Why the 2010 Oscars Were An Awkward Mess
By Krystal Clark
The 82nd Annual Academy Awards were filled with history making moments but overall left much to be desired. If I could describe the ceremony in one word it would be, “awkward.” There were several decent moments during the show, but nothing to write home about. Unfortunately, whatever good performances or sketches that were shown last night got overshadowed by several giant elephants standing in the room. What was so bad? Why did they suck? Here’s your answer…
The Oscars didn’t have to be 3 hours long.
If they cut out the unnecessary introduction of the Best Actor and Actress nominees in the very beginning and during their categories they could have shaved off a huge chunk of time. How many times did they have to say their names? I know who Sandra Bullock is. I’m familiar with Jeff Bridges work, does he have to be introduced three times? How does that make the supporting actors feel? Whose idea was that? Awkward.
The Opening With Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin was horrible.
These are two talented actors who are ridiculously funny separately, but stale and dry together. All the insults they were hurling at the audience members fell flat, and the worst joke of all had to do with James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow’s former marriage. How many times are they going to let that past relationship overshadow Bigelow’s history making year? The man’s current wife was sitting right next to him. She’s probably sick of hearing about those two at this point. Awkward.
In Memoriam Segment
The memoriam segment has already received a heavy backlash because they left out both Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur from their annual montage. You could argue that Fawcett hadn’t done a lot of films but neither had Michael Jackson and he was on there. Then you could say, Farrah passed away after the cut off point for the show but you can’t because her and Jackson died on the same day. What the f*ck Oscars?!
Modern Dance Musical Performance
Did we really see some B-boys pop-locking to the score from The Hurt Locker? Did my eyes deceive me? This was the most mixed matched collaboration of performers ever. The dancers were really talented but it was horrible to see their skills used in such a weird way. We shouldn’t have been surprised since the Oscars were produced by one of the judges from “So You Think You Can Dance,” but it was still excruciating to watch. Once again, awkward.
Crappy Camera/Editing Work
Half of the camera crew and editing team should have been fired because they picked the worse people to do close ups on at the wrong times. A prime example was George Clooney, who was obviously not feeling the vibe last night. They kept doing cutaways to him looking very annoyed. At one point, he actually pointed to the camera and gave it the bug-eyed go away look. He was seriously pissed, and I can’t blame him. Awkward.
African American Cutaways
As an African American, there’s one thing that always gets under my skin at award shows. Whenever someone wins for something they always do cutaways to other African Americans in the audience. They did this for Precious when it won Best Adapted screenplay and they showed the cast, producers, and then Morgan Freeman! Did he have a part in the movie? Was he involved in some way? Well, why was he shown? It was a bit much.
The Tribute to Horror
There were several films shown in the horror montage that shouldn’t be classified in the genre. For example, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, isn’t that more fantasy than horror? Just because vampires and werewolves are in it doesn’t mean it’s scary. The only thing terrifying about that film is the acting and the script. They just put it in there so they could justify having Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart on stage.
Further Reading:
- List of Oscar Winning Films – Best Director Winners
- List of Oscar Winning Films – Best Picture Winners
- List of Oscar Winning Films – Best Original Screenplay
- List of Oscar Winning Films – Best Adapted Screenplay
What were some things about last night’s show that got under your skin? Did you notice any of the things I picked out?
Monday, March 8, 2010 1:29PM
CORRECTION: Michael and Farrah passed the SAME day NOT within days like it was mentioned in the article.
Monday, March 8, 2010 9:36PM
And that makes it even WORSE. Sigh.
Monday, March 8, 2010 1:39PM
[...] STYLEGADGETSMOVIESDESIGNMUSICFUNNYGAMESMOTORSFEATURESTRAILERSREVIEWSINTERVIEWSWhy the 2010 Oscars Were An Awkward MessVOTD: Jimmy Kimmel’s Handsome Men’s ClubMonday, March 8, 2010 1:39PM – By Krystal ClarkDuring his annual post-Oscar show, Jimmy Kimmel debuted a star studded sketch entitled, “The Handsome Men’s Club.” With a title like that you can expect to see some of the most good looking men in Hollywood to appear and they showed up in droves. Oddly enough, it was all part of a dream sequence Kimmel had where he was the President of this elusive club, which caused some of its members to question his authority. Cue the hilarity..Some of the members of “The Handsome Men’s Club” include Ethan Hawke, Josh Hartnett, Rob Lowe, Patrick Dempsey, Matthew McConaughey, Sting, Lenny Kravitz, Keith Urban, Taye Diggs, and even John Krasinski who only got in because of his “cute” factor. The video is really funny, and definitely makes up for the lack of entertainment we got during this year’s Oscar telecast.There are several surprise cameos in the sketch that feature someone’s wife who’s also an actress, as well as Kimmel’s long running arch nemisis, but I won’t spoil anything else. You’ll have to see it for yourself.Check out Jimmy Kimmel’s Handsome Men’s Club… Get the Flash Player to see this content. var params = { allowfullscreen: "true", allowscriptaccess: "always", wmode: "transparent" }; var attributes = { id: "longtail", name: "longtail" }; var flashvars = { file: "/sctrailers/jimmy_kimmel_handsome_men_club.mp4", streamer: "rtmpt://e1f1.simplecdn.net/play", type: "video", width: "570", height: "320", controlbar: "over", playlist: "none", skin: "http://screencrave.com/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/skins/overlay/overlay.swf", autostart: "false", bufferlength: "1", displayclick: "play", icons: "false", linktarget: "_blank", mute: "false", quality: "true", repeat: "none", resizing: "true", shuffle: "false", stretching: "uniform", volume: "90", plugins: "embed-1" }; swfobject.embedSWF("http://screencrave.com/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/mediaplayer/player.swf", "video0", "570", "320", "9.0.0","http://screencrave.com/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/mediaplayer/expressinstall.swf", flashvars, params, attributes); What do you think of Kimmel’s latest video sketch? Who was the funniest out of all the handsome men (I vote Sting and Kravitz)? VOTD: Jimmy Kimmel’s Handsome Men’s Club /**/ Related PostsVOTD: Funny or Die Presidential Reunion (0)VOTD: Undercover Boss on Saturday Night Live (0)VOTD: Valentine’s Day Director Garry Marshall Does Porn! (0)VOTD: Lost Done By Italians (0)VOTD: Jersey Shore: The Movie Trailer (1)VOTD: Martin Scorsese’s Golden Globe Montage (0)Jimmy Kimmel’s Appearance on Jay Leno’s Show (7)This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.POST YOUR COMMENTS [...]
Monday, March 8, 2010 9:54PM
I thought Steve and Alec were great together, and George Clooney was hamming as he always does, not serious. It was perfectly obvious. I think you forgot to bring your sense of humor with you last night …
Monday, March 8, 2010 11:17PM
No one is blaming Michael Jackson for Farrah missing, that's ridiculous. What people are probably referring to is the closeness in their deaths yet the lack of recognition. And yes he was an actor but he starred in less than a handful of films so that shouldn't give him a one up.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 2:23AM
you're seriously mistaken across the board. glad i didn't really waste time reading this thoroughly.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 2:36AM
I think that this had to be the most boring show in the history of the academy awards. Not only was it boring, the entire production and camera crew were complete imbecile's, and should have been fired on the spot. It was amateur night!
For me, as a photographer and videographer, it was the worst direction ever in television. No one knew what the hell they were doing. Those spots where they had one actor on a pedestal introducing the film… well it was so far away, you couldn't even see who it was, then they just left if at that, no camera movement into a close up or a medium shot of the actor. It was ridiculous.
My 96 year old mother turned in a nursing home turned it off, because she thought it was the worst show ever, and was completely bored by it, and she even commented on the bad camera work and
direction.
No artistry what-so-ever! I felt like I was in some weird time warp.
So glad I got this off my chest.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 3:19AM
Sandra Bullock winning was a real low point..have people even seen that movie..she's doing a parody of an upper white rich bitch character..what a joke.
Monday, March 8, 2010 8:58PM
See your point about the pandering cutaways to African-Americans, though in that specific case, I really liked seeing how moved Morgan Freeman was during Geoffrey Fletcher's acceptance speech. He was on the verge of tears for a stranger. It helped that Fletcher's speech was one of the most emotional and sincere.
Also pandering, playing "I Am Woman" after Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director. As many people pointedly asked last night, what would the orchestra have played had Lee Daniels won? Ugh.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:58AM
was about as entertaining as the ..Oh never mind
I for one wanted Clooney to get up and fist either Baldweird or Martin..or both-NOW that would be entertainment
and is Suzi Amis a crack whore?
it was a boring show but a satisfying outcome-AVATAR JUST 3 Statues HA HA HA HA
Yey Bigelow
Suck it Avatar Bitches!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 5:23PM
THANK YOU for mentioning the dance fiasco. I enjoy me some break dancing as much as the next guy, but break dancing has no business accompanying music without percussion. And worst of all, the music itself was upstaged by the bold choreography choices– and it was a music category, let's not forget. The choreographer can sleep well tonight knowing that s/he created something inventive and provoking, but s/he shouldn't. The choreographer lost sight of the big picture and used the opportunity to honor the best scores of the year in a selfish, careless way.
As far as Farrah Fawcett is concerned, though, the line between film and television must be drawn somewhere… if the Oscars open their doors to artists who spent their entire careers in TV, it's a slippery slope that I don't think anyone wants to go down. If we're unhappy with a 3-hour Oscar ceremony, honoring countless actors / producers / writers / etc who never set one foot on a movie set isn't the way to resolve it. I understand that Farrah is a notable figure in entertainment, but so are dancers and comedians and musicians– which brings me to Michael Jackson, who in my opinion, had every right to be mentioned considering 1) his music has been included in countless films, 2) he HAS acted in feature films, and 3) the feature film "This Is It" was released posthumously this very year.
Monday, March 15, 2010 9:07PM
Hey watch it one of my friends did cameras for the oscars