Wasn’t the 4 billion man Will Smith.

The Ben Stiller bit might have been funny if it hadn’t been done the day before during the Spirit Awards!

Anyone who accepts last night’s telecast as a good effort should watch some of the crazy shit they are doing for the European MTV music awards to see how trying modern hip ideas can enliven an award show.

What about how pissed Richard Jenkins looked when Adrien Brody mentioned googling him??!

1) Boring? Come on. If it sucked as bad as some of you say, then why do you keep watching it year after year?

I think it was Johnny Carson who said: “It’s a spectacular 30 minutes of television crammed into a 4 hour telecast.” (paraphrased)

2) The purpose of the red carpet is to build hype. But it’s always horrible. Nobody says anything interesting in their 2.5 seconds of screen time, and the announcers run out of things to say at about the 5 minute mark. Anybody who says “who are you wearing” should be banned from next year’s show.

3) Much hype about how it was going to be “new” and “different” this year. You know, like every year.

4) Hugh’s “Best Picture Montage” at the beginning was clever, as usual. I think it was enjoyable: it gave props, while poking fun.

5) On the other hand, the musical medley felt contrived and disjointed. (“hey, let’s put them all into one act, to save time!”) It didn’t work for me.

6) The “5 past winners presenting” idea was *gold*. The “star power” and emotion pulled out of those moments felt very genuine. This worked for me.

7) Jack Black’s line: “I take my paycheque from Dreamworks, come to the Oscars, and bet it all on Pixar” was my best laugh of the night.

Speaking of which… Humour is what makes a good Oscar show. If they can get us laughing, it was a good show.

9) Speeches with humour: good.
Speeches with lots of thank-yous: bad.
Speeches with a preachy message: bad.
…if that message is in the movie: acceptable.
Speeches with emotion: good.
Speeches with scripted emotion: bad.
Speeches by people you’ve never heard of who are funny and emotional: good.
Speeches by people you’ve never heard of who thank everyone and their cat: snore.

10) Monologue bits which poke fun: good.
Monologue bits which use pop-culture references related to the speaker: good.
Monologue bits which try to use current pop-culture references to look hip: bad.
Monologue bits which self-deprecate: good.
Monologue bits which self-promote: bad.

11) The Pineapple Express bit *was* dumb. Maybe if I’d seen the movie, it would have made more sense. At the time I thought it was embarrassingly bad.

12) Heath Ledger was in last year’s montage, not this year’s. (correct me if I’m wrong)

13) Ben Stiller as Joaquin – it would have helped if I’d seen the Letterman segment first, but now that I have, it was pretty damn funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDZl22QUl20

14) The “4 billion thing” – yeah, hello? (good one Greg)

15) On the whole, I thought Hugh Jackman did a good job. At least as good as most recent hosts.

Same time next year?

You are opening a can of worms you cant back up. Let’s not turn this into a religious debate.

So…when do you all think madea will go to space?

I like Bill Maher, but he was an ass last night. His “multiple gods” statement was misplaced and demeaning in the way he delivered it. He made a wise crack about the French dude that won, thanks Bill for putting the dude down right after the greatest moment of the dude’s life, classy.

You can’t do a study of religion and not examine the fact that religion could be a “construct” that man would have created whether there was divine intervention or not. In Game Theory, religion functions as a way to organize and define central beliefs of the “tribe” over the wishes and desires of the “individual”. You would also need to examine how a belief in the afterlife benefits the “thinking man’s” reasoning and purpose and what would have been the outcome throughout history without this mindset. You would also have to analyze cultural and artistic events that are the by-product of religious endeavors and how organize religion organized masses, as much as, it enslaves them. Examples: organizing the new world due to search for religious freedom, modern law was based on Christian doctrine, every major architectural breakthrough up until 1600s was supported by religion. If you tell me Bill’s doc. includes a study of some of these issues, I give it a try. If it is like the trailer and a cavalcade of Bill going up to different religious people and saying, “You believe in a fairytale, prove me wrong” I want no part.