'The Academy Awards 2010: Yawn!'

'The Academy Awards 2010: Yawn!'

I am sure everyone can agree that it would take a miracle to fix the Oscar show and make it fast, exciting and fun. Until they take out Joe Schmo winning for "Best Animated Commercial Movie Under 2 Minutes" it will drag. So taking out clips speeds up the show huh? The problem is all these short film awards should be summarized in 15 minutes, filmed a week before and shown on the telecast. This is really not the number one problem with 2010's telecast. The real problem was the shortened, awkward sounding Best Song performances. It was also an exhausted looking and stiff James Franco as a co host. I loved Anne Hathaway, she was fun and charming but what the heck was that messing around with Hugh Jackman and singing that song? What a buzz killer that was and I admired what they were trying to do with the Billy Crystal/Bob Hope segment but it came off as creepy and a huge waste.

The shows best moments came early and then after that it got worse and worse. I loved the opening montage of Best Picture nominees that got our blood pumping. I like the Franco/Hathaway skit of mixing "Inception" with their own material. I liked that bit because of the addition of a game and funny Alec Baldwin and Morgan Freeman. The other great moment was of Kirk Douglas giving out the Best Supporting Actress award. Some might think it was sad and cruel to get Douglas out there but I admired it. The man is physically slowed down but still extremely aware and sharp. He was funny and after his segment there was not one thing to cheer about from this turkey of a show. The writing was bad, the energy was not even half there and this should be the last time Franco and Hathaway host.

There were some good, smaller moments like the banter between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. I also thought that Michelle Williams, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Laurence looked beautiful, hot, breathtaking, you name it. I also thought Bullock was a delight kidding with the nominated Best Actors as she introduced them. Though that was pretty much it for the fun and excitement. This was a show that was horribly produced, stiff and laughably bad at times. Why are we not celebrating film more, showing clips, maybe showing the past work of nominated people. I had to wait a very long time until the very funny "Jimmy Kimmel Show" before I had any fun.

The other thing I found troubling, to me, is that "The King's Speech", though a great movie, is truly not the Best Picture of 2010. Don't get me wrong, I love that movie but years from now I am afraid no one will remember this as one of the truly best movies. If we are moving towards a youth movement this movie winning has set us back. Again I love this movie but "The Social Network" is a movie that will stand the test of time much more effectively. "The King's Speech" is wonderful and I would love to watch it again.

The only thing is that the movie will fall into a group of movies no one has on their favorites list and that have lost their timeliness. Movies that won in the past like "Gandhi", "The Last Emperor", "Out of Africa" and "Shakespeare in Love" have been forgotten and pushed to the mediocre pile. "The King's Speech" is better than everyone of those movies but it will not be considered one of the best movies ever. "The Social Network" will be culturally relevant and even greater in 20 or 30 years. This is 2010 and we have to get more hip and up to date. "Black Swan", "Winter's Bone" and "Inception" are all movies that are hipper, more relevant and better than "The King's Speech" and will stand the test of time more effectively.

Sorry to be a jerk to those of you who love "The King's Speech" but I think my take on this will ring true years from now. Now to better things like some of the speeches from all the winners. Melissa Leo's speech was real and it came from what she truly is as a person. She is not phony, her speech was fresh and spontaneous and Kirk Douglas added to the fun. I liked Bale's speech, except for forgetting his wife's name, and what he said about not swearing like Leo was very funny. I was truly touched by Natalie Portman's and Colin Firth's speeches. Both of their speeches were from the heart, simply beautiful and eloquent.

I loved that "The Social Network" won for Best Score and Editing and that "Inception" won for cinematography. I was not happy with "Toy Story 3" winning Best Animated Film because "How To Train Your Dragon" and even more so "The Illusionist" were much better. I think it is time to stop giving this award blindly to Pixar movies, they are not all the best. So there was not a lot of excitement at all during most of this snooze fest. The one brilliant laugh and joke involved Mark Wahlberg and James Franco's grandmother and that is truly sad. There has to be new producers, a long talk about making this show more alive and spontaneous and please find an original host. There hasn't been a truly outstanding host since Billy Crystal. My suggestion is to find someone like a Tom Hanks to host for Hanks reminds me a little of Bob Hope or maybe Jimmy Kimmel. All I know is that Hanks and Kimmel were a true delight on Kimmel's show late after the awards and they were funny and smart. Jimmy Kimmel knew how to put on a show and I hope the Academy stayed up late to check it out.