74th Annual Academy Awards (Academy Awards (Oscars))

Member Name: sharktrager

Product:	Academy Awards (Oscars)
Date:	30/03/02 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's the Oscars!

Disadvantages: TV doesn't show the 'technical' awards

Being a (sad) film buff, I always look forward to that Monday in March - the day after Oscar Night. You see, I always tape the ceremony which is broadcast overnight in the UK and then watch it in full the next evening. I spend the whole of Monday avoiding news broadcasts (in fact media at all) and almost any conversation in the desire to not find out who won any of the awards until I actually get to see it. I also don't like to watch the BBC1 edited highlights on Monday evening because they are, well EDITED, and so you don't get the full effect.

So, it was with great joy that I watched the ceremony this Monday just gone, and here are my thoughts:

Firstly, the presenter - this year it was Whoopi Goldberg. It was the 4th time she had presented, and she did an adequate job. It was nothing special, although it was better than the job Steve Martin made last year. Unfortunately she's not a patch on Billy Crystal, who has presented the show 7 times since 1990. Thankfully we didn't get David Letterman again. He's only done it once (in 1995) and he was awful. Whoopi's best bit was her entrance, where she came down from the ceiling in the same manner as Nicole Kidman's entrance in MOULIN ROUGE.

However, for us watching on TV there were also other hosts. Firstly Jonathan Ross in the studio, who added his own commentary during what would have been commercial breaks on the American broadcast. Ross is OK, but he's not a patch on Barry Norman. Indeed, the whole of the BBC's film coverage has gone downhill since Norman defected to Sky and Ross took over. However in the same way as Barry, Ross was joined in these intervals by virtually unknown actors and actresses (certainly these days) who put their own thoughts on what was happening. But frankly who cares what Tom Conti, Dyan Cannon (admittedly Oscar winners in the past) and some Scottish guy who now lives in the US think? Cannon was particularly annoying, cackling at
any mildly amusing comment made by Ross or the Scottish guy as if it was comedy of the highest order. Which it wasn't.

We also had the sad spectacle of Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland introducing the ad breaks for goodness sake. What a shame that these great actors would be reduced to that. I hope they got paid a hell of a lot of money because it was awful.

As for the awards...

BEST PICTURE - A Beautiful Mind.
This is an OK film, but not deserving of Best Picture, although Jennifer Connelly is an excellent actress (and gorgeous to boot). I'm glad LORD OF THE RINGS didn't win, although I'm sure that either Part 2 or Part 3 will do at some point in the future. This award SHOULD have gone to MOULIN ROUGE.

BEST ACTOR - Denzel Washington in TRAINING DAY.
I've not seen the film but Washington is a wonderful actor. He's come a long way since TV's ST. ELSEWHERE!

BEST ACTRESS - Halle Berry in MONSTER'S BALL.
Again, I've not seen the film and not seen much of Berry in the movies (although I'm told I should see her in SWORDFISH for two reasons - not sure what the reasons are though!). Nicole Kidman should have won for MOULIN ROUGE, or THE OTHERS (although it's a shame she wasn't nominated for THE OTHERS - it would have been good to see her going up against herself - oo-er!).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Jim Broadbent in IRIS.
Good.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Jennifer Connelly in A BEAUTIFUL MIND.
Excellent.

BEST DIRECTOR - Ron Howard for A BEAUTIFUL MIND.
I'm glad for Howard because I've always liked him since TV's HAPPY DAYS, although David Lynch should have won. No doubt about it, MULHOLLAND DRIVE is by far the better movie but I knew he would never win for it. It's a great shame.

Lots of other awards were given of course, and I'm glad that LORD OF THE RINGS only won a few, although see my comment above about
the future. MOULIN ROUGE should have won more than it did, although Best Costume Design was especially well deserved.

We should also remember that the Academy also always present 'technical' awards on another night, and only clips of this are televised. When I saw how gorgeous Charlize Theron looked when presenting these I decided that I am going to lobby the Academy for her to present the main awards ceremony next year. She looked far better than Whoopi. Then again, that's just my opinion.

Well, as you can see, I am very opinionated when it comes to the Oscars, and maybe I'll come back to this opinion at some point in the future to add my thoughts on past awards, or maybe the ceremony which will be held next March.

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