By Tom Comi
Since the Academy Awards is all about who does and doesn’t walk away with the coveted Oscar, we decided to look at the evening from a TV-watching experience and declare who we thought stepped up and who didn’t.
Red Carpet Winner: Robin Roberts was a pro at handling the live interviews, and she showed a great knowledge of the nominated movies and the nominees. You would think that would be a prerequisite for working the red carpet, but sadly that has not been the case over the years.
Red Carpet Loser: We adore Tim Gunn and greatly value his opinion on all things fashion, but he should not be interviewing celebrities. His strength is commenting on the clothing the celebrities are wearing, and ABC should have relied upon that strength instead of forcing him into a role that didn’t suit him.
Opening Sequence Winner: We never get tired of seeing or hearing Morgan Freeman, and we were treated to a brief but tasty cameo by the venerable actor in a dream sequence in which hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco are inserted into scenes from nominated movies like Inception, Black Swan and True Grit.
Opening Sequence Loser: The rest of the opening was unoriginal and has been done much better and funnier by host-extraordinaire Billy Crystal. This was followed up by an awkward monologue that came to a complete standstill when Hathaway’s mother and Franco’s grandmother were introduced to the crowd. So much for appealing to younger viewers.
Live TV Winner: It might be the last time film icon Kirk Douglas is asked to address a live audience, but his ad-lib appearance as a presenter will go down in show lore. Inspiring and hilarious all at once.
Live TV Loser: Melissa Leo of The Fighter was a winner for Best Supporting Actress, but she ends up here for dropping an f-bomb in front of the entire world in her victory speech.
Victory Speech Winner: David Seidler, 73, brought the crowd to laughter several times after garnering an Oscar for Original Screenplay for The King’s Speech. Poking fun of his own age, he said: “My father always said to me I would be a late bloomer. I believe I am the oldest person to win this particular award. I hope that record is broken quickly and often.”
Victory Speech Loser: We get that all of these people aren’t public speakers, but Coleen Atwood surely didn’t have to read 90-percent of her speech off a little piece of white paper after Alice in Wonderland was honored for Costume Design.
One-Liner Winner #1: Not only did the frizzy-haired Luke Matheny thank his mom for handling craft services for his movie that won Live Action Short Film, but he began his speech by saying, “I should have gotten a haircut.”
One-Liner Winner #2: Poking fun at co-star Melissa Leo’s earlier faux pas, Christian Bale said, “I’m not going to drop the f-bomb like she did before. I’ve done that plenty.” The latter was a reference to his infamous, potty-mouthed tirade while working on the movie Terminator Salvation.
One-Liner Winner #3: Colin Firth, after winning Best Actor for his work in The King’s Speech, began his speech with, “I have a feeling my career’s just peaked.”
Comedy Bit Loser: We get that the Academy is trying to skew younger, but the bit where stars of films like Toy Story 3, The Social Network and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse were made to appear as if they were singing in a musical completely missed the mark.
Website Winner: During his speech for Best Supporting Actor, Bale gave a nod to the man he portrayed in The Fighter (Dicky Eklund) and his website. “He’s had a wonderful story, and I can’t wait to see the next chapter of his story. If you want to be champ, if you want go train with him, go meet with him, dickeklund.com.” Cha-Ching!
The “Who Cares?” Winners: Inception took home the hardware for the important yet unglamorous categories like Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects, while Alice in Wonderland was awarded for Art Direction and Costume Design. Yeah!
Best Song Winner: “I See the Light,” performed by Zachary Levi and Mandy Moore for the animated film Tangled, is not the best song ever written. But we award bonus points to the two stars for performing it themselves (can’t be said for a lot of animated movies), especially Levi, who is more known for starring in NBC’s Chuck.
Best Song Loser #1: We get that “If I Rise” from 127 Hours comes at a very pivotal part of the movie, but we for the life of us couldn’t understand a single word Florence Welch was saying last night. If they can have subtitles for foreign films, you would think somebody could have helped us out here.
Best Song Loser #2: Enough with Randy Newman already! He gets props for winning the Oscar for “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3, but this was his 20th nomination and only his second win. Surely, there is someone else out there who can write a song for a movie.
Biggest Surprise Winner: Absolutely none. All of the favorites in the major categories won, essentially eliminating any suspense from the evening.
Biggest Surprise Loser: The TV viewer. Granted, a lot of great films were made and recognized this year (blah, blah, blah), but there was no drama to this year’s telecast. Upsets make things interesting, and last night’s show was unfortunately anything but.
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Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC
