Oscar Reaction

You can find the winners anywhere on the net. But you should know who all won because you watched the ceremony. Right?

Anyway, I'll be posting fashion picks and best & worst dressed tomorrow. Then, on Friday, my exclusive year in advance predictions for the very excited 05/06 Oscar season. I'll have why next year is really going to be the year.

This was the highest rated ceremony since 2000, even besting last year's Lord of the Rings sweep. That's fairly impressive considering the biggest Best Picture nominee grossed no more than $94m before the show. Here's what I thought about the show and everything:

Chris Rock: I'll rank him higher than Billy Crystal last year, but I still prefer Steve Martin. Rock's monologue was too fast paced and he was rushing through it. Martin did that during the '03 Oscars when the war was kicking off. He did have several funny moments but he shouldn't be back next year. Maybe several years down the line he should come back. Several liberal jokes went over well with the audience and there didn't seem to be an squirming on the audience's part.

The beauty pageant Oscars: Well, it made more sense that what it seemed but I don't think it worked entirely. Presenting in the audience went smoothly, but these people really deserve to go to the stage. This didn't really take much away from the show, but it didn't add anything at all.

There were zero surprises and it was a competitive year. The only genuine surprise was The Motorcycle Diaries winning Best Song. That was it. None of the speeches were really that great and they all felt way too rushed. Even last year's speeches when we had already seen everyone give a speech 10 times before were more heartfelt. Gil's request for people to say something special was pretty much ignored.

Final verdict regarding the show: It was entertaining, but over too fast. It was too lightweight and not enough surprises or emotion.

When I do my predictions for next year, I'll give suggestions for what I think could make next year great.

Hope everyone had a great Oscar season!