The 81st Annual Academy Awards

I agree that this was the BEST & most memorable show in years! I stopped watching the boring awards years back but while waiting for a movie to come on I scanned the channels stopping at the awards out of curiosity when I seen Will Smith. Will made the most boring aspects of filming so interesting that I never made it back to watch my movie, lol! Hugh Jackman was also a joy to watch & so was Queen Latifah being it's been sometime since she's sung on stage. I loved the song they chose for her & the clips they put together were amazing. She was the right choice. Also, I liked the seating which made it easier to see my favorite top stars & brought them closer together which made it easier for the camera to go back & forth. It's more interesting when the camera doesn't stay focused on whoever is talking & allow us to catch long and short glances at the stars (stars, not actors being there are so many now, most I don't even know). Out of all the amazing highlights from the 2009 awards, my favs were the presence of the adorable Slumdog kids, the music score Jai Ho, and the 5 person presentation which was the best new idea in a long time! Our favorite talented stars appreciating more of "Hollywood's best" filled w/ surprise, gratitude, and tears made it one of the few unique highlights of the awards. Go Streep, Angie, Brad, and Penn *hands clapping*! But where was Di Caprio? And was up with Sophia Loren & that hair? My gawd, I felt so embarrass for Meryl Streep. 2008 was a special year for the world, leaving every powerful country's future unpredictable. Yet, Hollywood in all its glory, and one very unselfish man named Danny Boyle, along w/ the media, turned the spotlight on forgotten children from one of the most darker, oppressed corners of the world. Never again will Disneyland, a 5 star hotel and restaurant, education or a clean bed(things we take advantaged of), seem a universe of impossible away. Not only were their lives changed but it also replaced hopelessness with hope in the lives of millions while truly encouraging others to embrace and cherish disadvantaged children. It's also part of being a decent human being. That child in return learns to share the miracle & our goodness begins to spread like an infectious disease. Every cycle of goodness kills off a wave of wickedness, and we are slowly but surely beginning to lack this in society. Like they say in Africa, it takes a village to raise a child. Well the village is our world & if we all instill hope & good in nurturing all children instead of just our own, our own lives will be a contribution to making this world predictable, secure & a better place for generations to come. There's 2 types of ppl, those who stand by and allow bad things to happen, and those who step up & make the right things happen. Thank you to Danny Boyle & those who humbly stand correct for all the right things!

OK, I don't believe in the Oscar as the final stand or the most important cinematic award in the world. It's another award for movies, basically American ones, that was fair and unfair along the years. But sure when it comes to the "show" value, it's not like any other one. Through so many years, especially the 1980s and the 1990s, the night of the Annual Academy Awards used to be big, dazzling, esteeming the spirit of cinema passionately. There were performances and short clips that assured that highly. However, in the last couple of years, the things have never become the same.

Here, I didn't feel the word "ceremony" blazingly. (Hugh Jackman) is a decent host, who can dance well too, but let's face it; he isn't a comedian with witty lines (the word is too decent); undoubtedly the other presenters said a whole lot of funnier stuff than him: "I had to be a vampire to be loved, I had 3 fathers!". Yet, thank God that (Chris Rock) wasn't close this round!

Just one moment got my attention, being both the highest of what this night presented. One is when (Queen Latifah) sang "I'll be Seeing You", so perfect, as a tribute for all the artists who died in 2007; aside from its way of making remembering the late ones a something to remember, it was frankly the best performance for this song yet.

The clips to honoring (Jerry Lewis), or for the main nominated films' themes, were pathetic. The stage was poor; this is by all means not what the Oscars used to be. The academy stage in nights like this was always huge and solemn as the moment of winning itself. This time, the sets made it look like the Golden Globe's stage; smaller and not that stately. Even the camera's cadres were limited!

And when (Will Smith) had to hand in something like 4 awards in one row, it gets silly and boring already, particularly with idiot hasty material that was written for him. There is something totally missing in the writing for the Oscars this year, and just compare what you've been hearing here, "The editors effort" bit for instance, to any previous night to understand that clearly.

