Oscars Broadcast 2011 Review

As a show centered around pronouncing who is best, the Oscar telecast is open to criticism itself. Having watched each of the past 15 telecasts I feel that I have enough Oscar experience to throw in my thoughts as well. Overall, this was a very different Oscar then there has been in different year. To be honest I felt like it lost some of the gravitas that the Oscars typically have. Let's take a look at each of the big Oscar areas.

The Hosts - Every Oscar broadcast depends on the host, they set the tone and the pace of the show. This year the Academy went with a young pair of actors in James Franco and Anne Hathaway. And overall, it was not good. Hathaway was okay, and in a few years, after she matures a little more she could return to host the show again. She seemed in awe over the stars when she herself is a huge Hollywood star. Franco though, was a robot. He seemed to either not want to be there or was just to tired to do an effective job. The opening was okay, but since they didn't visit all of the nominated movies it felt like it was playing favorites, and had me wishing that Alec Baldwin was hosting. After that, except for a quick shot at Charlie Sheen and a song about Hugh Jackman, there was no gentle jabbing at celebrities or jokes about what is going on in the world. This made it the tamest Oscars that I can remember.

The Theme - This year the first awards of the evening started by introducing a theme of remembering the biggest winners in Oscar history. Starting with "Gone With the Wind" and "Titanic." However, except for a brief appearance by "The Return of the King" and "Wizard of Oz" (which didn't even win best picture) this theme was abandoned for the rest of the show. This may have been due to time constraints caused by Kurt Douglas. But, if you are going to start a theme it should be incorporated into the entire show.

Bob Hope - For some reason, to tease the audience maybe, they brought out one of the great Oscar hosts, Billy Crystal, to introduce the greatest Oscar host, Bob Hope. Not only did this remind us as an audience that the hosts this year are not up to par, but also the Bob Hope thing was just creepy. It's one thing to use footage of him, but it is another to have an impersonator pretend to be him, that was just weird and felt a little disrespectful.

The Awards - Wow was this predictable. I'll be honest that I had a few things wrong on my Oscar ballot, but that was because I was sure that there would be some surprises. Instead there wasn't a single major award that was surprising. Overall, I am okay with the awards given out. I think this was a weak year overall for movies and I highly doubt that "The King's Speech" will be a movie that well cement itself into the American conscience the way some past Oscar winners have.

Overall this Oscar broadcast gets a two out of five stars. Now lets start looking forward to next year's awards.