about gays. Hollywood eats that stuff up. For other lame Oscar news, here are some quick hits:

- Queen Latifah singing during the In Memorium montage? Thumbs down (and Paul Newman won the "most applause" contest. No surprises at all...)

- The 5 former nominees presenting the award? Thumbs down. Not only did it take too long, but bringing back former winners like Whoopi Goldberg and Cuba Gooding Jr does NOT add to the prestige of the award.

- Hugh Jackman as host? Thumbs up. I feel bad for him having to sing that ridiculous opening number. Whoever wrote it doesn't have a brain, but at least Wolverine has the pipes to pull it off.

- Ben Stiller as Joaquin? Thumbs way up. The highlight of the night. Sean Penn had to fight back a hell of an urge to defend him during his speech.

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