74th Annual Academy Awards

As much as I admire and always see any movie that Denzel Washington is in, and agree that his portrayal of the "cop gone bad" in "Training Day" was EXCELLENT, and totally different for Mr. Washington, proving his incredible acting skills, I have to say that Russell Crowe deserved that Oscar more. It's not because of Russell's "looks". Russell Crowe delivered an INCOMPARABLE performance of the portrayal of Dr. John Nash. All you have to do is watch the movie and see the acting skill that Russell Crowe tapped into to deliver such a realistic and unbelievable character. It was out of Russell Crowe's normal type of role, too, just as it was for Denzel. I wish they both could've received Oscars, but, having to choose only one, I would've chosen Russell Crowe's acting performance in "A Beautiful Mind" as much as I love any move Denzel Washington is in. I wish this email could be sent to the Academy Awards, and to Russell Crowe. Thank you.

No awards show can please all the people. Clearly if your favorite movies didn't win, you will say the show wasn't very good. That's understandable.

However, the 74th Annual Academy Awards will be remembered for one magical moment of Hollywood history:

Woody Allen's first appearance ever at the Academy Awards.

Allen has often shunned the awards as being self-aggrandizing and pointless, and has never attended -- even though he has won several of the coveted awards.

When the 74th Academy Awards were held, the nation was still mourning the loss of life in the collapse of the World Trade Centers in New York. When it came time to pay tribute to the city of New York, they decided to show a video of the great movie moments form the city of cities. Then the announcer simply said:

"Ladies and gentleman, Oscar Award winning Director Woody Allen."

The place erupted in an extremely long standing ovation. The entertainment industry finally got to give their applause to the Man from New York who usually avoids the Hollywood scene. As the applause died down, Woody applied some of his legendary wit to the situation.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

"Thank you very much - that makes up for the strip search."

"I thought they wanted their Oscars back," he joked. "I panicked because the pawn shop has been out of business for ages and I had no way of retrieving anything. "

"But that wasn't it. I couldn't work it out because my movie wasn't nominated for anything this year. Then it hit me - maybe they were calling to apologise."

Allen also disclosed why he had overlooked his lifelong Oscar-aversion for this one special night.

"For New York City, I'd do anything. So I got my tux on and came down here," said Allen.

"It's a great, great movie town. It's been a great, moving and exciting backdrop for movies and it remains a great, great city."

So many mistakes! Whoopi was OK, no Steve Martin, but not David Letterman. Anyway, my opinion on the awards given:

Best Picture: MOULIN ROUGE SHOULD HAVE WON! This is the most incredible movie I've ever seen, and it should have swept. But, if the academy wasn't ready for that, Gosford Park is the runner up. Witty, amazingly acted, and wonderfully original. Next is In The Bedroom, another underrated movie--it was great. LOTR is overrated, but it was better than A Beautiful Mind, which is severely overrated.

Best Actor: What can I say? It should be Ewan McGregor--he was the best part of that movie in every respect. However, with the options available, Tom W. should have won for In The Bedroom...anyone but Russel Crowe, really. He shouldn't have won either years.

Best Actress: Yep, Nicole Kidman. Unbelievable in every way. The next would be Sissy Spacek, with a flawlessly acted role. Again, anyone but Halle Berry.

Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith or Helen Mirren for Gosford Park. Next would easily be Marissa Tomei for In The Bedroom. Again, I found nothing special in Jennifer Connely's performance...she and that whole movie were totally and completely bland.

The events of the 11th of September 2001 cast its shadow on this Oscar award ceremony with a one minute silence before the in memoriam montage and there was little in the way of the all singing all dancing comedy extravaganza that we`d come to expect of this award show but this was by no means a bad thing . Entertainment was more or less curtailed to a LOTR send up with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson and that was it . The rest of the show was taken up with clips from the nominations and I have to admit this was actually more enjoyable than the overblown song and dance numbers we`ve seen over the years and Whoopi Goldberg was by no means a bad presenter unlike the very esoteric David Letterman from a few years ago and the one minute silence for the victims of 9/11 was haunting and dignified

As for the awards New Zealand was absolutely robbed . FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING went home with four minor awards while A BEAUTIFUL MIND undeservingly picked up most of the major prizes except for best actor which should have gone to a tough guy New Zealander but went to an An all American nice guy instead . The only Oscar awards I agreed with apart from the ones presented to FELLOWSHIP were the awards for best supporting actress and best supporting actor , both correct calls .

Although the 74th Awards was the longest in history, literally, it was the best of them all. I found Whoopi Goldberg a great host, mainly because I didn't like Steve Martin and I was sick of Billy Crystal. I found the winners debatable, especially for Best Actor. I was rooting for Russell Crowe, even though he won the previous year for Gladiator. The highpoint of the evening was the surprise performance by Cirque du Soleil. What an incredible segment! Overall, I enjoyed the show a lot.