Entertaining Oscars Highlighted by Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger Acceptance Speeches

The Oscars provided no real surprises award-wise. But the Oscars themselves were surprisingly entertaining. I am sure that is due to the fact that they had an excellent entertainer for host in the form of Hugh Jackman. Jackman actually preformed two singing and dancing numbers: the opener, which was quite funny and cute, and a tribute to the musical. There were several things I liked about this year's Oscars. I liked the stage set-up, it was lovely, and the music was well done. I liked the 2008 movie collages that they did. They did one for romances, comedy and action. I liked the combined music number for the best song nominations. And I liked the way they gave out the actress and actor awards where they had as many presenters as nominees and they said something nice about all the nominees before announcing the winner. It was nice that they celebrated everyone's achievement; I mean even getting nominated is an honor, before focusing on the one that wins. I also liked the way that they told the story of how you make a movie in award sequence, it tied it all together and made it more of an entertaining show then a tedious award show. The only thing I didn't like was the way they did the memorial. They had the screen showing the ones that passed away so far from the camera that I couldn't see some of the names, and that I thought that could have been done better. But overall I was very entertained by this year's Oscars, which will encourage me to watch them again next year.

The one presenter that stands out was Ben Stiller paired with Natalie Portman. Stiller came out on stage looking like Joaquin Phoenix did the on David Letterman a couple of weeks ago. It was a very funny skit as he pretended not to care about the Oscars and Portman did all the announcing. It proves that the Oscars can be funny and adapt to be up to date.

The award speeches that stuck with me are the ones for Best Actor in a leading role, Best Actress in a leading role and Best Supporting Actor. Sean Penn winning Best Actor in a film was a bit of a shock since many thought that Mickey Rourke would win it. I thought that it was given to the right person although I wouldn't have thought it terrible if Brad Pitt had gotten it. I saw Milk and thought that Sean Penn did an excellent job portraying the character of Harvey Milk. I liked his acceptance speech too; it was a little different. He called the academy, according to the Associated Press, "commie, homo-loving sons of guns" and said that he knows he is difficult and hard to appreciate. At least he knows he is a difficult child of Hollywood. He ended his speech encouraging the theme of his winning movie, Milk, with an equal rights for everyone spiel. I could have done without the activist speech, but it is a subject that needs to be addressed now and that movie gives us an avenue to do so.

I like the speech for Best Actress because Kate Winslet seemed so surprised and thankful to get the award. I thought the poor girl was going to faint right there on the podium. I thought her role was one well done. But since I haven't seen some of the other films, I can't say for sure that her role was the most deserving. But I do know she was the most excited recipient that evening.

I am very, very glad that Heath Ledger won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. I thought he deserved an Oscar when he did Brokeback Mountain. He was a wonderful actor. He portrayal of Joker was scary and fascinating. And I haven't seen any role this year that even compares. His family (mother, father and sister) gave a nice little speech that I thought was well done and thoughtful. He father even said (reported by the Associated Press) that the award "would have humbly validated Heath's quiet determination to be truly accepted by all you here tonight, his peers within an industry he so loved." Heath will definitely be missed by the industry.

It was overall a wonderful night for Hollywood. Especially for Slumdog Millionaire who won 8 of their 10 nominations, and yes it really was that good. The famous looked stunning and the show was entertaining and I don't really have a gripe award wise except sometimes I wish they would honor movies like Batman more.

The winners are (from the Oscars Website):

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Actor in a Leading role: Sean Penn (Milk)
Actress in a Leading Role: Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Achievement in Directing: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Language Film: Departures
Best Song: "Jai Ho" (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Music Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Sound Editing: Batman: The Dark Knight
Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Documentary Short: "Smile Pinki"
Documentary Feature: Man on Wire
Actor in a Supporting Role: Heath Ledger (Batman: The Dark Knight)
Short Film (Live Action): "Spielzugland" (Toyland)
Cinematography: Slumgdog Millionaire
Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Costume Design: The Duchess
Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Short Film (Animated): "La Maison En Petits Cubes"
Animated Feature Film: WALL-E
Writing Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Writing Original Screenplay: Milk
Actress in a Supporting Role: Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)