The Academy Awards

Last night, along with millions of other people, I watched the Oscars. For once I was able to stay up and watch the whole thing since I didn't have to work the next day, but now I wish I hadn't. It was a mishmash of ideas stuck together and called an awards show. I liked Ellen, I thought she was funny (a big improvement from Chris Rock who advocates hate with his racist black vs white humour), but she was barely even on the show. Then there was the singing, each year I can't stand the singing numbers, but this year seemed worse. Maybe it was the fact that three of the songs were from the same picture because apparently there wasn't any other movies with original songs in them? The show obviously ran long, not ending until long after midnight, but they had this guy recapping at the end of some sections on who's just won and how many Oscars were left to give away and talking inanely about Oscars work pools you may have entered. It was painful to see how many Oscars were left to give out after sitting on my couch for three hours. Here's a clue guys: If you're running into overtime, delete the guy who is talking about stuff that no one cares about.
And while I thought it was cool that a nobody like Jennifer Hudson (who was voted off American Idol for crying out loud), just won for best supporting actress, I seriously thought I was going to get an unwanted look at her nipple during her musical number. It came THIS CLOSE to popping right out and making the Academy wish they'd never heard of Jennifer Hudson. I was glad that she was on and off stage during the number and it looked like she was able to adjust her boob, because it looked a lot less likely to jump out and say hi during the last half of the act.
Will Ferrell and Jack Black were funny in a Broadwayeque number lamenting the fact that they would never be nominated and challenging the nominees to a fight. The best part was Will Ferrell saying that Mark Walberg was actually pretty tough, so he didn't want to fight him. "No, really, I think you're a great actor"
They also had these people who gathered behind a screen and made shadows of some of the movie logos or themes. This sounds lame, I know, but you see these shadows of people tumbling onstage and they jump, join, and stretch together and suddenly instead of ten people you have a clear picture of the shoe from the Devil Wears Prada, or four penguins from Happy Feet or a gun for The Departed. It was weird, but really kind of cool.
The Departed won Best Picture and Martin Scorsese won for the same picture for Best Director. Since the picture kicked ass (was very bloody and shocking, but also sad and exciting, quite a ride) and since Scorsese, a legend of Hollywood has never won before, those final Oscar moments, while maybe not worth a four hour wait, were truly wonderful to see.