Et tu, TiVo?

So, I started watching the Oscars on delay last night (as I watch almost everything!), and was really enjoying fast forwarding through all of the commercials and the speeches that didn't interest me. It was great right up until the Best Actress category was about to be announced. Jamie Foxx was reading through the list of nominees and the show cut back to the TiVo menu...meaning it was at the end of what it had recorded. For those of you who may not yet understand what I'm trying to say, I'll spell it out for you...after being geared up for this ceremony for weeks now, I didn't even get to see the following categories announced: Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture...you know, the big ones! :) I was pretty disappointed, but hopped online to find out the rest of the winners. So, having said that, here's what I think about the rest of the show...

Jon Stewart - He did such an awesome job hosting! He was still very much himself and had some great material. My favorite lines were...

* During the welcome: "Ladies, gentlemen...Felicity" (referring to her Transamerica role)
* "Good Night and Good Luck is not only the name of his film, it's also the way Mr. Clooney ends his dates."
* Coming back from break to the audience: "And that's why I think Scientology is right, not only for this town, but for all of America!!!...Oh, we're back!"
* "For those keeping score at home, that's Martin Scorsese, zero Oscars, 3-6 Mafia, one."

The Show - I know Oscar has been trying for a few years now to relate to a younger audience and pull in more viewers. I don't know what the ratings were, but I enjoyed the production as a whole more last night than I have in a while. The stage looked gorgeous, the graphics were awesome, the nominee intros were creative, and the montages were entertaining. The only thing I didn't like was that the orchestra played music for the entire length of each Thank You speech. It was so distracting! I know they're trying to keep these speeches short, but geez...that was excruciating!

The Winners - First, here's a list...
*Best Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
*Best Actress - Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
*Best Supporting Actor - George Clooney, Syriana
*Best Supporting Actress - Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
*Best Director - Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
*Best Picture - Crash

So, I was 4 for 6 on my predictions. Not too bad, I guess. I don't know what the statistic is on this, but this is the first time in a long time (if not ever) that every one of the Big Six winners were from different movies. In a way, that's frustrating because it makes it harder to predict winners, but ultimately I think it's a really good thing. It means the Academy didn't just pick a favorite picture and vote for it for everything, they actually gave awards to the most deserving people/films.

Congratulations to all the winners (because I know so many of them read this blog!) and thanks for a great year of movies.