Digital Joe #49

I missed the Ratatouille win...and watched the last hour or so. Some of the jokes were lame, some were not, eh, what can you do.

NPR interviewed Bruce Villanich, one of the writers, for the Movies podcast last week. I would have thought with an entire stable of writers just in the wings, the jokes and monologue would have been...better? Funnier? Lively? Not saying I could have done any better, but these people are paid to write comedy.

Jason

I noticed this year that one reason that the awards show was the shortest yet (in the modern era), is that this year they omitted the promo+clip for each film nominated for 'Best Picture'.

Usually, the 5 films have a celebrity guest(s) introducing the film's story plus a scene clip, and that adds around 20-25 minutes to the broadcast (4-5 minutes per each film). So, that long-standing part of the show got axed. Instead, the clips from the films that we saw were from other award categories than Best Picture.

Today, I heard it was their LOWEST WATCHED show ever (in the modern era).

Even lowest rated still brought in something like 23 million people, if my non-numbers oriented mind is working correctly.

But yes, I was also shocked I was in bed prior to midnight. Last year was working on 12:30.

Jason

Well, when you consider the current box-office numbers for the five nominated best pictures, you gotta figure nobody cared:

"There Will Be Blood" $26,000,000
"Atonement" $45,000,000
"Michael Clayton" $46,000,000
"No Country for Old Men" $58,000,000
"Juno" $115,000,000

These numbers are barely more than what it cost to make, advertise, and distribute them. Given that "Juno" was the most popular film of the bunch, and that most people figured it probably didn't stand a chance of winning against the other nominees, who wanted to watch?

John

I REALLY wish that Persepolis got the Animated Feature award... Amazingly mind blowing story, very dramatic and funny at the same time... and it has amazing HAND DRAWN animation!

[Post edited by Mike37 on Feb 26, 2008]

The Norbit/bad movies getting nominated joke was way funnier than this Viagra joke.

Anyway, I'm glad they made an effort to streamline things a bit. All the movies nominated are excellent ones, though I think Zodiac and Sweeney Todd were overlooked (even though Sweeney got a few nominations). Cut another half-hour out, and it will be perfect. My wife and I recorded it on our tivo, and skipped a lot. Much better when the show only lasts 75 minutes.

I was really hoping that they would have just done an hour long press conference..