This show was only slightly better than the Emmys. Slightly better in the way diet cheese is better than soy cheese.

Jackman wasn't the problem, he's a great performer. He is a great performer who wasn't given anything to do. Didn't Luhrman watch any of the grand musicals that were flashing in the background? Obviously, no one producing the Oscars hired anyone who knows anything about stagecraft.

That was obvious with the pre-show interviews, where the musical director blathered a bunch of non sequitors and mentioned Benny Goodman a few times. Que? The mess of songs, each one forced into a key and beat that didn't suit it, was just mangled. On my TV/entertainment system the music was hard to hear and the overloaded stage made it nearly impossible to see the really badly choreographed dances.

It was great to see Sophia Loren, but the 5 person tribute for every individual award was tiresome, contrived and rang false. Does Halle Barry really care about Melissa Leo? Surely there's a better way to keep movie stars involved in the Oscars and thus keep the television audience on the lookout for their old favorites and keep the old favorites' careers alive.

The inner circle of high profile stars belied the "theme" inclusion. Equal access? Not so much.

You'd think that with all the talent in Hollywood someone might have looked for people who could put on a show.

Anyone else skeezed out by the resemblance between Danny Boyle and Rudi Giuliani?

It was all I could think about. Oy.

... for mentioning the sean penn acceptance speech. Him not acknowledging his family -- especially his wife! -- was disgraceful. Friends watching with me noted how he did not mention his co-stars in the movie either.

In light of the fact that penn and his wife got a divorce not too long ago (or almost did? Can't remember) and then got back together soon after, and him not even deigning to kiss/embrace his wife before getting his glory on stage (that yank of the chin by his wife and her planting a kiss on him while he stood passively waiting for her to finish spoke VOLUMES) shows how truly narcissistic and egotistical he really is, or has become.

Ugh, just can't look at him the same way anymore.

I don't really get why people spend so much time panning the Oscars... almost everyone's always got a complaint about it. The movies were no good, the host was terrible, the this was bad, the that was awful, blah blah. Can you folks please tell me of one Oscars show that you actually thought was good through and through, where the host was amazing, the most deserving movies won, etc.? If it can't be done, maybe it's time we accept the Oscars for what they are... a fun diversion that can never please us fully as individuals.

... as Oscar hosts. Now THAT would be truly inspired Oscar-casting. I hope the producers are listening, nice change to have two (witty) co-hosts.

I hope they keep the past winners-introducing-the-current-nominees-bit ... that was brilliant I thought. Very classy. Made the whole show feel much more personal and intimate. As if the past winners are conveying personal tributes to their peers (regardless of whether it was written by others or the actors themselves). It totally changed up the show.

I have no comment on the Oscars, since I didn't watch them, but having read the letters: I cannot believe there are still people who think that the Dark Knight held any cinematic worth whatsoever. Seriously. I like dark and thoughtful movies, but I was bored to tears watching that crap. Truly awful, in part because people fawn over it so much when it is a completely mediocre film.

If Joaquin is mentally ill, rejecting acting as performance art, or rejecting acting because he really doesn't like it, what we saw was the Hollywood acting community rejecting him. I don't blame the Hollywood acting community. I blame our nature. A whistle-blower like Jose Canseco is shunned for truth-telling, as are nearly all who deviate from expectations. Stiller made it clear, as did his peers who laughed that if you deviate too much, you will be mocked. Mickey Rourke played the counterpoint, for he was the ex-boxer who returned to the stage, and was loved for it.

(first - you really want to go with that name?)

... for mentioning the sean penn acceptance speech. Him not acknowledging his family -- especially his wife! -- was disgraceful. Friends watching with me noted how he did not mention his co-stars in the movie either.

Aren't we (I mean you) reading way too much into such a confused, overwhelming moment as accepting a major award while being watched by millions of people? And, why should it be a requirement that each winner thank their spouse, or other family members? I'm tired of that schtick anyway. Say what you want up there. Everyone has a family - but it's old hat, acceptance-speech wise. Thanks, Sean, for not boring us!

I like what you wrote. I think the subinference of perpetual complainers is that somewhere sometime, they saw the superior Oscars, which is why they complain. Of course, they're unlikely to voluntarily pony up the date and persons of the superior Oscars, because liking something makes you vulnerable. It's easy and safe to be a cynic.

You're always so thoughtful and substantiate your assertions, EXCEPT in the last post. Why is it so awful?

Re: "100% awesome"

As long as Johnny Carson is not of this earth, the Oscars will not be awesome.

(FYI he hosted 1979 thru 82 & '84)

It wasn't "awful" per se. Its awfulness is only magnified in my mind by the heinous amount of praise and adulation it has received from the general population (the same way the awfulness of mediocre performers like Britney Spears is magnified).

I don't even know where to start. For one thing, it had to work WAY too hard to try to convince the viewer that Harvey Dent was a totally awesome dude. It did this not by showing you how awesome a dude he was, but basically by having all the other characters (primarily Batman) tell you how awesome a dude he was. This was to make it all the more heart-wrenching when he went psycho, which was also really overplayed. There are plenty of people who have worse things happen to them than losing their girlfriend to murder and getting a disfiguring injury and they don't necessarily go bonkers about it... at least, not if they are as awesome a dude as we were meant to believe Harvey Dent was.

The Joker performance... what the hell? Since when does a guy twitching and giggling with bad makeup constitute a performance worthy of an Oscar? I was never afraid of the Joker through the entire movie, and I found his little stunts (like the pencil through the head, and the bomb in the guy's stomach) fairly predictable and so intentionally "shocking" that they came off as hokey. I realize it is heresy to be so critical of Heath Ledger's performance since he died, but frankly I think much of the mysticism surrounding his performance is only due to his death and the popular belief that his work on the Joker performance somehow contributed to it.

Finally, the whole grumbly Batman voice just irritates me every time I hear it. Normally I like Christian Bale a lot, and I even liked the previous Batman movie aside from its overly-lengthy exposition, but he spent so much time here being dark and brooding that I wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or relieved when he started waxing about how awesome a dude Harvey Dent was supposed to be.

Top off the cake with the fact that the Dark Knight tries to wrestle with "big issues." It tries to be a deeply philosophical movie but it takes itself and its "message" (which I cannot even now remember but it had something to do with the existence of men who just want to see the world burn) so seriously that it is practically self-parodying.

I go to an action-adventure movie based on a comic book series primarily to have fun. The Dark Knight was no fun: It tried to be scary and thought-provoking, but it didn't succeed on those scores either. To me it was on about the same level as the Punisher film starring Tom Jane in terms of quality and entertainment value, yet the Dark Knight is now popularly celebrated as one of the best films of the year.

You wanted my reasoning: There it is.