Sunday, February 24, 2013

Seth's a Winner, but Oscar Stinks


My review of the 2013 Oscars: Seth MacFarlane Fan Club President Seth MacFarlane was hilarious. The celebrities and their tone-deaf speeches -- no, you didn't just discover a cure for cancer -- were insufferable, and who remembers "Chicago" as being a classic???.The nominees weren't so hot to begin with -- I thought 2012 was a particularly weak film year -- but the winners left me even more cold. Christoph Waltz?? Anne Hathaway?? Quentin Tarantino?? Ang Lee? (For "Brokeback Mountain"? Yes. For "The Life of Pi"? No.) Just pathetic. (And did John Travolta suffer a traumatic brain injury? It was like he was pronouncing every word for the first time.) Wanted Bradley Cooper to win, but at least Daniel Day Lewis was hilarious. The ONLY good things were when Jennifer Lawrence won -- which she TOTALLY deserved -- and "Argo," of course. And if you don't agree with me that Seth was smart and funny, did you get a load of his closing song, "The Losers"?!!!!

UPDATE: Sounds like Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times saw the same broadcast I did. Read HERE.


10 comments:

mike said...

Seth was brilliant. Plus he said "boobies", he heh he heh

Anonymous said...

The Oscars broke new wind last night. Seth MacFarlane’s opening monologue of Borsht Belt one-liners was painful. 80% of Americans were asking themselves who the fuck this guy was? Seventeen minutes of pointless jokes, sock puppet sketches, gay references, and dance routines.

The only awards show that Seth MacFarlane is qualified to emcee is the Adult Video Awards. Even then, they should shoot higher. This was that smarmy, unfunny, egotistical cousin at a wedding who stands up and tells the room the bride has herpes.

Did it bother Seth that most of his jokes about assassinations, Nazis, children having sex with George Clooney, gays, Latinos, Adele’s weight, and Jews got huge groans not laughs? Not since Rush Limbaugh announced Monday Night Football has there been a worse casting decision. Denise Richards playing a nuclear physicist made more sense than Seth MacFarlane hosting on the biggest stage of the world.

The big story was that Steven Spielberg was not able to buy any Oscars this year. Despite his “important” film, an ad campaign that cost more than the Civil War, numerous industry screenings, free coffee table books, and asking Bill Clinton to give a speech at the Golden Globes about how modest Spielberg is, the Best Picture went to ARGO and the Best Director went to Ang Lee.

The show itself lasted over four hours. Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron were quick to yank winners off the stage yet allowed time for Seth to personally thank them during the show and then had not one but two tributes to CHICAGO, a movie they produced.

Paul Rudd & Melissa McCarthy were so unfunny they should host the show next year.

What a great night for divas. Shirley Bassey could still hit many of the GOLDFINGER notes, Jennifer Hudson screeched through her DREAMGIRLS song, Adele was wonderful although I have no idea what any of the lyrics of SKYFALL mean, but the best of them all was still Barbra. After the first two notes you got swept up in the song and stopped noticing how much work she’s had done.

Thank you Academy for not extending the Bond tribute by playing “Live and Let Die” over the In Memoriam segment.

Note to Anne Hathaway: your phony humility and surprise is ridiculously transparent. To see what real surprise and genuine emotion is like study Adele acceptance speeches. And you’re not fooling anybody either with the short hair. You’re not Audrey Hepburn. Grow your hair and eat something.

Charlize Theron looked like the world’s sexiest white cremation urn. No gown was as white as Jessica Chastain’s skin.

All in all, this was one of the worst and longest Oscarcasts in recent history. A bad lounge singer as host, random indulgent production numbers, and disrespect for the winners in favor of self-praise for the producers. Tina & Amy indeed!

And here’s the worst thing about Seth MacFarlane – I bet he thought he did GREAT.

Henry Holland said...

The ONLY good things were when Jennifer Lawrence won -- which she TOTALLY deserved --

No she didn't, Emmanuelle Riva in Michael Haneke's Amour "deserved it", but as my friend said before they announced the award, she's an old woman who doesn't speak English, no way is she winning.

Butch said...

Funny how people see things differently; we found the MC so offensive that we ended up turning off the Oscars.

Gabriel Gonzalez said...

Ang Lee and Quentin are the only maverick directors with something unique and truly inspired to add to film. Argo was edited well. Shirley Bassey was the only performer who wasn't oddly subdued (Adelle/Streisand) or screeching (Le Mis cast/Hudson).

Seth is a pandering tool.

Nice blog :)

Laura said...

Personally, I thought Seth MacFarlane bombed. Bring back Steve Martin. He was the best Oscar host ever!

swine said...

Hilarious??? Er, no. Maybe sorta funny in spots. The Ted promo was painful. So was Shatner. The only thing he got right was Tina & Amy would've been a zillion times better.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

I'm not saying people who don't find Seth funny are necessarily slow/out of it -- I "get" all of Tina Fey's references but still didn't find "30 Rock" funny -- but sometimes I wonder if people even understand half of what they're dismissing.

And how are people "offended" by him? Let's be honest: Anyone takes offense to a joke calling "Zero Dark Thirty" a tribute to “every woman’s innate ability to never ever let anything go” or a crack about George Clooney's love of young women is clearly not someone you want to hang out with in the first place.

Craig said...

My parents who had never even heard of Seth thought he was hilarious.

And they had never heard of Adele and my dad went right on iTunes and downloaded her album (even though the song she sang isn't on the album and I felt was poorly performed last night).

Lynn said...

MacFarlane was hilarious. Those moaning and groaning about "tastelessness" are too sensitive for this world.