– The choice of hosts was interesting but ultimately a failure. The pre-taped bit inserting them into the movies was cute (though it’s been done before, and better) but the opening monologue was uncomfortably lame. There’s a reason they usually get comedians or stage performers to do this.
James Franco said he was able to rehearse only on weekends due to his school obligations, and it showed. He seemed completely out of it and wasn’t trying at all. Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, was trying like crazy, sometimes too hard. Overall she had the right spirit and she’s very personable so she came off pretty well.
Still, two minutes of Billy Crystal made clear the difference between a great show host and a failed experiment. Why can’t he come back? What the hell else is he doing?
– Kirk Douglas is the Dick Clark of the Oscars, but worse. I respect the man’s great career, but why bring him out for such a painfully awkward moment? What happened to letting last year’s winners hand out the supporting acting awards?
– I hate Melissa Leo. She’s a fine actress, but her personality just grates on me. Her winning was probably my biggest disappointment on a night when almost none of my favorites won.
– On the other hand, I love Mila Kunis. Especially her voice. I’ll leave the fashion discussion for others, but she was the most stunning woman at the party.
– I can’t believe the Jennifer Lawrence at last night’s ceremony is the same woman I watched skin a squirrel in Winter’s Bone last week.
– Christian Bale, who’s supposed to be the biggest asshole in Hollywood, delivered the sweetest line of the night: “to my little girl, who’s taught me so much more than I’ll ever teach her.” Very glad he won.
– I never thought I’d see Trent Reznor in a tuxedo.
– I’ve had a crush on Marisa Tomei for almost 20 years and it’s in no danger of subsiding.
– Ah, Amy Adams. Not the most flattering Oscar attire, but who cares? If Hailee Steinfeld wasn’t gonna happen, why couldn’t Amy Adams have won instead of Melissa Leo? She gave the best performance by an actress in The Fighter, hands down.
– Robert Downey Jr. always nails his awards show appearances. Maybe he should host. His rapport with Jude Law had me eager for the next Sherlock Holmes movie.
– Randy Newman stole the show with his speech. Maybe he should host.
– Celine Dion, yuck. Halle Berry, yum.
– And now the funniest bit of the night, the Modern Family promo. Maybe they should host.
– Tom Hooper for Best Director? That’s a shame. As much as I liked The King’s Speech, the direction was its weakest element. 
What was with all those fish-eye lenses and weird framings, anyway? I found myself distracted by the direction of that film, and not in a good way. I am glad the old fellow who wrote it won his Oscar… it was a fabulous script. But Hooper over the other four nominees, not to mention those who didn’t make the cut, is a travesty.
– Colin Firth is classy and charming as hell, though at times during his acceptance speech I thought he was slipping back into character. A very worthy winner (and I liked Sandra Bullock’s quips for each of the nominees… that worked better than the more heartfelt but obviously written stuff Jeff Bridges had to say).
– I know the lifetime achievement awards are time-killers, but I think Francis Ford Coppola deserves to have his moment (and a killer compilation montage) at the big show. Drop Kirk Douglas and you’d have an extra 10 minutes to work with.
– The Best Picture montage was very nicely done, though it seemed presumptuous to have the whole thing soundtracked by the king’s speech from The King’s Speech. I preferred that treatment to the random clips dispersed throughout the show that they normally give us.
– Was hoping for a shocking upset for Best Picture, but as I’ve said before, I really enjoyed all nine of the nominees I saw this year. The ones I’ll return to year after year will be Toy Story 3, The Social Network and True Grit, but I can’t argue that The King’s Speech wasn’t worthy.
Meet Me In Montauk 
Interesting comments; I agree with almost all you’ve said especially about Melissa Leo and Kirk Douglas (my two worse moments in the show). I thought Anne Hathaway was good-she certainly tried soooo hard, and Franco was clearly not into it (guess he should have taken some time off from school) I’m so glad The King’s Speech won and that I picked the winner for foreign film 🙂 since it’s one of my favorite genres and Dana swore I would “go down” big on that one 🙂 Thanks for your time on the ballots and your insightful blog reviews and comments!
I, too, agree with much of what you’ve said. I just can’t fathom how you could leave out the highlight of the entire show!