Speaking about boring things, I hated the most this piece of music that has been played whenever they have to cut to commercials, OH MY GOD, it was too ominous and so out of the mood, not to mention sickly repetitive. To tell you the truth, the whole music was away from being as rich as it always was. I found that playing (Lawrence of Arabia)'s main theme in specific more than once during the night was strange, ignoring many other themes as nostalgic as it.

The new tradition of some ex-winners actors talk about their fellows who got nominated is catchy and full of eminent deference. It seemed like (The Oscars) meets (Inside the Actors Studio) in a good way. But I think that allowing the winner to give a long, LONG, speech can be wearisome.

All in all, it wasn't that enjoyable night. I didn't feel "grand" inasmuch as "poor". Here goes the only reason I watch the Oscars for!

Thanks to Sky yet again, I didn't have access to the full show this year (although they managed to provide 90 minutes of dull red carpet footage on Sky 1 before moving over to the movie channels. The highlights show the next night was what I had to work off with the exception of Hugh Jackman's opening material because apparently Sky didn't have room for that as they filled the start of the highlights with far too much of more red carpet celeb spotting. This in itself goes on for too long but is made even worse by the presentation by Fern Cotton – who we are suppose to like I guess but personally is just so bland as to be almost a pencil outline of herself.

Getting into the ceremony it is obvious they have had a bit of a rejig generally because suddenly the stage seems very low and the audience (or, well, the "important" audience) is very much part of the stage almost. I quite liked this although the downside is that in some shots the audience feels really small (like a small comedy club) and then at other times it looks like the audience has been totally divided into those "in" and those "out", which isn't a nice look no matter how true it is. Another change is that the actors awards are presented by former winners who talk about/to a different nominee each. At times I really liked this but at other times I didn't. When the lines seemed natural and not too corny then it seemed to be a great idea, however it is right on the knife's edge and the odd time it really clunks badly, either by unnatural delivery or by some terrible lines. Adrian Brody's lines to Richard Jenkins was close to disrespectful and it showed on Jenkins' face. Mostly though it is a good idea – just a bit of a dangerous one.

The ceremony was generally quite good although it is always hard to judge on the highlights show given how much is missing. There are the usual awkward comedy moments that aren't as funny as they should be and so on. The one moment that made me angry was the In Memoriam section. OK, liked the idea of having a singer but the direction was awful, all the names and faces moving around on screen all the time meant that many were hard to read, even on a good sized TV. It was an awful moment but happily one of the few as the majority seemed OK. The winners were mostly as expected and I was glad that Slumdog won so much as it deserved all the awards it got and I'm glad the balance with Benjamin Button didn't occur. BB got many technical awards as predicted and that was fine. The acting awards were good. I was surprised that The Wrestler got a shutout in the way it did but everyone who won was good and there wasn't really any of the usual "politics" to the extent there can be.

Overall these 81st awards were a reasonably good show that tried some new things to mostly positive effect. There was only one awful moment and a hatful of weak moments but it comes with the territory I guess. Jackman was a good host and did a good job for someone who was not a comedian but instead did an all-round entertainers job to good effect.

The 2009 Oscars was incredible!!! I loved it even more since Hugh Jackman was host, who, by the way did it excellently, he performed and sang with Beyonce and it was very entertaining!!It looked like he put a lot of effort into it. And of course he was going to be the host since he is People Magazine's SEXIEST MAN ALIVE!! I loved the performances and the singing I didn't miss a single second of it. It was just so cool. And was good at hosting because it wasn't the first time he hosted an award show. Plus he's funny, charisimatic,charming and THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE!! I hope he starts hosting more often and I will be watching it if he's hosting for the 2010 Oscars! Excellent10/10!And tastefully done

This year's Academy Awards ceremony was way better than last year's. Hugh Jackman did a tremendous job hosting, I thoroughly enjoyed Beyonce's and A R Rahman's performances, and Hugh Jackman's tribute to the movies.

The Pineapple Express short was also hilarious. The atmosphere was just dazzling, the stars were beautiful and the results were, for the most part, as expected, (although I was indeed rooting for Mickey Rourke.) Everything about it was unforgettable.

Kudos to directors producers and to everyone else involved in the making of this amazing awards show!