TVSquad

the oscars has always been boring. they constantly reward movies that nobody watches. its uptight and uncomfortable. its just a bland performance. they are stuck in the 1920s they really need to move into 2008 and update their formart start rewarding different brands of movies as opposed to the same crap year after year

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First off, this year's show was not all that long. It only ran 17 minutes over and by Oscar standards, that's coming in on time! I thought the show ran smoothly, but the problem was that none of the top films were huge box office hits (only JUNO has crossed the $100 million mark and I still don't know that many people who have seen it!). There were hardly any surprises, so not many people tuned in. If the Best Picture race was TRANSFORMERS against HARRY POTTER and HAIRSPRAY, maybe more people would have been interested to see what won.

As for the Renfro snub, I think the Academy misjudged how many people were going to notice the omission. I don't buy their BS response that it had to do with time. They could have cut the not funny video bits of what "tributes" they would have had if the writers strike had continued. I think they purposely omitted Renfro because of the circumstances surrounding his death. But they also omitted a couple of other actors as well. Lois Nettleton died in the period between Renfro and Ledger (along with Suzanne Pleshette, who was included), and Charles Lane, who died at the age of 102! This guy was one of the most recognizable actors around and he was in movies and TV shows longer than probably any other actor! I appreciate the Academy showcasing people behind the camera as well, but when you have some big names (or faces) that have passed they should acknowledge them over a producer, studio head or agent! It just showed some poor judgment on their part.

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Or people could actually watch the films nominated and stop bitching about how the Academy never ever honor box office champions (Titanic, Return of the King, The Departed, Forrest Gump, Gladiator...).

I mean if all the films were obscure foreign arthouse from Germany playing in 1.5 theatres then I understand, but every Best Picture nominee this year were still playing in many theatres all the way up the ceremony giving people PLENTY of time to watch what they've been missing.

Then again bitching is much easier and gotta admit cheaper, too.

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Awards shows are always dull, boring, and irritating. But considering there were only 4 or 5 good movies made in the past year, there was no excitement in watching it, no competition, no great movie versus great movie. Truly a horrendous year in filmmaking. Even the two best films of the past year, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, were somewhat dull.

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I was only able to watch the ceremony intermittently, but I still found myself turning it off because of the long montages of past winners. I thought Jon Stewart was very good this year, but he barely got enough time to do anything. Even his initial monologue was small. I guess if there is one thing they should change for next year to make the show more entertaining they should cut down the montages, trust the host a bit more, and make the show shorter (though I guess removing most of the montages will make the show shorter anyways)

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Ugh... John Stewart's hosting and Amy Adams' performance made the show watchable, but most of it was just grey.

There was no real excitement behind the awards. I think it was because when No Country For Old Men came out all the critics immediately said: This will win everything. And it did. Same with Day-Lewis in There will be blood. Don't get me wrong, Day-Lewis is an excellent actor, but the results seemed set in stone far ahead of time.

As for movies that everyone didn't watch. Who cares? The goal here is good film making and not commercial success. If transformers was nominated I would have woofed.

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How come the great Actor Roy Scheider was not included among those in the Academy who
had passed away? And like Lucyfan62 mentioned Charles Lane was not included, not Renfro or Lois Nettleton. Poorly poorly done.

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I have no need of watching insecure entertainment types pat each other on the back for doing their job well

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Absolutely ridiculous that they didn't include the actors mentioned above. The pox on society's ass that is Valenti was mentioned, they could have mentioned people that actually contributed to society.

Amy Adam's made the performance worthwhile? Really!! Every song from that wretched pile of worthless excrement was barely passe. And the song that Adams performed was the worst. It was a travesty that only one song from Once got nominated while three from the crapfest Enchanted were nominated. At least Once won. But two of Once's songs should have been nominated, since multiple songs from one movie was an option. (If You Want Me, and Fallen from the Sky were both fantastic)

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Roy Scheider's death missed the cut-off date of 1/31, which is why he wasn't included in the montage. I'm sure he will be in there next year.

I definitely agree it was poor judgment not to include Renfro and the others mentioned, though.

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I doubt it affected the award show, but Nascar had a long race delay last night all the way up till 1 am central time, I am taking a wild guess that might have been a reason why there was a drop in viewers plus the reasons everyone else said.

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