Feb. 28, 2005 - 9:05 pm
woohoo! this is my most successful year predicting the winners so far. i got 16/24 correct or 67%. my previous best was 15.
the most major award i missed this year was Best Supporting Actress which went to Cate Blanchette. i kind of thought it was going that way anyway, but i decided that Natalie had a chance and i didn't want to bet against her and have her come up a winner. i decided that i'd rather pick her and be wrong than pick someone else and have her end up winning after all. so i missed that one. at least she got the Golden Globe though right?
biggest upset of the night was definitely Best Song. "Al Otro Lado Del R�o" beat out "Accidentally in Love." i think i and most others had picked "Accidentally in Love" to win for sure. plus, it was definitely the best song. i mean seriously, had anyone else ever listened to the Spanish song? you'd change the station if that came on. seriously, folks.
speaking of music, one of the things i have come to enjoy the most about the live show is the musical performances. they're usually songs that aren't that popular but are interesting and innovative just the same. the performances bring seemingly unknown artists to the forefront for a shining moment in their careers. this year, the Academy chose to make a mockery of 4 out of the 5 songs by having them performed by "more popular" musicians.
Beyonce sang 3 out of the 5 songs which was terrible and complete idiocy in my opinion. why? surely to attract a younger crowd; for the same reason that Chris Rock was chosen to host. the fact remains, however, that noone except some diehard Beyonce fans would have even known to expect her performances at the Oscars. it's not like everyone knew that she was doing it beforehand and watched particularly to see her. we all just screamed at the television about how stupid her repeated destruction of the songs was. and did she really need to sing a duet with Josh Groban on "Believe"? i really think Josh Groban can take care of himself without having her try to drown him out. she didn't sing "with" him either. they sounded bad together. it was sad.
and then surely the stupidest musical performance of the night was Antonio Banderas singing "Al Otro Lado Del R�o" with Carlos Santana on guitar. what the hell is that? did you see the look of disgust and disbelief on Jorge Drexler's face during the performance? he's the guy who originally wrote and performed the song and he had to sit there as they cranked out that piece of crap onstage. poor guy. to show that his song really wasn't that bad, he sang a bit of it while accepting his Oscar. good for him. someone has to tell Oscar that he sucked this year.
Sean Penn also did a good job putting Chris Rock in his place by explaining who Jude Law was when Chris wasn't there to defend himself with his loud mouth.
ok, i'll stop complaining now. overall the Oscars were the worst I've ever seen this year. they get a "3/10" from me. hey, that's a good idea. i think i'll start rating the oscars.
high points: Natalie gets nominated and presents the award for Best Documentary Short. Million Dollar Baby, the best of the 5 nominees, wins Best Picture. Charlie Kaufman finally wins an award for a screenplay. he's awesome. so there were a few good things that came from the evening.