David, Goliath and Oscar

I managed to make it to midnight Sunday night without nodding off and caught every boring minute of the Oscars.  I shouldn't say boring because I did find Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin entertaining.  Despite reviews I saw to the contrary, I found them funny with lines like:

Martin: "Oh, Look, there's that damn Helen Mirren."

Baldwin: "That's Dame Helen Mirren." 

But they couldn't save the broadcast.  In the end it was The Hurt Locker that did that, winning six Oscars including best director and picture - a David going up against the Goliath Avatar.

I'll confine my criticism of the broadcast to two things.  First, what was up with a dance interpretation of the musical scores?  The dances had nothing to do with movies.  The producers could have given the time from the dance number to the poor guy that got Kanye-d by that woman when he tried to deliver his thank you speech for short documentary.  She was a former producer of the film apparently.  Had no business being on stage.  Where was security?  The other goof was the omission of Farrah Fawcett from the In Memoriam segment.  She was an actor, not Michael Jackson.  Well, not a movie actor, anyway.

I confess, I don't see a lot of movies in the theatre.  I usually wait until they come around on television or if I'm really moved I'll buy it on DVD.  I think the last theatrical release I saw was Bambi.  No, not really.  But I don't go to movie theatres much.

The two nominated movies I saw recently were Star Trek and District 9, each good movies in their own way, I thought.

I didn't have to see Avatar to know it was a blockbusting money earner and "out there" in terms of the special effects it used.  Oh, yeah, and it's director was JAMES CAMERON the Titanic guy - the other money grabbing pic until Avatar came along.  And speaking of money it seemed to be on Cameron to take Director and his pic to take best picture.  The PR machine was cranked up for months over Avatar and it just kept churning and churning.

Well somebody had other plans.  And I think it was the critics.  The Hurt Locker, which follows a US Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit during the Iraq war, swept the Oscars.  It must have been particularly gratifying for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman director to ever win an Oscar, to win over Cameron.  She's his ex-wife!

Referred to as the best movie nobody saw,  I don't recall The Hurt Locker being shown in theatres around here.  But it's been out on DVD since mid-January.  I'll have to pick it up and see what all the fuss is about.

If I can find it on sale, I'm sure I'll get more bang for my buck.