The Big Sleep

Zzzzzzzzzzz... Oh, the Academy Awards are over? Did I miss anything?

If only I'd slept through them. Not a single surprise in any category. No, I didn't predict them all correctly, but I was counting on a couple surprises. I suppose one could consider THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING winning Adapted Screenplay a surprise, but how much of a shock is it when the film wins everything for which it is nominated? (And let's be honest, it was being rewarded for all three films as much as it was for this concluding chapter.) As the night wore on, the only intrigue was whether the person operating the five second delay would need to hit it in the event of Jamie Lee Curtis' breasts popping out of her dress while she introduced the performance of the song from A MIGHTY WIND.

There were some nice moments. Sean Penn recognizing fellow actors who weren't nominated, Sofia Coppola's mention of directors who influenced her, Jack Black and Will Ferrell's song... Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's bit was amusing, although it smacked a little too much of the kind of shilling you see on the MTV Movie Awards but not on the Oscars.

This year's awards season was more bearable, in large part because of the decision to move the Oscars ceremony up a month. Hopefully it stays that way. THE LORD OF THE RINGS won't be around to hog awards anymore, so that should add a little more spice to the mix.

Now the studios can return to releasing good films instead of the shelf-clearing dreck that has been taking up space while the prestige pictures try to make gains off of their nominations.