Is anyone else NOT watching the Oscars tonight? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

WaPo has things to say about the Oscars

“The Oscars always get it wrong. Here are the real best pictures of the past 42 years. - The Washington Post”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-of-the-past-42-years/?utm_term=.60cccfccc376


“In a truly just world, the Oscars would include these 10 categories - The Washington Post”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...76b4fe57ff7_story.html?utm_term=.4c5200fca0d1

 

[TravisR]

WaPo has things to say about the Oscars

“The Oscars always get it wrong. Here are the real best pictures of the past 42 years. - The Washington Post”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-of-the-past-42-years/?utm_term=.60cccfccc376

They acknowledge it in the article but time is required to pick the 'real' best picture. That's why time is the real test of a movie and not the Academy Award (though I have fun discussing the Oscars).

 

[Patrick Sun]

Skipping through the host's bits, and skipping through all the commercials, so probably starting in around 3 hours into the broadcast, like Adam, but later .

 

[John Dirk]

At this point the "winners" aren't always winners as the decision has to be filtered through so many Socio-Political levels. Also, those in this profession are already quite fortunate so seeing them parade around in gowns and tuxedos admiring each other can be a bit much for me.
I love all manner of on-screen entertainment but I think, for the true greats, the work is all the reward they want or need.

 

[TonyD]

I’ll be watching just like every year.

I miss th chat htf used to have every year.

 

[Walter Kittel]

I usually record the event and selectively watch some segments. I still enjoy the show, but my theatrical viewings are down so my level of interest in the nominees is a bit muted.

- Walter.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Looking forward to the Oscars was looking forward to the HTF chat for me. I don't know why we don't do it anymore.

 

[MatthewA]

Right now, this is the only Oscar I care about:

 

[Nick*Z]

The Oscars wore out their welcome for me after the M.C.'s slanted all their humor to political biases and other jokes unrelated to the industry itself - the humor designed merely, and rather pathetically, to inflict maximum crudeness and smugness. Where for art thou Billy Crystal, Bob Hope and Johnny Carson? Still can get a chuckle from Johnny and Miss Piggy standing together on the podium.

Piggy: Johnny? Can you stand there in your rented tuxedo and honestly say that I am not Oscar material?!?! Johnny: Oscar Meyer maybe!

Also, the minute the yearly telecast started dropping stuff like those original bon-bon produced, mind-boggling and occasionally garish, but never anything less than spell-binding openers, with all that lush and gaudy choreography from Harold Pinter, the show went from fun-filled excess to boring, run-of-the-mill filler. Remember 1988 - the year the stage was filled with life-size Oscars that suddenly came to life and danced amidst a laser light show?

Or how about 1978's homage with Debbie Reynolds singing "Look How Far We've Come" and all those dancers parading up and down all those stairs?

Or what about Donald O'Connor tapping his heart out in 1980, or Liza Minnelli singing "Oscar, everybody loves yah!" or 1982's magnificent pairing of Peter Marshall and Bernadette Peters for their musical tribute to Irving Berlin?

And who can forget Kathy Bates' tearful acceptance speech for her Misery Oscar, or Sally Fields "You like me...you really, really like me!" blunder, accepting for Places in the Heart, or most striking of all, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's brilliant rebuttal to Vanessa Redgrave's thoroughly convoluted diatribe for accepting the Oscar for Julia, Chayefsky departing from his script to add, "I am sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal political propaganda. I would suggest to Miss Regrave that her winning an Oscar was not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed!"

Boy, could we certainly use a bit of Chayefsky's wisdom now! For the record, Mr. Chayefsky received a resounding ovation for this nugget of truth back then. Bravo and well done!

And then, of course there was Carson "I see a lot of new faces...especially on the old faces", and Crystal "There were 330 films featured in that montage...and what's amazing is that according to Paramount, not one of them has yet to go into profit!" and Whoppi "I am the African Queen!" Goldberg.

It's hard to compare such memorable goodies with the likes of a Neil Patrick Harris running around in his undies in 2015 or 2011's co-hosting nightmare that was James Franco (ramped up on something and in constant danger of either blacking out or going batty) and Anne Hathaway, who treated the occasion as though she were valedictorian at her high school graduation, asking "How am I doing, grandma?" or Seth MacFarlane's 2013 "We saw your boobs", accompanied by the Los Angeles Gay Men's Choir...we think?!? And exactly what Justin Timberlake singing his hit pop tune "Can't Stop This Feeling" had to do with the Oscars is frankly beyond me - did someone confuse his sign up sheet with a performance for the Grammy's?!?

The only place where the more recent awards ceremonies show class (as opposed to crass) is during their occasional 'looking back' pieces: as in, Lady Gaga's extraordinary performance of some of our 'favorite things' from The Sound of Music during 2015's telecast, or Shirley Bassey in 2013, singing the title song from Goldfinger for James Bond's 50th, as though time had indeed stood still.

The other saving grace of more recent Oscar telecasts has been the In Memoriam tributes, serving as a painful reminder the old Hollywood is quite dead as its alumni continue to expire at an alarming rate with no worthy successors to their legacy waiting in the wings.

