Rocky got KO’d. This was the biggest, but only one of several shockers from a pretty entertaining 88th Academy Awards. The highlights:
– Chris Rock was solid. Unlike mosts hosts, Rock participated in practically every single segment of the show. His no-holds-bard monologue was strong but went on a little long. However, Rock literally rocked it later on with a few comedy bits, including a Man on the Street segment, a fun Girl Scout Cookies bit (albeit a little too similar to Ellen’s Pizza stunt two years ago) and random one-liners. He predicted Kevin Hart will emcee next year (I had predicted Hart would co-host this year).
– Sam Smith’s “Writing’s On the Wall” performance was pretty shaky, The Weeknd’s “Earned It” was fine and Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You”, was powerful, though the complete, produced version of the song is much more effective. Smith’s Original Song award win, for such a weak Bond theme, will be talked about for years. There were at least 10 more deserving 2015 tunes.
– Louis C.K.’s comment on “Mad Max”‘s wild success, originally announcing “Fury Road” as the winner of Best Documentary Short Film.
– Animation was highlighted through the hilarious Animated Short Film presentation from the Minions and Woody & Buzz announcing the Best Animated Feature – “Inside Out” (aka Pixar giving a trophy to Pixar)
– Disney/ABC gave an entire bit to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as R2-D2, C-3PO and BB-8 honored John Williams.
– How about indie “Ex Machina” earning Visual Effects over blockbusters “Mad Max”, “Star Wars”, “The Martian” and “The Revenant”? It had the longest odds of the 5 nominees.
– The Orchestra was instructed to cut EVERY acceptance speech short (except Leo’s), which got a little annoying, as did the “Thank You” names and “Presenter Bio Info” that kept popping-up at the bottom of the screen.
– The Sound Editing nominees compilation was awesome.
– I loved seeing “Room”‘s Jacob Tremblay on stage with “Beasts of No Nation”‘s Abraham Attah, applauding Rock on his voice work as Marty the Zebra in the “Madagascar” movies.
– VP Joe Biden: “I’m the least qualified man to be here tonight.”
– Interesting that Sacha Baron Cohen came-out on stage as Ali G – not his character from the upcoming “The Brothers Grimsby”. But the bit worked.
Tonight’s Major Shut-Outs include: “The Martian” (0-7), “Carol” (0-6) and “Star Wars” (0-5)
And thanks to “Spotlight”‘s Best Picture win, I got 16 out of 24 picks correct. “Spotlight” won the first (Original Screenplay) and last awards of the night!