Review

Review Date: 25-February-07
 

The 2007 Academy Awards Broadcast

The 79th annual awards gala was an international affair as filmmakers from Mexico, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, and other nations joined Americans under the lights.

5:30 pm (PST): The show kicks off classily with a short film by Errol Morris showing a slew of nominees, some of them — gasp! — neither beautiful nor famous. This followed by a round of applause for all the possible winners. Neat.

5:54: Jack Black joins a bewigged Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly for a ditty about underappreciated comedians. As far as stupid Oscar skits go, this is pretty good.

6:12: And as far as weird Oscar skits go, a piece with people making sound effects for famous movie clips also doesn't suck.

6:24: What?? In the only major upset of the evening (and the first major category), Eddie Murphy loses Supporting Actor to Alan Arkin. As far as I'm concerned, any win for "Little Miss Sunshine" is a loss for sanity.

6:39: Al Gore announces his candidacy for president ... only he gets cut off by the infamous get-off-the-stage music. (Ha.)

7:16: "Pan's Labyrinth" continues a roll by winning for Cinematography.

7:24: Presenter Catherine Deneuve gives Helen Mirren a run for her money as most gorgeous woman over 60 at the show.

7:29: Two hours in and only one acting award? Sinking soporifically into montageland, I question whether I like the new program.

7:31: The roll of "Pan's Labyrinth" stops when Germany's "The Lives of Others" takes the statuette for Foreign Language Film.

7:36: No upset for Supporting Actress as George Clooney presents the award to a tearful Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls"). Time will tell whether she's an actress or just a lucky singer.

7:49: Al Gore takes the stage again to join in accepting the Oscar for his Documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

8:00: For scoring the music of over 400 films, Ennio Morricone receives an Honorary Oscar from Clint Eastwood. It's music to my ears to hear him accept in Italian.

8:14: Nausea replaces fatigue as "Little Miss Sunshine" wins for Original Screenplay.

8:27: Is it a rule that televised singing performances must have a gospel choir in the background? Just wondering.

8:30: Apparently a gospel choir doesn't foretell victory, though, as all three of "Dreamgirls"" nominations lose the Song category to Melissa Etheridge's tune from "An Inconvenient Truth."

8:50: A subdued "In Memoriam" segment ends with Robert Altman. I hadn't realized the lovely Valli ("The Third Man") died in the past year.

8:55: As everyone on Earth predicted, "The Queen" Helen Mirren gets the coveted naked dude for Actress (and my vote for nicest gown). Could sheepish presenter Phil Hoffman be any more adorable?

9:03: Forest Whitaker movingly accepts the Oscar for Actor. He was great as Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." However, it was a supporting role.

9:09: Martin Scorsese gets Academy recognition at last, bringing the Kodak Theater to its feet as winner for Director of "The Departed" ....

9:15: .... and then the movie itself wins for Picture. It wasn't a bad flick, but this underscores what a crappy year 2006 really was.

With so few good movies to cover, the show was uninspired and overlong. And rookie host Ellen DeGeneres? She was sweet and satisfactory.

For a complete list of winners, see www.oscars.com.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.