On Sunday, for the 85th time, our favorite actors and actresses came together for the Academy Awards. This year, the Oscar celebrations were funny and entertaining.
First time host Seth MacFarlane, who is the creative genius behind “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” “The Cleveland Show,” and the R-rated comedy “Ted,” was hilarious and the best host the academy has had in quite a while. He was graceful onstage and didn’t have the awkwardness Anne Hathaway and James Franco had at last year’s awards. Besides having grace and talent, MacFarlane was also extremely hilarious with songs such as “We Saw Your Boobs,” which poked fun at all of the skin actresses have shown in films.
As the Oscars moved along, Hollywood took time to pay tribute to the longest-running film franchise in history, which of course is “James Bond”. The “Bond” franchise just celebrated its 23rd motion picture with its release of “Skyfall” last November.
For the tribute, the academy put together a montage of all the Bond films from “Dr. No” to the most recent, “Skyfall.” After the montage concluded, 76-year-old Dame Shirley Bassey belted out her iconic hit “Goldfinger,” which was the title song of the third Bond film of the same name, released in 1964.
The tribute was nice except, but it would have been awesome if Sir Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Sir Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Bronson, and Daniel Craig were all together on stage.
Besides the Bond tribute, the academy also recognized three of the best musicals from the past decade: “Chicago,” “Dream Girls,” and “Les Misérables.” The musical numbers for “Chicago,” “Dream Girls,” and “Les Misérables” were too long and some of the actors and actresses were obviously lip-syncing.
When the major awards began, it was great to see Adele win Best Original Song for “Skyfall,” Daniel Day-Lewis take home Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in “Lincoln,” and Jennifer Lawrence win Best Actress in a Leading Role for her part in “Silver Linings Playbook.”
When Jack Nicholson and first lady Michelle Obama teamed up to announce the night’s most-sought-after award, Ben Affleck’s non-fiction historical drama “Argo” walked away with Best Picture. While “Argo” was a good film, it wasn’t as good as Steven Spielberg’s epic “Lincoln.”
The Academy Awards was a star-studded evening filled with great moments—Bassey’s surprise performance– and not-so-great ones—“The Avengers” cast members trying to humorously argue with each other. It was a night to remember and well worth 4 ½ hours of my life.