What a Night! The 84th annual Academy Awards were full of laughs and surprises:
– Billy Crystal was great with hilarious one-liners, including re-naming the Kodak Theatre the “Chapter 11 Theatre” and the “Your Name Here” theatre; His musical number was good but the music overpowered him; He will return next year
– “The Artist” is the first film to win Best Picture that was also my favorite film of the year (“Toy Story 3” had a shot last year); the film’s director – Michel Hazanavicius takes home Best Director
– Jean Dujardin beats George Clooney for Best Actor – not a huge surprise, and the vote had to be close
– The Biggest surprise (but maybe the win I’m most happy about) – Meryl Streep for Best Actress for her fantastic performance in “The Iron Lady”; this is her first win in 30 years, and is definitely well-deserved
– The speeches were rather short, and so was the telecast, at just over 3 hours
– Fred Willard was very funny in the “Wizard of Oz” test screening bit from director Christopher Guest
– “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” wins for Best Editing, but wasn’t one of the NINE Best Picture nominees. Rather odd.
– Kermit and Miss Piggy didn’t present an actual award; instead they introduced the Cirque show; Glad “The Muppets” song won.
– The Best Presenter award goes to Chris Rock for his hysterical comments on voicing an animated character; He’ll be back in his role as Marty the Zebra in June’s “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted”
– “Hugo” over “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” for Visual Effects?!
On a side note, I want to thank a fellow critic of mine for giving me the exact pronounciations for the stars and director of “The Artist”. And I need to congratulate my cousin for predicting the Animated Short film winner for the second year in a row (“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”). I’ve gotten this category wrong the past two years. That was my mini-acceptance speech, even though I didn’t win anything. I got 12 of the 24 categories right this year – a little less than usual. But there’s always next year!