Final Oscar Thoughts

It's the morning after and I've got a few final observations on last night's show. To me it all seemed very old Hollywood. No big musical numbers, no skits with the host, no red carpet hi-jinks (except for Hannibal Busey). In short this was a classy show from start to finish and in doing so became one of the most boring shows in recent memory. I know the strike affected the show but Jon Stewart should have been able to drum up a little more funny. As always his strong moments came when he gave his honest reactions to some of the winners, losers, and clips. His political jokes hit the mark but often he seemed to be floating in an ocean with no life preserver in sight. Still I'd take him over Ellen or Whoopi any day. The stars shined brightly but given that many of the major categories were shoe-ins, the show lacked any discernable tension. That's not to say there weren't some great moments such as the duo from Once walking away with Best Song and the winners of the two documentary categories sharing their emotions so freely. The pace of the show was knuckle draggingly slow in the first two hours but the last hour plus just flew by. It was a quiet show and one that fit the majority of this year's films in that it was dark, sometimes depressing (miss you Heath), and featured a bunch of psychos (see the aforementioned Busey). As for me I did horribly in my pool for not listening enough to my heart. I've been praising The Bourne Ultimatum all year yet when push came to shove I didn't pick it in any of the 3 categories it swept. Oh well there's always next year...