The 81st Academy Awards: Not Just Business As Usual

There was a lot of pressure for producers Bill Condon and Lawrence Mark to deliver the "biggest movie event of the year", but unlike other years, the duo famous for their work behind the camera, made good on their promise. They brought the Oscars back to their roots. The entire telecast was what it should always be, a celebration of the year in film. They really couldn't go wrong with host Hugh Jackman. No one expects him to be funny, so if he is, great, but if he isn't, it doesn't matter. The song of the "recession budgeted" opening number was clever and relevant, since everyone immediately thinks "should we be spending all this money on a production in this economic climate?" With the elephant in the room fully addressed, the night turned out to have the pomp and circumstance needed for the Oscars, without the uptight feeling of being in church. Five former winners in the acting categories presenting together contributed to the importance bestowed on the biggest prize in Hollywood. The presenters banter wasn't awkward because for the most part they were explaining the categories, not jokes. However, the few comedic spots on the show went over really well, like Ben Stiller's impersonation of Joaquin Phoenix, the Judd Apatow clip and Steve Martin and Tina Fey's presentation of the writing awards. Condon and Marks really know what they were doing because they gave the reaction shots everyone wanted to see. Most notably, a close up of Angelina Jolie while Jennifer Aniston was on stage. Overall, this was the best Academy Awards ceremony is about eight years. The reception was immediately positive, almost assuring the producers and return invitation.

Best Oscar Speech Quotes

"This might be the one time I'm speechless",

Robin Williams, Best Supporting Actor 1997, Good Will Hunting

"I don't think means I am somebody ... but I guess I'm on my way"

Cher, Best Actress 1987, Moonstruck

" For anyone who has ever been on the downside of advantage, and relying purely on courage, well ... it is possibile. Thanks very much!"

Russell Crowe, Best Actor 2000, Gladiator

" I have wondered for twenty-six years what this would feel like. Thank you so much for terminating the suspense."

Shirley MacLaine, Best Actress 1983, Terms of Endearment

"This is the highlight of my day. Its all down hill from here."

Kevin Spacey, Best Actor 1999, American Beauty

"It is true what they say. There are some angels in this city"

Marion Cotillard, Best Actress 2007, La Vie En Rose

"In recent years there has been a lot of critism over these awards. I don't know whether it is justified, or not but I'm telling you, I consider this one hell of an honor and I am thrilled."

Jack Lemmon, Best Actor 1973, Save the Tiger

"Quid pro quo, doctor"

Jodie Foster, Best Actress 1991, The Silence of the Lambs (to her also victorious co-star Anthony Hopkins)

"I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is"

Ruth Gordon, 72 year old Best Supporting Actress 1968, Rosemary's Baby

"Could you double check the envelope?"

Martin Scorses, Best Director 2006, The Departed

"I'm just going to keep talking and you can play the music when my time is up. I promise I won't be mad"

Cuba Gooding Jr., Best Supporting Actor 1996, Jerry Maguire

I'd like to thank my parents for giving me the greatest gift of all, the gift of poverty."

Roberto Benigni, Best Foreign Film 1998, Life Is Beautiful

"They say patience is a viture. This was worth the wait"

Sean Connery, Best Supporting Actor 1987, The Untouchables

Academy Award Prediction: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay

Sometimes these three awards go to three different films, but not often. The Best Picture and Director winner are usually from the same film. Also, the Best Picture usually wins a screenplay award. Most Best Pictures are from adapted screenplays. Last year No Country For Old Men took all three, and The Departed did the same the year before. This year, Slumdog Millionaire will fall into the traditional formula. The smash hit about a Mumbain teen who is persecuted for the unusual circumstances involving his game show success has racked up sixty pre-Oscar awards and looks poised to turn at least half of its' ten nominations into wins. At this point, the Academy would just look silly giving the big prize to someone else.

Academy Award Prediction: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams, Doubt

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Viola Davis, Doubt

Taraji P Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

The category that provides the most upsets in Oscar history, (Marisa Tomei in 1992, Juliette Binoche in 1996, Judi Dench in 1998, Marcia Gay Harden in 2000, Tilda Swinton in 2007) is the closest and toughest race to call this year. Unlike the tight Best Actor race, all five nominees have a legitimate shot at winning. Penelope Cruz was the front runner heading into the Golden Globes, but her losses to Kate Winslet have worked against her. Now it is a free for all. Cruz is incredibly talented, beautiful and plays a fiery Spanish ex-wife, but her film wasn't nominated in any other category. Henson is Button's best shot at winning a major award, but I have a feeling all the Button love will be in the tech categories. Tomei, who plays the role voters love, a stripper, could walk away with her second career Oscar but voters like to spread the love. I have a gut feeling that with four acting nominations, the Academy will want to reward Doubt with one win, and this category is the best shot. With two contenders, the Doubt actresses could split the vote, but Viola Davis has the showiest role and gives a short poignant performance that begs for recognition. This is such a toss up that I will pick Davis but am not very confident.

