The Oscars Seth McFarlane Entertained, but the Show Dragged

Everyone was nervous about Seth, and while his opening number started a bit slow, and got off to a bumpy start I think he did a great job as the emcee.  I am going to steal a line from my friend Karl who said "it was the perfect perfect blend of class and crass." The opening bit with Shatner was great, MacFarlane knows how to to bring that hilariously awkward pop culture reference into the mix.  Watching Channing Tatum, and Charlize Theron was magnetic, then see Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Daniel Radcliffe soft shoe was fun as well.

Throughout the show Seth throughout some jokes with edge relating to Lincoln's death (too soon), a Chris Brown/Rihanna joke, and one of the best jokes introducing Christopher Plummer with a Sound of Music joke.  Although Christopher Plummer gets this award shows Grumpy Old Man Award! In contrast opening the show and getting Tommy Lee Jones to laugh was hilarious, maybe expected, but brilliant.

Music was the central focus of the show, and paying tribute to the role music plays in film, and while it was fun to see Catherine Zeta Jones lip sync, Jennifer Hudson steal the night, the Lis Miserables cast sing better than they did in the film (except Russell Crowe), Shirley Bassey's tribute to Bond with Goldfinger, Adele, and Norah Jones singing their perspective Best Song nominees, and Babs paying tribute to the great Marvin Hamlisch. Whew, I got tired just typing that.

I think it was a bit tacky not having all the Best Song nominees performed on the show, have them all performed or none of them, and my money is on none of them.  I love Babs, and Marvin Hamlisch but this post in memoriam was not needed.  While I love movie music this lacked focus.  Oh how can I forget the awkward closing number, just say good night, some of us on the east coast have work in the morning.

Along with songs with no pay, the tribute to the Bond was wasted, and fell flat.  It was cool to see the clips of the different films, but what was the point?  The marketing on this was off the charts, but they did not reunite the Bonds after Shirley Bassey's number.  Having Adele perform later and not be connected to this made no sense.  Damn you Pierce Brosnan for backing out of this!

With the winners/presenters/speeches let's look at this from a Good, Bad, Ugly Perspective

The Good 

Ang Lee winning director (although I would have preferred Zeitlin), but his win was better than one for Spielberg.  Lee's film was a technical marvel and his direction was great.

The speech from Innocente was the best of evening, celebrating art.

Lincoln winning more than just one award for Daniel Day Lewis (Production Design as well)

Silver Linings Playbook only winning one award, and Harvey could not buy them anymore, including a win for DeNiro.

Speeches from Daniel Day Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence were good!  DDL had me tearing up because he seemed really appreciative, then had me in stitches when he talked about his and Meryl's freaky Friday with Margaret Thatcher in Lincoln.  Even though J-Law tripped you could tell just appreciative she was and, it was sweet to wish Emanuelle Riva a Happy Birthday!

Ted and Mark Wahlberg were the only entertaining duo who presented, glad he only did his Ted schtick, loved this!

The Bad 

The Django wins, sorry Waltz is a lead, and that is Quentin's worst screenplay (even worse than Jackie Brown)

Anne Hathaway's speech (and outfit) while her win isn't the worst (although Field or Hunt deserved it more) she had all this time to practice, and prep, but she just never nailed it, and I still am not a huge fan.

Most of the presenters who tried to do something were mediocre, I guess at Oscar if you can't hack it just present

The Ugly 

Zero Dark Thirty winning only one award in the sound category when it was the best film of the year

Les Miserables winning 3 Oscars!

Beasts of the Southern Wild going home empty handed, criminal

In a year with so much upset potential these awards were incredibly predictable, and boring, I got 23 out of 26 right (only missing Production Design, the Sound tie, and Documentary Short)

Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy were beyond lame, they will not be hosting anytime soon.

The Cool 

Having Michelle Obama present Best Picture with Jack Nicholson, may be one of the oddest/coolest things I have ever seen.

Ben's sheer genuine appreciation while accepting Best Picture, Grant Heslov is in the not cool category, we realize Argo was directed by Affleck, the Academy knows!!

I did not place Argo's win into any categories, because I like and respect the film, but I am not sure it fits within any of these categories.