Last minute Pre-Oscar thoughts

It's been a little over a month now since I posted my views on the Academy Award nominations, and not much has changed. Now I'm looking forward to watching a show with some fresh hosts and worthy contenders. I have to say it's the first year in a while where I feel like almost every single nomination is deserved. There's no outrageous "Crash" nomination, there's no "Avatar" or Sandra Bullock nomination for a Lifetime movie. This year, about 8/10 movies in the running for Best Picture deserve their nomination. And the front runners at this point - "The Social Network" and "The King's Speech" - completely deserve it. Looking back on my views on the nominations, the Best Picture category is the only one where my prediction has changed. "The King's Speech" has picked up a lot of awards lately in critics circles as well as the BAFTAs. "The Social Network"'s hype looks to have petered out and left the excellent Brit movie to take the lead. "The King's Speech" is the safe, Oscar-friendly choice, and I'll be rather surprised if they go back to "The Social Network" now. The Brit drama will probably take Best Picture and Best Actor for Colin Firth while the Facebook movie takes Best Director for David Fincher and Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin.

Every other win seems decently predictable, although even if there is an upset, it's not going to be a case where a much hyped but mediocre performance wins over a deserving but less flashy one. Unless the Academy goes nutso and "The Kids Are All Right" wins for Best Picture, we're not going to encounter another heinous "Crash"-beating-"Brokeback Mountain" scenario.

As for the show itself, I actually kind of enjoy the In Memoriam and I hope it's a straight-forward memorial to those who passed. I'm still bitter about times when the In Memoriam played, but a celeb was singing the background music so the camera was on them more than the memorial video. No fancy camera work swooping in and out, please. Just pay respects to the dead in a tasteful way.

I'm cautiously optimistic about James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting. I'm happy to see some fresh, younger faces in there (without sacrificing quality, that is. They didn't go with Kristin Stewart and Michael Cera or something crazy like that). Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin last year were fine, but they definitely aren't the way to intrigue younger viewers. I always hate forced awards show banter, but it's something you have to live with and if the host is capable, they can pull it off without too many cringeworthy moments. I'm just glad we don't have to deal with a Ricky Gervais scenario again, where the host is one-note and not particularly funny with his one note. Personally, I rather see a Neil Patrick Harris or Ellen DeGeneres hosting. They are seasoned hosts, they appeal to young and old, and they can be funny in a safe way in that they aren't pissing off the people in the room or boring the people at home by being too tame. I even enjoyed Hugh Jackman two years ago or Jon Stewart the year before that. Whoever they go with, I'm realizing that the Oscars has a much better track record for hosts than the Emmys or the Golden Globes.

It's differed over the years and over awards shows, but I hope the Oscars show clips from movies. The Golden Globes did this a little by basically saluting each film with a movie trailer. Rather than focusing on the actor as their name is announced, I prefer a short clip of them from their respective movie that shows why they deserve the Oscar. It would be a great reminder of movies that came out a while ago and it would be a refresher in why their nomination is deserved. But that's just me. And you would have to choose wisely so the clip is strong and short so the show doesn't run past midnight. (Maybe we could remove those documentary categories? Or at least speed those up a bit more?)

To conclude a post that ended up longer than I intended, I'd like to end with some humor. Both from the same website, the first is a Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever while the other is "6 Awards That Would Actually Make the Oscars Worth Watching." I think this article makes some great points about certain areas of filmmaking that go unrecognized by awards shows.