PREDICTION SCORE: Well, Oscar season 2014 is officially over. 12 Years a Slave pulled off the Best Picture win and took home 3 awards, while Gravity won the most, earning 7 trophies including Director. All in all, my own predictions weren't too bad, as I got 19/24 correct, but I'm kicking myself for the unnecessary and stupid risks I took on the categories of editing, costumes and supporting actress. I couldn't do anything about that animated short guess, and I really did think American Hustle would take Screenplay, but had I stuck with my original instinct on those other three categories (as you can see if you read my analysis), and picked my alternate winner for each of them, I would have only gotten TWO wrong! That would have been a personal record. Sigh. Learned my lesson for next year, that's for sure.
THE SHOW: As for the show itself, it was a fairly drab and uneventful ceremony tonight. Ellen was a good host, but nothing she did was outstanding, except maybe for that selfie with the celebrities. The walking through the audience was pretty hit and miss, saved mostly by the celebs willing to play along. Performances were good, but some were totally random, like Pink sining "Over the Rainbow." I don't get why Bette Midler didn't sing "Wind Beneath My Wings" during the In Memoriam montage either, considering how the show ran really long tonight, at three and a half hours. On the bright side, at least the producers didn't play off a single winner, which was nice. I hate when those people get forced off the stage so fast. There was no memorable skit or even banter between presenters tonight, as they seemed to opt for as many musical performances as possible. The one spontaneous moment was Bill Murray's nice shout-out to Harold Ramis. And also John Travolta introducing Idina Menzel as "Adele Dazeem"- WTF?
WINNERS: I'm happy with the winners, as both 12 Years and Gravity are good movies that got their due. But poor American Hustle! So much for my belief that they wouldn't let it go home empty-handed. 0-10. Ouch. But I do think that 12 Years a Slave is their best Best Picture winner since The Hurt Locker in 2009. And it was great to see Lupita win Supporting Actress, who looked adorable in her headband.
HEROES THEME: It's time to get rid of this theme thing for the Oscar shows. Tonight's "heroes" theme basically meant a bunch of random montages celebrating movie heroes from recent action movies that don't get nominated for awards. It screams of cynical attention grabs towards a younger age group that probably doesn't watch this show anyway. It was all kind of pointless. And I'm sorry, but you do not show a clip from a Superman movie and choose the god awful Man of Steel over the Christopher Reeve one. Gross.
BEST DRESSED: Ok, so I do kinda love the red carpet despite the silliness of it all, so my favorite of the night (as she almost always is) was Charlize Theron. She's a fashion goddess that can do no wrong. And Jared Leto was rocking the white tux and red bowtie- the best dressed winner for sure. Worst I'd have to say was Pharell Williams, who traded in the giant hat for shorts on the red carpet- I mean, shorts?? Seriously?
