Academy Awards Thoughts

I resolve to post on this blog with greater frequency. That is my promise to my readers (if there are any). I was planning on writing about this whole steroids mess that seems to be back in the baseball headlines but instead will turn this entry's focus to last night's Academy Awards broadcast. Now look--I love movies. I go almost once a week to the movies and you can imagine that for me, the Oscars are one of the highlights of the year because I, along with other movie fans, get to see which films and people associated with them take home the top prizes. I have to say that last night's show was not good at all. First let me say that none of my criticisms in this blog entry are directed at the host, Hugh Jackman. He is an immensely talented individual who did a great job last night. The problem was that he didn't seem to be used as much as other hosts and some of the skits which were well-intended came across as too long or just too awkward. Jackman is still one of my favorite entertainers because he is so diverse in his abilities: he can act, sing and dance. Here were the main problems with last night's show: 1) when the acting awards were given out you had previous award recipients speak about this year's nominees, the result being that we saw absolutely no film clips for the nominees and were forced to watch mini-inaugural addresses for each nominee; 2) the big production numbers went on for way too long and were too hectic and fast-paced to be truly enjoyable; 3) the nightclub setting didn't quite work and as a result you had certain guests sitting close to the stage while the rest of the audience seemed to be a mile away (nothing like having even more elitism during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression); and 4) the show seeemed to last.....way....too...long. Yes, I know there are many awards to give out but let's keep the show moving! I will say that I predicted 17 of the categories correctly and only got 7 wrong, so that was a highlight for me. I will keep watching the Academy Awards but they need to improve!