The 78th Annual Academy Awards (2006) Reviews

• What a Great Evening!

  moviegeek3102006-03-06

  For the first time in a long time, the Academy Awards have actually been funny, interesting, and unpredictable. From surprise Best Picture winner "Crash" to Ben Stiller in a green skin tight suit presenting the Best Visual Effects Oscar, this year was truly entertaining. The entire evening the Academy kept it interesting with film montages, funny jokes, shorter acceptance speeches, and fewer commercial breaks (it was a half an hour before the first commercial break). The funny thing is, is that I hadn't seen any of the Best Picture nominees so I was expecting to be bored, but I wasn't. Here are some memorable moments from Hollywood's biggest night. -The opening number which consisted of previous Oscar hosts turning down the spot of emcee for the evening, was extremely hilarious. You missed out if you didn't see it. -Pre-taped segments that poked fun at everything from the Best Actress nominee's names, to accusing Keira Knightley of "acting while beautiful". This was one of the reasons the evening was so fun. -Ben Stiller in a green bodysuit insisting that no one could see him and stating, ''For the first time in Oscar history, an Academy Award will be presented by no one," while dancing around the stage with a "floating envelope". -Will Farrell and Steve Carrell presenting the Best Make-Up award while wearing ridiculous make-up that looked like they put it on themselves. And Steve Carrell's fake eyelashes were something I won't soon forget. It wasn't a perfect Academy Awards show though. One thing I hated was how the orchestra played music throughout everyone's acceptance speech, which was kind of like reminding them to "hurry it up". And while I liked the fact that the acceptance speeches were shorter, many people were cut off or didn't get to talk at all. Once there was two people on stage accepting an award, and after the first guy finished, the second guy stepped up to say a few words, but immediately the orchestra started up and the lights went down on the poor guy. This is their big moment, and the Academy kept cutting them short and making them go fast. It was not very courteous of them. And an upset for me was the group 3 Six Mafia winning Best Song for the film "Hustle and Flow". A song called "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" won Best Song? Get real! And then the groups acceptance speech consisted of incomprehensible street jargon and a swear word that was bleeped out. Plus, they totally ignored the evenings black-tie dress code, with the group wearing huge coats, sunglasses, hats, and (gasp!) jeans. Overall though, the night played out great, and the movies that I wanted to win, won. I think the Academy Awards have finally made their comeback from previous, boring telecasts. I applaud you Oscar! For a complete list of nominees and winners, go to Oscar.com. Brian Ledtke,16, lives in Thomas Township.

• Good year for the Oscar

  duckmanfanatic2007-08-18

  This year was better then last year. Chris Rock, last year's host, was boring. Jon Stewart, this year's, was better. He wasn't hysterical, but he was funny and kept a serious face on whenever he gave his lines. The awards were well handed out I think, except for Reese Witherspoon, who made a complete fool of herself while she gave her acceptance speech. I liked that Dolly Parton came back with another good song to sing. Plus, it was cool to watch Three 6 Mafia sing the winning song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" from Hustle and Flow. The dancers that performed during that song number did a good job on their queues also. All and all, this was a better year then the recent.

• A Pretty Good Show (SPOILERS)

  I_Am_The_Taylrus2007-05-31

  *****Spoilers***** Yes, this happened over a year ago but I feel like commenting on the 78th Annual Academy Awards. To be honest, this is probably one of the best Academy Award shows ever. Jon Stewart made a pretty good host, and a lot of things that deserved to win did win. I knew as a fact that George Clooney was going to win Best Supporting Actor for Syriana, but probably the most controversial moment was when Crash beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture. Everyone was expecting Brokeback, being as it won pretty much every other reward, but then Crash won. I could care less of what movie won but I too was a bit shocked that Crash won. I guess it deserved it, though. Like all the Academy Awards shows, here is the basis. There is a host, this year Jon Stewart, the host or a famous actor or actress or a filmmaker or a producer or a write present an award. I am not going to go over every single award like I did for my comment for 79th Annual Academy Awards but you get the point. Anyway, the show if supposed to be three hours long, but it always runs an hour longer. In the end somebody announces the greatest film of the year, or Best Picture, which went to, like I said before, Crash. Overall, this is actually a nice year for the Academy Awards. I agreed with most of the choices for the winners, (which is rare, trust me), but some I was not quite certain about, like Crash. A lot of things happened in this Awards show that did not happen in a while. For example, all six important categories went to a different film, and the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress awards all went to someone that was not nominated before, but I know all of you know that. Anyway, this is a fun Academy Awards show. 8/10 Recommended Shows: The 79th Annual Oscars.

