Mar 08 2010
The 2010 Oscars

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were another set of hosts that made us wish Billy Crystal came back to hosting duties. They were both likeable and they took the usual shots at actors, movies, Hollywood, L.A, etc. but there were very few zingers in their routine. So they felt even more redundant than last year’s host Hugh Jackman.
Neither the presenters nor the winners shook things up either. Though there were a few speeches that were dignified and some that were heartfelt, not a single one was really interesting. This was mainly because the actors who traditionally make things interesting were absent. None of the seniors like Nicholson, Pacino, De Niro and Eastwood were to be seen and the actors(like Johny Depp, Jack Black, Jim Carrey or Whoopi Goldberg) who could’ve added some irreverence to the proceedings weren’t around either. Even the usually controversial actors like Sean Penn were subdued. The lone bright spot was Ben Stiller whose Navi makeup and lines were a riot.
There was not much to hold our interest apart from the actual awards either. There was no musical pieces barring one weak show that combined the songs competing for Best Original Song. The montage of horror films over the years led to some “Spot the movie” moments but not much more. The ‘In Memory’ segment was tastefully done as usual with the special homage to John Hughes teaching me a few things about the famous director.
The Oscars are never about awarding the best and a lot of factors – politics, relative popularity of the contenders, their history of awards, to name a few – come into play in deciding the winners. So as long one is well-read, one doesn’t even have to have watched all the nominees to be able to guess who would get the award in a particular category. I was able to guess all the major awards(Supporting actor/actress, Best original/adapted screenplay, Best Actor/Actress, etc.) though I had watched only a small fraction of the films that were nominated. That made the awards rather predictable and when it comes to award shows predictable equates to boring.
The other aspect that made the function boring was that there were no emotions involved. Last year was ofcourse special with the presence of Slumdog Millionaire and A.R.Rahman. But even in other years, there were movies I liked more than others; movies I rooted for; movies I cheered for when they won. But this year I liked both Avatar and The Hurt Locker, the two top favorites, equally. While I loved the large-scale entertainment offered by the former, I loved the non-stop intensity of the latter. So while the David vs Goliath nature of the clash inspired lots of newsprint, I was rather detached during the awards that featured those two films and would’ve been just as happy if Avatar and Cameron had nabbed the Big 2 awards.
The Oscars have always been the one surefire night of appointment TV during the year. But I’m not sure how long that’s gonna last if they continue to be as lackluster as yesterday’s show.






