OSCARS:

7:51

The hosts are kind of a mixed bag so far... Anne Hathaway was good in the opening bit, but she was strangely enthusiastic for the monologue. James Franco seemed baked, but I think that's normal for him.

0-2 in my predictions so far, but this might be a good thing... considering that both of them went to movies OTHER than King's Speech. Which bodes well, I think.


8:07:
OK. So I'm thinking that old people should present Oscars more often, especially in acting categories. Because it was kind of fun watching the actresses nervously wait for about 12 minutes until Kirk Douglas went from opening the envelope to reading it. And I'm gonna go ahead and say that the f-bomb Melissa Leo dropped for winning Supporting Actress was due to the nervous energy resulting from Kirk Douglas.

Toy Story's win for Best Animated Film makes me 1 for 5! Hell yeah!

Also, I don't really like how they're insisting on remembering a movie that ties into the next category right before they announce it. But that's just me.

8:20:

No surprises in the writing categories, and for the most part I have no complaints. Maybe would have given the Original Screenplay award to Nolan for Inception, but King's Speech winning it here was acceptable. Plus the guy gave a better speech than Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network did.

8:35:

Christian Bale wins for Best Supporting Actor, and all is right with the world.

Also gives The Fighter most Oscars so far in the telecast. Not that this is a surprise, since the two it won are the only two it's favored for, but still. King's Speech is not sweeping. If it doesn't win for original score, I might start entertaining the thought that it'll not win the big one.

8:42:

This tribute to the history of music in movies is great, but it doesn't rival last year's popping-and-locking to nominated scores. Not at all.

And... Social Network/Trent Reznor won. I would have been OK with Inception winning as well... and King's Speech, honestly, since Alexandre Desplat has done a lot of scores I've liked (although maybe not for this year's movie.)

Inception wins sound editing/mizing. TALLY COUNT: Inception 3, Social Network & Fighter 2.

8:59: Alice In Wonderland has more Oscars than King's Speech, Black Swan, Winter's Bone, Toy Story 3, etc. etc. I feel as if this is not right...

And we get a strange montage of how much people/Barack Obama loves Best Song winners, because nobody else can name any.

I'm glad that they brought back the best song nominee performances, though... despite the fact that the field is usually weak. It's just a nice break of pace, you know? Although I'm pretty sure they just brought it back so Gwyneth Paltrow can remind everyone she's OK at singing. (I'm also expecting Cee-Lo to make a cameo just for the hell of it, too...)

9:11:
I've just been told that the fish in my room is still alive. Someone told me it died three weeks ago. I haven't fed it since then. Umm... oops?

9:13:
Hell yeah! I got the documentary short category right! First time ever most likely!

DOUBLE HELL YEAH! Got Live Action short right too!!

I chose Exit Through The Gift Shop just because I figured the Academy would've wanted to see what Banksy would have done, but that was a poor choice on my part. Oh well.

9:33:
Inception for visual effects, which gives it four, which is probably where it'll peak, unless there's other nominations it still has a chance for... other than Best Picture.

And... Social Network wins for Best Editing, which gives it three and two more than The King's Speech... which is a good sign? I'm guessing it comes down to the directing category, and whoever takes that will end up prevailing in Best Picture. David Fincher looks nervous as hell, by the way.

9:43: Please God, don't let Gwyneth Paltrow ever sing again after this. Much less win this.

THANK YOU. RANDY NEWMAN F***ING OWNS YOU PALTROW.

9:57: Not really sure why Lena Horne was more deserving of a two minute tribute than anyone else that died, but OK...

10:01: Umm... are they giving out Best Director BEFORE the acting categories? What?

... come on come on come on....

DAMMIT. THIS IS THE WORST.

10:16:
OK, so Natalie Portman wins, which is the right choice. And it gives Black Swan, my choice of best picture a total of... 1 Oscar.

One's better than none, they say...

And the rest is for The King's Speech. So I guess that's a night.

11:00: OK final thoughts.

-It's OK The King's Speech won. It might have been 7th or 8th on my Best Picture rankings, but I mean... Braveheart won, Crash won... this is not an unspeakable injustice or anything. At the same time, stuff like The Departed, No Country For Old Men, The Hurt Locker have recently won, all of which one could consider great. King's Speech is not great. It's just a pretty well done Oscar-y movie. But it's better than a poor film, and I can see judging by other non-Oscar obsessed people that it's a popular choice. At least Avatar didn't win last year .

-Highlight of the night was the whole best supporting actress segment, with Kirk Douglas stretching things out/being old and Melissa Leo giving a bizarre acceptance speech/dropping the f bomb.

-The show was kind of a bore other than that segment, honestly. I mean, Anne Hathaway gave it her best shot (although her cheering for her favorite presenters was kind of weird), but it seemed as if James Franco regretted accepting the gig and didn't give a crap whether anyone objected to his phoned-in performance. It was a weird dynamic, to be sure.

Nothing else telecast wise stood out for me, though. Wait, no. Instead of the usual montages of "history of *genre*", they instead had a long segment on Bob Hope hosting the Oscars--and a montage about Best Song winners that for some reason included the President. Why? Who knows.

-For next year's show... we need to start the Drive Angry campaign now, guys.