Hugh and Oscar

Admittedly, I haven't watched an entire Academy Awards presentation in years. Last night was the exception. Over the years, I have watched the Oscars a bunch. Some years, the show is pretty good and other years, well not so much. This year, I hadn't even seen a single of the nominated movies, but I watched anyway. Dare I say, I enjoyed it.

Last night, for what my little opinion counts, I really enjoyed watching Hugh Jackman. Most of us who don't have Broadway access, just know his performances from the cinema. You can tell the guy absolutely, positively LOVES to be on stage singing and dancing. Seriously, if you could bottle the look he had in his eyes, you could be a bazillionaire. (No pun really intended to the evenings big movie winner.) And who knew that little miss Princess, Anne Hathaway, could sing.

What I did like also was how they presented the Oscars to the acting categories. Having five previous winners doing individual acknowledgments... well let's just say it made me root for each and every one of nominees. As corny as it will sound, each of the presenters knew exactly what the nominees were feeling and for the most part each sounded genuine when they highlighted their nominee. You could also tell when each was being highlighted, they were truly invested in the moment, tears and all. I would hope they would keep this format of the awards to the actors and actresses.

At least they seemed to do away with the obnoxious musical cut ins if an acceptance speech was well, lengthy. Thank goodness, let the winner enjoy their moment on the stage.

However, there was one moment that I wished the director and his team had done differently. The section where they memorialize those performers, writers, directors, technicians, who had passed away in the previous year, wasn't very good. The song was fine - but didn't need to see the singer, we needed to be focused in on the person they were showing, not sweeping the cameras in and out in some type of artistic flourish.

I really do watch for the awards and to some degree to see who is wearing what. Now I don't get into the red carpet watch before hand but from what I saw in the show, everyone looked very classy. There were some gorgeous dresses and some very, very nice jewelry. Sometimes I think we tend to forget most guys look pretty darn good in tuxedos. I will say I probably liked Eva Marie Saints classic suit the best.

Not that I could ever afford to be a voting member of the Academy as they say, but I can do the whole "thumbs up" to Hugh and this year's show. I hope he gets an encore.