When Luke Matheny won the award for Best Live Action Short for his film God of Love, I experienced my favorite moment of the night. He was as polished, funny, and grateful as any of his far more famous and experienced peers in that room. Since he informed me that his film is available on iTunes, I intend to seek it out. If it’s half as warm and inviting as he is, it will probably be one of my favorite films of the year!
Other random thoughts:
– Why did Melissa Leo and Scarlett Johansson decide to wear some doily/table cloth hybrid to the biggest night in Hollywood?!
– I agree with your question: Why isn’t Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars? The man had the audacity to praise Bob Hope for doing it 18 times, while he feels he cannot step up to bat for #9!
– Say what you will about the hosts – and Franco – but I found the sweet spirit of this year’s show to be in sharp and delightful contrast with the tone often adopted when a very funny comedian is doing the hosting duties. Did I laugh much? Nope, not much at all (except at Randy Newman and Luke Matheny – why can’t he be the host? 😉 Still, I smiled often and felt that everyone in the room was equally at ease. That, as Dave Barry recently pointed out to my class, is essential at a show like this one. And it came through the screen.
– I would like to see the animated and live action shorts have more of an opportunity to be viewed. Several of them seemed fascinating, and I want to seek them out, but I’d appreciate a bit of guidance and a few more opportunities to find them.
– I’m curious if the whole “triangle of love” thing disturbed anyone else? 😉
– I’m wondering who chooses some of those clips. The one of Franco from 127 Hours, for instance, was far from the most gripping scenes showing off his work, while Eisenberg’s was such an exceptional scene that I found myself rooting for him to win Best Actor in a clip shown at the Oscars, which clearly needs to be a category added to next year’s show.
– Finally, in what world is Gwynnie “a singing sensation and country music’s new star”?! I love her and can’t wait to see her reprise her sexy substitute on Glee tomorrow night, but puhleeze!!!
I fast-forwarded through most of the speeches for “minor” awards. Guess I’ll have to look up both that guy’s movie and his speech.
You absolutely have to! I sometimes think about fast fowarding during those speeches, but luckily Maddie was aghast at such a notion. She pointed out that one day she might be up for such a “minor” award and that we should give each artist his proper due. So… I got to experience my favorite speech of the night 🙂
I, too, agree with most of your comments. I could have stopped watching once Christian Bale won; that was the only award I was 100% invested in because he was just so damn good.
I didn’t think Melissa Leo’s “F bomb” was unintentional, I just think she’s not so classy in the end. I don’t know much about her but I did think she earned the award. I would have been just as happy, though, to see Amy Adams take it home.
The Kirk Douglas thing was very awkward, but I have to say, he still has pretty good comedic timing. The whole, “you know…” thing made me laugh, and I was glad because it broke the tension of him being there in the first place. That said, I wondered the same thing about why the previous year’s winners weren’t giving the awards. I could understand if one or two of them were unavailable for some reason, but it didn’t seem like they tried too hard on those apart from Best Actor, Actress and Director. That was probably what I missed most.
On the finale, I posted on Facebook that I loved it, but I should have qualified that what I loved was not so much the shmaltzy school choir bit, but the fact that they brought all the winners out at the end. I thought that was kind of neat. I liked it a couple of years ago when they had all the winners from previous years on stage for each category and this reminded me of that idea.
Also, couldn’t agree with you more about the Best Picture montage. I kept waiting for the clips they usually peppered throughout the show, but they never came. 😦 Very disappointing. Then the montage was good, but I don’t think it gave fair play to all the nominees and it was certainly overpowered by the speech.
The Trent Reznor thing made me laugh out loud. Not only was he wearing a tux, but he gave a nice, polite and eloquent speech. All I could think was, “this is the guy who gave us “Head Like a Hole”?” Wow!
I could go on, but I have to get to work now. Thanks for the opportunity to share. It wasn’t the worst show ever, but it wasn’t the best, either. I don’t know why they have so much trouble with the hosting piece. I thought they did an alright job and the fact that Anne Hathaway was clearly starstruck by some of the people she introduced made her all the more endearing, but there is definitely room for improvement. What about Ellen? What about NPH?? What about bringing back Hugh Jackman? I thought he did a nice job. Anyway, I guess we’ll just have to wait a year…