Oh Oscar

Normally I would do an entire rundown of the Oscar telecast. But I found that there was very little to comment upon this year. Jon Stewart did a solid job of hosting. In particular I enjoyed his opening film and his ability to mock the proceedings as they happened ("we are officially out of movie clips"). Still, it's amazing how Hollywood can have NO sense of humour once you dress them all up. That is one aspect where the Golden Globes do better - the dinner & champagne setup of the Globes puts everyone in a better mood.

First, my favourite part of the evening was the fashion. Thankfully, CTV carried the pre-show from its American affiliate so I didn't have to suffer through more than 20 minutes of Ben Mulroney (btw - what's happened to his face?!). I always find that I never get to see enough of the clothes but this year was decent. Nice to see colour on the red carpet. I don't know about that big ruffle on Michele Williams though. And what was with the second head on Charlize's outfit? Props must go to Jen Garner for rocking her post-baby cleavage so completely (maybe that extra weight is what prompted her to almost take a header on stage?) But my top three are presented below. These ladies showed up with class and style. Reese rebounded perfectly from her Globes gaffe. Salma continues to personify buxom beauty. And Jennifer earned he way back into my good graces with her impeccable choice.

The telecast moved quickly. Much faster than previous years and this is a good thing. As well, the in-audience awards were removed meaning the presentations were definately cruising along. I guess that speech-prep video sent out by the Academy and Tom Hanks did the trick! Sadly, their were few surprises in the categories and few great speech moments. In fact some (the matching bowties from the Wallace & Gromet guys) were down right cringe-worthy. And then there was the anouncement of Crash as Best Picture.

OK - I almost threw something at the TV. WTF? I know my friend Dave will disagree with me here - but there is NO WAY that Crash was the best film of 2006. It is a heavy-handed & contrived story of limited depth presented through weak directing and melodramatic performances. Much of it makes little sense outside of the heightened emotional context of a film. It is populated with B-list actors and is essentially one step away from being an HBO produced movie-of-the-week. So overall, I was satisfied with the proceedings but not overly impressed with the results.