The Academy Awards was a Torturous Affair Until the End

Well, the 79^th Annual Academy Awards just ended. What a very long ceremony this thing was. I cannot understand who decided the order of things for this show. It took forever for there to be an award handed out that anyone would care about. What happened to the days when the Best Supporting Actor category was handed out first? Remember those days when Jack Palance did one-armed push-ups?

Ellen Degeneres hosted. She did all right, I guess, but I don't think it will go down as anything particularly memorable. I didn't understand why she suddenly had a gospel choir come out near the end of her opening ceremony. Her various bits throughout the show were uneven most of the time. They didn't like it when David Letterman had Tom Hanks come help him unroll a carpet and I am betting the stars won't like the fact that Ellen vacuumed and made various starlets lift their legs.

There was a dance troupe of some kind featured throughout the show. They would perform in silhouette behind a screen and form these shapes that represented a movie. They formed a gun for "The Departed" for example. I guess it was kind of cool, but I mostly didn't get the point. It wasn't like it was funny. It wasn't even entirely entertaining. It was just strange.

Some of the performances by presenters were amusing. There was a comical musical number near the beginning with Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. It was a nice jab at the stars and the Academy for not selecting comedies for awards in the past.

Of course what you really tune in for are the awards. There were some very nice upsets to keep things interesting. Alan Arkin won for Best Supporting Actor, for example. "The Departed" won for Best Picture and upset "Babel."