Sarah Bareilles 2017 rendition of Joni Mitchell's "From Both Sides Now" that bid farewell to the likes of Gene Wilder, George Kennedy and set designer supreme, Ken Adams (among far too many others) and ended with the almost epic epitaph of Debbie Reynolds blowing a kiss from Singin' in the Rain, wed to a clip of Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens, solemnly declaring "May the force be with you" - always, I think broke everybody's heart - certainly mine.

The point is, the show today is a wan ghost flower of its former glory. There's no finesse to it and no iconic moments to even hope - much less root - for; like 1974's 'streaker' incident that afforded Sir David Niven the great ad-lib: "Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping down and showing off his shortcomings!" Now that was funny.

Incidentally, the streaker was Robert Opel, infamously murdered in 1979; the '74 streak, later suggested as a planned moment orchestrated by the show's producer, Jack Haley Jr. Perhaps. It still proved amusing, more so when Elizabeth Taylor (no stranger to male genitalia) suggested Opel was "a pretty 'hard' act to follow!"

Why AMPASS hasn't gotten around to releasing an Oscar-compendium Blu-ray box set of such memorable moments is, frankly beyond me. It should be a Criterion release, like their more recent Olympiad box set, covering the entire history of the Academy Awards and featuring complete speeches, production numbers, tributes and the like - a licencing nightmare...I know. But necessary. Because I really do not think youngsters today recall what the Oscars used to be, and how far they have devolved into their most recent 'dumb show' of shows. Will they get any better? Hard to say. But I do not think so. Regrets.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Pretty sure this is the only way you could get me to watch any awards show...

 

[Jake Lipson]

Paddington 2 wasn't nominated.

To be fair, the Oscars go by United States release date, so Paddington 2 will be eligible to win Oscars with 2018 films next year. Even though it was released internationally in November, WB didn't release it here until January, which makes it a 2018 film for purposes of the Oscars.

Of course, the likelihood that it will be remembered over a year later is nominal, so your point will (probably, unfortunately) still stand, and I do agree it is deserving of recognition. But technically, it wasn't nominated this year because it wasn't eligible yet.

 

[Stan]

Why do people care so much about "The Oscars"? What actress wears the best gown, what guy has on the nicest tux? It's ridiculous. Just a bunch of "celebrities" and wannabes patting each other on the back.

I passed and didn't watch, the DVR had better things to record.

And check out MSN.com there must be 50 articles about it. Some words I'd love to use, but not appropriate here.

 

[TonyD]

Why do people care so much about "The Oscars"? What actress wears the best gown, what guy has on the nicest tux? It's ridiculous. Just a bunch of "celebrities" and wannabes patting each other on the back.

I passed and didn't watch, the DVR had better things to record.

And check out MSN.com there must be 50 articles about it. Some words I'd love to use, but not appropriate here.

It’s a bit silly to,say you don’t know why people care so much about it.

The same reason anyone cares to watch anything.

 

[Todd H]

Would rather drink two rounds of colonoscopy prep than watch an awards show, especially the Oscars.

 

[RobertR]

Completely uninterested in the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, etc. Vapid, banal, more interested in politics than genuine glamour and showmanship. Bleh.

 

[gadgtfreek]

All (sports, music, movie, etc...) awards shows are crud and agenda driven, stopped watching them all years ago.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Also, the minute the yearly telecast started dropping stuff like those original bon-bon produced, mind-boggling and occasionally garish, but never anything less than spell-binding openers, with all that lush and gaudy choreography from Harold Pinter, the show went from fun-filled excess to boring, run-of-the-mill filler.

Who can forget those rollicking musical numbers from "The Birthday Party," "The Homecoming" and "Betrayal"?

 

[dana martin]

Hellboy's sidekick won Best Picture,

well damn, I guess Hellboy needs to get a better agent

i had other things to do, ......... like work overtime

 

[Stan]

It’s a bit silly to,say you don’t know why people care so much about it.

The same reason anyone cares to watch anything.

There are plenty of shows I enjoy watching, but these "Award shows" are a complete waste of time.

 

[atfree]

I used to watch religiously every year....but that was when films that were actually popular (and great) were nominated. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello Dolly, Airport, Love Story, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sting, A Touch of Class, The Towering Inferno, Jaws, Rocky, Star Wars, The Goodbye Girl, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Heaven Can Wait, Working Girl, Field of Dreams, etc.

I highly doubt any of those films would even be considered for nomination today. Pre-2000, the Academy acknowledged both artistic and popular appeal IMO, and I think they wanted to appeal to the widest possible audience. I remembered thinking in 2010 when Avatar lost Best Picture to The Hurt Locker that the rubicon between popularity and art had been crossed and we'd probably never see another huge hit win Best Picture. In the past there always seemed to be a nice balance between the two, but eventually the Oscars transitioned to being The Independent Spirit Awards.

Can you even imagine Fatal Attraction being nominated for Best Picture (which it was) in today's climate?