Academy Award Prediction: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

Frank Langella, Frost / Nixon

Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Sean Penn, Milk

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

The Best Actor category has traditionally been the easiest to predict, but this year it does not seem so easy. Sean Penn would be the clear winner if he didn't just win in 2003. Despite voters wanting to spread the love around to those who haven't won before, Penn plays a real life gay politician killed by an assassins bullet in a Best Picture nominee. Chances are, the voters will want to give Milk a consolation prize. Penn finds himself grappling with the comeback story of the year. Mickey Rourke, who has experienced a career rejuvenation with the success of The Wrestler, would be the clear favorite if he didn't threaten to actually wrestle at Wrestlemania. Rourke is not very refined, but his heartfelt speeches at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs were accepted warmly, and giving him an Oscar would be a great story. Penn has a reputation for being a hot head, and has publicly stated the Oscars don't mean much. However, Rourke if offbeat and the Oscars are very tradition. This is the closest two horse race of the night. In the end, Hollywood will stick to its' guns and give the statue to Penn.

Academy Award Prediction: Best Actress in a Leading Role

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie, Changeling

Melissa Leo, Frozen River

Meryl Streep, Doubt

Kate Winslet, The Reader

This is really Kate Winslet's to lose. She turned in two critically acclaimed performances, and has won the Golden Globe, SAG, Broadcast Film Critics and the British Academy Award. She has a lot of the key essentials to winning the Oscar. First, she played a Nazi in a World War II movie, which is a big plus. Second, she is a beautiful woman who made herself look ugly for the film- bigger plus. Third, the story of her being the youngest actress to be nominated five times without a win makes for a great story. Lastly, she has been emotional, gracious and humble in all of her pre-Oscar speeches. Some predict a Meryl Streep upset but something tells me Meryl will have the opportunity to he rewarded again soon. As for Anne Hathaway and Angelina Jolie, the "babe factor" only helps when the front runner is not another "babe" like Kate Winslet.

Academy Award Prediction: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Josh Brolin, Milk

Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

The thing about the Oscars, especially this category, is that they like to reward actors who have demonstrated a consistently stellar body of work. Many times this Oscar goes to screen veterans almost like a lifetime achievement award. Think George Burns for The Sunshine Boys, Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules, James Coburn for Affliction and Sean Connery for The Untouchables. However, the performance they are nominated for has to be good, but not necessarily great. This year, the obvious choice is Heath Ledger. This will be last time voters get to acknowledge his work in a competitive category, his performance is quite menacing and with all the other pre-Oscar awards he has won, to not give it to him would put a damper on anyone else's win. Of all the acting races, this is the closest to a slam dunk you could get. Predicted Winner: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight.

Entertainment's Guilty of Being Overrated List

Clint Eastwood: The man famous for playing Dirty Harry didn't receive real critical acclaim until the age of sixty two. With a permanent look of trying to see something down the road, and a raspy whisper that leaves you struggling to hear his lines, the American Cinema Icon's acting leaves much to be desired. Sure he might direct some good movies, but his big hits aren't directorial achievements. He mostly gets a good script, sits back and lets everyone else do their job. You could argue every director is guilty of this, but the same is not true for the master filmmakers people often mention in the same breath as Clint. You feel every bit of Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino's influence in their movies. The only constant in Eastwood films is the drowsy score that sounds like he stood at a piano and played one key at a slow methodical pace.

Jeff Dunham: Talking without opening your mouth is a nice talent just to have, but when you spend ten years practicing it, you sort of become an asshole. Even if you can look past the shameless gimmick, his jokes are cheap and shallow. Even the Middle Eastern puppet comes off as racist instead of edgy. The saddest part of Dunham is that he has a huge fan base. To think he describes himself as a "comedian" is the most liberal use of the word since Gallagher.

Entourage: Did you ever see the episode where Vince didn't want to do a movie E thought he should, Turtle and Drama fought over some non-issue and Ari had a panic attack over a studio battle? If you saw that one you pretty much get the point of the last three seasons. Through no fault of the actors, especially Kevin Dillon who has really brought a new level to Johnny Drama, the show feels like a procedural situation comedy. When Entourage debuted it was hip and everyone felt like they were part of the "in crowd." Now they have no direction, the writers are struggling to keep the characters busy. The short season, A-list guests and young viewers idolizing the Hollywood lifestyle have kept this struggling series a cornerstone of HBO's lineup.

