| Monday March 25th 2002 I thought the Oscars were excellent last night; I didn't notice the time fly by. As ususal, it evoked more emotions in me than the movies it was intended to celebrate. Two moments in particular - the Cirque du Soliel performance and the ovation for Sidney Poitier - had me choked up. Go ahead, laugh if you want to. Those were the highlights for me. Those were truly fantastic people being appreciated for being truly fantastic, and that's something you see all too seldomly these days. In those moments, I was one with the world and everybody felt just like me. Things went downhill in the latter half. I'm happy for Hale Berry. I'm happy for Denzil Washington. I'm sure they both played their parts well (I didn't see either performance). But for them both to be awarded on the same night, let alone the same night as Poitier was honoured, was anything but coincidence. I stopped watching the Grammies when I felt there was something going on besides honouring people who most deserved it, and I'd hate to stop watching the Oscars - I won't - but something smelled of political correctness last night. Then there was what I can only refer to as the Beautiful Debacle. Of all the Best Picture nominees, that was the one that had me scratching my head. There was nothing unique, intriguing, especially well done - in short, nothing Oscar worthy - about that movie that I could detect when I saw it. Of all the Best Picture nominees, that was the only one that didn't inspire me to think upon its message or lurked in my head for more than a day. Moulin Rouge and LOTR were more unique, and more epic. Gosford Park was a better showpiece of fantastic acting, more 'artsy'. In the Bedroom was a more moving personal story, albeit fictional. There was nothing outstanding about Connelly's performance. I don't get it. Maybe Ron Howard had a best director nod coming, but so did Altman, and I don't think this was the movie that should have done it for him. Sorry Ron - congrats anyway. The 'In Memorium' and the 'New York' retrospectives weren't as good as they could have been, but the intro segment was fun - 'cept nobody said Star Wars was their favourite! Godzilla vs Mothma, but no Star Wars .... !!!! whutever. PS - My Yahoo!Oscars score: 9/24 = 60th percentile = C- |