Sunday, March 4, 2012

Epic blog post

Remember how I said in the last post that I was going to write an epic piece that would blow you all away? Well I tricked you into anticipation! Muhahaha. I have finally written that blog and guess what?  You're actually reading it right now! Per my fantastic readership I was prompted to write a blog, and right you are avid reader, because it has been a week and no one knows my views on the Oscars! (WHAT?! NO! I need to know Sammie's thoughts says one reader). Despite driving home and then to Wisconsin and then back to Champaign in the last two days, I will of course ignore my amounts of duties and write this for my HUGE fan base. And so, here you are, my thoughts on the 2012 Academy Awards.

First, lets' talk about the Host, Mr. Billy Crystal who always seems Mr. Comfortable up on stage and is frazzled by nothing. Although it was exactly what I expected, the introduction and monologue (or should I say song Oscar! Oscar!) was entertaining nonetheless. He was a solid host with the right timing of the right jokes. My favorite sketch he does is what are the actors thinking while sitting in the audience and this year did not disappoint, probably my favorite "host" part of the night (sorry couldn't find video of it). So, overall I give Billy a B+ for his work but I am still waiting for the year Tina and Amy host.

But let's talk about what the show is really about: the winners. Man, were there a lot of upsets. Many of you may be like, "No? Jean was in contention, Meryl was in contention, Octavia and Christopher were in the bag! What are you talking about upsets?!" Well my friends, I'm talking more in technical categories. Tree of Life not winning Cinematography was a big shocker and Undefeated winning the Documentary was pretty surprising as well. Personally, I was also surprised to see Meryl win, not so much Jean win. I have to say, though, I'm happy with all the actors winning, usually I'm not. There is always that one person I don't like winning (see: Melissa Leo, Sean Penn, Tilda Swinton) but this year was an exception because I was happy for everyone, even Meryl. I mean come on, who doesn't like watching Meryl Streep make an awesome speech where she just doesn't care because she's Meryl freaking Streep. Loved seeing how excited and flattered Jean was, plus his speech was super cute. Octavia was no surprise and well deserved and also had a great speech. Christopher was beyond class and now the oldest Oscar winner. So, claps for them because I love all four.

As far as The Artist winning Best Picture, it was no surprise. I had no doubt in my mind it was going to win, especially not after it won Best Director. But, still I don't understand why no one with a movie critic title didn't like War Horse. I still think it was my favorite movie this past year or tied with Hugo (well all behind Harry Potter of course, we'll get to that later though). I am still upset War Horse didn't get the recognition I think it deserved. But, claps for The Artist as it was an enjoyable film, just not sure if it was a Best Picture film.

Other favorite things about the show: The reappearance of the Martin Scorsese drinking game, Emma Stone's first appearance as an Oscar presenter (watch here), Tina Fey's presenting (obviously), and Chris Rock's little monologue. Things I hated: After 8 movies, 12 nominations and 7.7 billion dollars, Harry Potter is a franchise with zero Oscars. That is just too depressing and too wrong. I was hoping for just one darn win from one of the three categories it was nominated for, but my wish did not come true and there is no wishing for next year. That's it, no Oscars, but I'm sure WB is still pretty content with that 7.7 number.

Overall I would say it was a pretty uneventful year with no real "Oscar Moments" other than maybe Christopher's win, Octavia's win and Meryl winning her third. It'll be interesting to see if she ends up beating Katharine Hepburn's record of four Oscar trophies. Although fun fact: Hepburn's 12 nominations are all for Best Actress, where Streep has 3 supporting nominations and one win, with 17 total nominations (pretty darn impressive). Still, an enjoyable show for what I consider the best day of the year. With that some Oscar side notes but more like fun facts.

1. The Artist was the first silent movie to win the Best Picture award since 1927's Wings (coincidentally the first year of the Oscars meaning the first Best Picture film).
2. Out of the four actor winners, Meryl was the only one who has won before. It was also Jean and Octavia's first nominations. Pretty cool if you ask me. Plus you've got a foreigner, an old guy, a legend and a woman of color winning. Talk about some awesome variety, if you ask me.
3. This was the first year that the Pixar movie, in this case Cars 2, was not nominated for the Animated Film category. Rango went on to win, but Pixar better up its game, and maybe it did with its new film this summer: Brave. Trailer is here.

With that I say... Live long and prosper.