• The academy regained some if its credibility.

  Boba_Fett11382006-03-23

  Not only was this is a good show to watch, also most of the winners were surprising. No movie swept away the awards and the 'big' Oscars were evenly handed among the favorite movies of the evening. It made it a very unpredictable evening and because of that it also was fun to watch. It's never fun to see one movie just win all of the 'big' Oscars, especially when the movie is not deserving enough of it. So, for the more neutral and unbiased viewer, like myself, this was a great awards show in which the Adademy Awards, for me, regained some of its credibility and respect. The show was fast paced and there weren't any slow or distracting moments. All of the presenters were good and didn't try to be forced funny all the time, like often in the past was the case. As for Jon Stewart, he surprised me. I never really had been a fan of him but he was a great presenter of the evening. Unlike the other presenters from the past, he stood there as a presenter that told some fun jokes in between and not as a comedian who tried to make the audience laugh with basically every single sentence. Stewart never overdid things and because of that he was a great presenter that also was fun to listen to. A bit disappointing however were the montages. I normally always enjoy the montages during the Oscars but the montages used this year contained some weird and unimpressive movie choices at times. It also got a bit tiresome after a while when they kept repeating to the viewers that they should watch movies in theater's rather than home on DVD or on portable-DVD. It felt like one big, unpaid for, advert that in my opinion also was just totally pointless. As for the winners...Like I said before, it was a great evening for the neutral movie-viewer. It was a mostly unpredictable evening, with some great and also some surprising winners. The Oscars were handed out extremely even and fair this year. "King Kong" took home 3 Oscar, as well as "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Crash" and "Brokeback Mountain". "King Kong" won the most important technical awards, "Memoirs of a Geisha" the most important visual awards and both "Crash" and "Brokeback Mountain" won the 'big' important awards. So, it was a very balanced evening for most movies. Not all of the awards were a surprise though of course. Most movie buffs already knew that it was simply bound to happen once, that Philip Seymour Hoffman would win an Oscar for best actor and it really was no surprise to anyone that he won this year for his role in "Capote". It also was fairly determined that Reese Witherspoon would receive the Oscar for best actress, which she also did. Judi Dench already had received enough nominations and credit, plus she already won an Oscar once, Charlize Theron already one won recently, Keira Knightley will almost certainly still win an Oscar later within about 5 or maybe 10 years, the way her career progresses at the moment. She's young, talented and beautiful, so she'll get there. And Felicity Huffman...yeah right, like she even had a chance. So no, also Reese Witherspoon was surely no surprise, also because she already had won many other big awards this year for her role in "Walk the Line". Also no real surprises were; "La Marche de l'empereur" for best documentary feature, "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" for best animated feature film and George Clooney for his supporting role in the movie "Syriana". Clooney was nominated two more times, first best screenplay and directing for "Good Night, and Good Luck.". Three nominations, so he was almost bound to receive one. For best screenplay and best directing would had been too controversial, so giving him one for his acting seemed like a fair and predictable move. Clooney himself also knew that he wouldn't receive the Oscar for best screenplay or directing after he had one the best supporting actor award. Of course biggest surprise of the evening was "Crash" winning the best picture award, especially after Ang Lee already had won the best director award during the evening. Everyone basically assumed that "Brokeback Mountain" would win best picture and most of the other important awards of the evening, with maybe "Good Night, and Good Luck." as the most important underdog. Yeah sure "Crash" had 6 nominations this evening but honestly, who would had ever expected it to win so many and important awards. The movie almost didn't seem to make a chance to win against "Brokeback Mountain" and any of the other movies nominated. But yet it won, which is good for the unpredictability, surprise and credibility level of this year's award ceremony. All in all, "The 78th Annual Academy Awards" was an unpredictable and fun evening with a good presented- and fast show set around it. 2005 was a great and competitive year for the Oscar's. No one will totally agree with the Oscar's handed out this year but for the neutral viewer there was plenty to enjoy. 8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

• Where was Don Knotts?

  howerd2006-03-05

  I was surprised to find Don Knotts left out of the Memoriam section during this years awards. He's one of the most beloved comics of his generation. His films made a fortune? GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN. THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPETT. Classics. I know Barney Fife was a TV character, but still, he's one of the most influential comedians of the post-War years. And he didn't even get a mention in the Memorial section? Let's not go into the fact that the composer of the GODZILLA theme was left out. That might be consider an obscure credit for an American awards show. But Don Knotts? Who's more classic that Don Knotts? What's up with that?