I'll get the only two negative points out of the way first. Jerry Lewis accepting his award was creepy and the award itself inappropriate. And Bill Maher needs to know his audience. I love the guy, but his stuff fell flat at this show. Perhaps if he had actually handed out free copies of his DVD to the front row, it might have been funnier.
If this is a reduced-cost show, I didn't see that anywhere. So I hope it actually was a cheaper show.
I found that for the actor awards, having past winners of the award make statements about each of the nominees was a great concept. Some of the statements themselves were not. But on the whole, it was good for all of the nominees to have something good said about them, instead of watching yet another meaningless movie clip. I hope they bring this idea back. To do this for every award would be boring, so I'd like to see them mix it up a bit next year, and maybe do it for everyone EXCEPT the actors. For example, I think hearing from past sound editing winners about sound editing might be interesting. This award keeps getting handed out, but I still don't know what makes anyone good or better at it. So tell me.
Hugh Jackman again was an excellent host. I have difficulty recalling anyone who stands out as being better. Although I'm not convinced that the movie musical is back. Chansons d'amour was completely ignored by the awards, despite being beautiful AND French. If French love songs can't win, what musical can?
I think the semi-circular thrust stage was a great way of drawing the theatre audience closer to the stage action, and improving the intimacy of the event. Despite obviously being a huge room, it felt small, which is a good thing.
Despite knowing who was "supposed to win" in advance, and most of those winners being confirmed, the show was paced well. According to my PVR, the show went about 30 minutes long, but I didn't really notice it. It was a bit dull in the third quarter, but I think it holds up well against past years.
If this is a reduced-cost show, I didn't see that anywhere. So I hope it actually was a cheaper show.
I found that for the actor awards, having past winners of the award make statements about each of the nominees was a great concept. Some of the statements themselves were not. But on the whole, it was good for all of the nominees to have something good said about them, instead of watching yet another meaningless movie clip. I hope they bring this idea back. To do this for every award would be boring, so I'd like to see them mix it up a bit next year, and maybe do it for everyone EXCEPT the actors. For example, I think hearing from past sound editing winners about sound editing might be interesting. This award keeps getting handed out, but I still don't know what makes anyone good or better at it. So tell me.
Hugh Jackman again was an excellent host. I have difficulty recalling anyone who stands out as being better. Although I'm not convinced that the movie musical is back. Chansons d'amour was completely ignored by the awards, despite being beautiful AND French. If French love songs can't win, what musical can?
I think the semi-circular thrust stage was a great way of drawing the theatre audience closer to the stage action, and improving the intimacy of the event. Despite obviously being a huge room, it felt small, which is a good thing.
Despite knowing who was "supposed to win" in advance, and most of those winners being confirmed, the show was paced well. According to my PVR, the show went about 30 minutes long, but I didn't really notice it. It was a bit dull in the third quarter, but I think it holds up well against past years.