Seth Rogan and James Franco playing their characters (though Rogan much thinner now) from Pineapple Express.

I stopped watching at 8 o'clock (never did go back to my movie 'til then) and watched The Amazing Race instead because I was generally bored. My feeling watching it was that it must have been pretty compelling in person but made for semi-lame TV. The animation montage was awful but I've already forgotten the other montages (though it is good that they managed to get Transporter 3 and Death Race into the Oscar telecast).

The aspect I didn't like was the redundancy of describing each of the nominees: "Sound editing is important whether it is creating a space robot or mimicking large caliber gunfire while a man ages backwards. And the nominees are Wall-E and Benjamin Button." For some reason I found that annoying.

The responses I'm reading elsewhere are showing a strong love it/hate it split. My mood may have been helped if it were for the fact that most of the time the worst or second-worst movie (Slumdog or Button) was winning.

Well, there was the guy who won for Best Makeup who apparently had a phone book in his pocket, looked like he had just won a rat turd and decided to audition for the remake of the FedEx world's fastest talking man commercial.

Two other things

I was concerned a little early when there was a miscue on the curtain right at the opening. But that appeared to be the only problem. EXCEPT for...

Did anyone else catch the wardrobe malfunction during the best song performance? After the trilogy of songs, the dancers remained on stage in position (huffing and puffing). One of the dancers who was RIGHT behind whoever was on camera (on the left of the screen) had a very obvious slip of the outfit. Had she not been wearing a flesh colored under-garment, we would have had another Janet Jackson moment. She realized it, but remained professional and did not attempt to correct it until the camera was off her.

Okay, I loved it. The show was something it's not been in eons, fun. While the actual wins were not terribly dramatic (until Sean Penn), I enjoyed the new format of having former winners present. It was cool. I do not think Sophia Loren's Valentino gown would win awards, I hope to heaven I look pretty good for age 74. She's still a class act.

Some of the gowns were horrible. I thought Meryl Streep looked incredible. And I loved whatever that vintage piece Amy Adams had around her throat. Penelope Cruz was in a 60 year old vintage gown, and it (and she) were stunning. Nicole Kidman was lovely, as was Kate Winslet

I want a Swarovski crystal curtain for the doorway in between the dining room and living room.

Oh, and in the last two ceremonies only one out of eight acting awards has gone to an American.

Sean Penn stands alone.

The other seven are Daniel Day-Lewis, Marie Cotillard, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, and Penelope Cruz.

I hope that Obama got a "Award American" provision into that stimulus bill.


Actually, thanks to the Slumdog run of the 24 awards, at least 16 went to furreners (and based on names likely a couple others but IDMB doesn't have their birthplaces) .

I agree with Alex about the annoying redundency in the presentation of many tech and art direction awards. It was stupid, but didn't bother me all that much. Especially in light of all the other drastic improvements.


Really, there have been so many years where they've claimed to reinvent the show because it was sucking so badly ... and this is the first time such an effort has ever actually been an improvement.

I really, REALLY liked the new format. I loved the bit with the very personal tributes to each of the nominees.

I do wish they'd at least list the other winners before commercial breaks or something.

Very happy for the Milk wins. Didn't see a shred off footage yet. Love Dustin and Sean's speeches. Kudos to them!

It starts in a little less than 30 minutes !! YAY.

You all suck.

Turning my Oscar protest thread into a fan-boy one.