Tyler Perry: This guy pumps out movie after movie and t.v. show after t.v. show with relative ease. The only problem is, he combines part Flip Wilson, part Eddie Murphy and part Mama's Family to make a mediocre at best franchise that finds success in its' simplicity. I'm not sure of why Perry himself has to play Medea since none of the jokes are about how much she looks like young man, but he is wildly popular and heavily compensated. When comedies like Arrest Development and Freak and Geeks can't stay on the air, but Tyler Perry has two hit comedies and a string of hit movies, you can't fault the guy for making the most out of producing the least.

Stephenie Meyer: With a quartet of successful vampire/romance books under her belt, the young author has been surprisingly smug regarding future endeavors. Considering her narrative flow sounds like a sixth grade book report, her best response to her fame would be to say she will continue to write for her fans. It is especially hard to remain in the spotlight as an author, but suddenly she's too famous? From the looks of her personal interviews, Meyer looks more righteous than humble. All her fans want her to do is write more books, so how much favor would she win by abandoning what bought her to the dance to begin with. The stories are compelling for a wide audience, but she should stop pretending shes J.K. Rowling.

Kate & Leo Take the Long "Road" Home

The success of My Bloody Valentine and The Uninvited make the Hollywood studios think the audiences just want to be scared. Well if it is a true horror movie they want, why not sit back and absorb Revolutionary Road. Sam Mendes' masterful look at life in suburbia is so frightening, it will leave you pondering the point of marriage for weeks to come. America can handle watching scantily clad teens being chased by chainsaws or token black guys saying funny lines right before they are decapitated, but being forced to examine in their marriage is a monster they cannot escape once they leave the theater. The truth in the success of American films is not that the audience wants to be scared, but they want to feel something. Sweeping epics, action packed thrillers and gory slasher flicks have always done well at the box office because it gets the blood pumping. As kids we live vicariously through our heroes by playing make believe. The true secret is that we never stop. We just don't acknowledge we sometimes pretend to be something we are not.

Movies like Revolutionary Road and American Beauty, Mendes' most famous film, are scary in premise but not content. In Revolutionary Road, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play Frank and April Wheeler, a beautiful couple who settle down in a New York suburb. Frank is a suave middle man who seems to have the world by the balls, and April is a aspiring actress and stay at home mom with two healthy kids. The world sees them as having everything, but they both cannot shake the fact that they are missing something. This film is not only about the struggle between man and wife, but the universal struggle of always wanting more. The performances from both leads are nothing short of riveting, as DiCaprio demonstrates again why he should be taken seriously as an actor. It's not fair to either film to compare this movie to Titanic, because there is nothing similar except for the cast. Whether the real life friendship between Kate and Leo helped their on screen "chemistry" is irrelevant. The two take part in some of the most intimate and emotionally devastating scenes in recent memory. The movie is paced just right, adding little by little to the relationship until it explodes. The supporting players are all on par, especially Michael Shannon, who walks the line of genius and insanity in a brilliant way.

While it is easy to be pessimistic about marriage after this film, there is a silver lining. To say Frank and April Wheeler are a representative of the typical American married couple is unfair. Think of them as a case study. Elements from other's relationships might be present, but they do not echo 100% of the whole. The film is just a story. Any generalization is on the part of the individual. Furthermore, a good relationship will not be strained by viewing this movie. In fact it may make a relationship stronger.

For Kate and Leo, you could not pick a better film for them to reunite in. Sure they took the long way home, but it was well worth the wait. Thanks to their dynamic performances and the directors first class film making, Revolutionary Road is one of the best films of the year.

Grammys: And the winner is ... CBS

With a surge in viewers, CBS has a lot to be happy about. Most importantly, they didn't blow one of the easiest award shows to produce. Non-music award shows have the pressure to not be boring (and often are), and the MTV VMAs have the pressure of trying to be edgy (and often aren't). The Grammys are a collection of all things music, which appeals to the masses better than any other ceremonies. Sure everyone loves movies, but how often are the movies everyone loves the movies nominated for Academy Awards. Plus, when you watch the Grammys you want to see your favorite perform. When you watch the Oscars, you want to see your favorite win, which isn't guaranteed. With so many things in the show's favor, the light and energetic atmosphere made the show actually enjoyable, no matter how long it was.

Katy Perry's sensual performance demonstrated how much cross over appeal the twenty four year old chart topper has. Her vocals make her a respectable artist, while her natural charisma makes her the object of admiration for teenage girls, and the object of desire for all guys. CBS hit all the key demographics by pimping Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, and dusting off Neil Diamond. One thing is for sure, if Stevie Wonder could see what tools the Jonas Brothers are, no way he'd be singing with them. It was nice to see Coldplay pay homage to Paul McCartney which made me believe Chris Martin is just as cool as he seems.

All in all, there wasn't a "shocker" like the Britney Spears and Madonna kiss, or the Dixie Chicks going all political, but it was a solid show. For once, the worst judgment of the night went to a performer, M.I.A., who performed while crowning.