Sunday was the 72nd Annual Academy Awards. Donald and I watched it after the regular Sunday AD&D game, Dave joining us for an hour or so before he had to hurry home. Well, saying that we watched it may be a bit strong. Donald was reading anything he could get his hands on while I was working on my PowerBook and we sort of paid attention to the program.

In any case, it seemed to be all right. I rarely watch award shows at all, and even then it's usually taped so I skip over a lot. Billy Crystal had a couple of good skits, although the opening number where he sang to the Best Actor nominees was not all that great and a bit long. Speaking of which, it was a four hour show, scheduled for three hours. Towards the end I was getting quite impatient since the only major awards given out had been Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

There were some rather long segments that really weren't needed. A history as seen through the movies was five to ten minutes of really short clips of a second or two each. Too many clips, an almost incomprehensible montage that didn't really say anything. Another segment was an ode to movie songs. Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharat, Dionne Warwick, and another woman singer sang short passages of several famous songs. Once again, not very interesting and another five to ten minutes of time taken.

All of the Best Songs were performed, shortened versions, with the "Blame Canada" song from South Park the Movie being quite funny but perhaps over the top with all the performers, especially the Rockettes dressed as Mounties. Warren Beatty got some kind of achievement award. A long montage to showcase Beatty's career, interspersed with clips of interviews of some actors talking about Beatty. After than Beatty accepted his award and gave a long speech thanking people and saying how he will be a better person in the future. First of all, I didn't know how much he's done and how well he's respected by his peers. He does have 14 Academy Award nominations, only some of them as an actor. Frankly, I never thought he was that great an actor. Second, it was a very long segment.

You know, as I'm sitting here writing, criticizing the Academy Awards, I've come to realize that it's much easier to find the bad points and write about them than write about the parts you liked. It's easier to elaborate on why you didn't like something and that way get more material written.

Anyway, one of the best acceptance speeches was by Angelina Jolie for Best Supporting Actress. Incidentally, that's the only one I picked out of the major awards -- rather abysmal record on my part. But it was a heartfelt and touching speech, not that I was really paying attention to most of the speeches. Another good speech was Michael Caine's for Best Supporting Actor. He's a guy who deserves an award just for the sheer volume of work that he's done. Although there were one too many Jaws 4 jokes at his expense.

I noticed that they try to get appropriate actors to be presenters. Arnold Schwarzenegger for Special Effects, Antonio Banderas for Foreign Film, Woody and Buzz Lightyear for Animation. Kind of a nice touch, although you can go overboard and maintain a stereotype that way.

All in all, it was a nice night. Though once again I'm reminded that Donald and I are not the kind of people who you put in a room together and expect them to talk a lot. I think we only spoke a few sentences throughout the awards. It's just strange how we can both sit in the same room and do our own things and never talk to each other, and yet he's a good friend.