Awards galore!

I am not normally big on watching award shows. I sometimes catch the Tony Awards, but only for the musical numbers. However, there is one awards show I refuse to miss (with the exception of a night on the town in Vegas) and that is the Oscars. I am a movie buff to begin with, despite the lack of time I have to watch movies these days. So even with all the other movie award shows out there, the Oscars take the cake in my book. I’ve been watching the Oscars ever since I was a kid and it was shown on a Monday night in late March. Eventually it got switched to Sundays in late March and later moved to late February/early March. I was thrilled that this started the year I got married so that I wouldn’t miss them while on my honeymoon. As I mentioned before, the only time I made an exception was for a trip to Vegas, and I watched as much as I could while getting ready to go out.

When I lived in an apartment in college, I started making chocolate chip cookies to eat that night and it became an annual tradition for me afterward. I start to get really excited in late January/early February when the nominees are announced and that carries over until the actual ceremony. One year, I tried to see all the nominated films before Oscar night. I ended up missing one though. I love watching the actors and actresses walk up the red carpet prior to the ceremony and finding out “who” they are wearing. I love how the host(s) open the ceremony, especially when they find ways to get creative. (I honestly think Neil Patrick Harris should have hosted the whole show this year though.) I love all the special tributes and seeing the nominated movies more in detail. I even love when someone unexpected wins.

Having said all that, I wanted to quickly share my thoughts about this year’s Oscars. I liked Neil Patrick Harris’ musical number. He’s so much fun! It totally made up for Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin just talking awkwardly and annoying George Clooney somehow. I liked that “Up” won for best animated feature film and best original score. I liked that Sandra Bullock won for best actress because my husband makes fun of her and “The Blind Side” even though neither of us have seen the movie and it looks really good. She gives off a performance similar to Julia Roberts in “Erin Brockovich.” I loved the John Hughes tribute. I even love how Ben Stiller dressed like an Avatar and started speaking his own version of the Na’Vi language, which came off more as Hebrew. I liked how they did the “In Memoriam” part this year, but they didn’t really show Patrick Swayze up close for TV viewers, nor did they give him as much time as the others. I like how other actors introduced the best actress and actors even though I would have liked to see more scene work rather than the little snippets at the beginning that were merged together. I only saw two of the nominated movies this year: “Avatar” and “Up.” I thought “Up” had a better chance of taking home the final prize, but I’m glad it got some major awards overall. I want to see all but two of the other nominated films. “District 9” creeped me out from what they showed and I have no interest in seeing “Ingloroius Basterds.” I’m not much for seeing Holocaust films, but I prefer ones like “Life is Beautiful” over the more violent versions of such a tragic situation. I also want to see “Crazy Heart” and “The Princess and the Frog.” “The Messenger” and "A Serious Man" seem interesting too.

Even though the Oscars were 3 ½ hours long, it didn’t drag like it has in the past. At least it felt that way to me. I’m glad they kept things brief and gave more time to show the movies being nominated, pay tribute to a legendary director and allow ample time for each winner to give a reasonably sized speech. I’m already gearing up for next year and hope the movies nominated will be another interesting selection.