Neil Patrick Harris' first and last year as Oscar host- Page 6

[wexy]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 1:00pm

"Oprah, Uma."

[broadfan327]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 4:09pm

The Academy insists that all awards are shown on TV. Any producer would limit the awards to the major ones, but they can't. They used to show two honorary award presentations on the telecast as well, at least they got them off the main telecast.

[BobNC]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 6:10pm

They got rid of the two salutes and wasted the time on setting up a dumb ending joke which failed to deliver. How much time was wasted setting yup the NPH predictions joke?

[sarahb22]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 7:39pm

I'm not surprised the ratings are way down this year. The early predictions put a lock on just about all of the major awards that anybody cared about. Just about right from the start everybody knew that JK Simmons, Patricia Arquette, and Julianne Moore were going to win their categories and they did. I don't remember anyone even talking about any of the other nominees like they had a chance. It was if they didn't exist.

And any category that didn't have a lock only had two contenders. Best actor? Forget everybody else, it was going to be either Michael Keaton or Eddie Redmayne. It was Eddie Redmayne.

Best picture? None of the other nominees ever even got a mention in the prediction articles. It was going to be either Birdman or Boyhood. It was Birdman.

Basically put, Harris got a dud of a year to host. None of the nominated movies were huge hits with big followings. The subject matter wasn't stuff you could easily poke fun at. ALS? Civil rights? The war in Iraq? Good luck with that. What kind of jokes can you tell about 'Boyhood'? It's basically a relationship movie. Maybe he could have done something with 'Grand Budapest Hotel', but hardly anybody saw it, so who would get the jokes? Tough, tough year.

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 7:42pm

BROADWAY IS WHERE ITS AT!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 7:56pm

Never assume.

[romain2]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 7:56pm

Neil Patrick Harris was definitely not bringing his A or his B or even his C game. When even the very nice David Oyelowo goes "meh" in front of the crowd when you deliver a bad punchline you know it's not going well. No one cared about his predictions bit, which took up way too much of the show.

Fortunately the show had a bunch of great moments: Idina and Travolta ("it's not like it's going to follow me around for the rest of my life"); Gaga introducing Julie Andrews which led to the legend saying "thank you Lady Gaga" in the most dignified way possible; some moving speeches, so it wasn't a total bust.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 8:48pm

I concur that Lady Gaga and Julie Andrews' whole sequence was one of the best things I've seen on TV in a while.

Can't fairly judge NPH as I didn't see the first half of the show...but my mom liked him a lot. *shrugs*

[indytallguy]

Posted: 2/24/15 at 9:28pm

I think NPH would be coming off much better had he not done the predictions bit. It took too much time to set up for far too little payoff given the # of times he went back to it during the telecast. Take that out and he had some jokes that worked and some that didn't, pretty typical for the Oscars host. I also felt like he was doing more voiceover for transitions into commercials, but that could just be my imagination.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 7:34am

This should be next year's host

[Christoph]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 11:54am

He was pretty bad, but the truth is that I do not think anyone can really "save" the Oscar show, especially when 11:00 rolls around and they have not even reached the big awards yet.

Let's face it though, it is a pretty horrendous gig to get stuck with hosting - if the host is low-brow people are outraged that he/she is not giving the events proper respect; if the host is respectful people complain that they are boring. The one constant is that the next day in all likelihood people will be ripping the host. And one should note that even some of the examples being complimented here from the past were subject to some lackluster reviews in their own time. Back when Bob Hope was still hosting, critics were ravaging him in his latter years at the gig as being "out-of-step" and still telling jokes that died with vaudeville. I do not remember Steve Martin's gig being well received nor was Whoopi Goldberg. Billy Crystal was the go-to guy for a few years, but his last stab at it received largely "Meh" reviews. They have tried having no main host, which flopped. Young hosts (Hathaway and Franco), which also flopped. Hugh Jackman would seem a perfect choice, but again nothing great. Honestly, Ellen DeGeneres (of whom I am very mixed as a rule) really worked miracles last year and became an exception to the rule, but even she had her detractors. It really is a no win situation.

Add to that this year, there was limited to no suspense in the any of the main categories. You either knew who was going to win already (Simmons, Arquette, Moore) or the choice was between two contenders like the Best Actor, Director and Picture categories - although I must say that I was glad for anything to beat the overrated, plotless Boyhood which had been coasting solely on the "marvel" of having been filmed sporadically over 12 years (Seriously, Big Deal! I am sure Ed Wood was dedicated in bringing Plan 9 from Outer Space to the screen, but ambition and dedication do not trump the final product when there is no story or compelling central character).

Also I think the experiment of expanding the Best Picture nominees from five can be deemed a failure. My understanding is that the entire point of this expansion was so that popular mainstream critically acclaimed films that were being previously shut out in favor of small arty films would now get some kind of recognition - unfortunately I do not as a rule see where these extra slots are being filled by any mainstream popular critically acclaimed films, but are rather being filled by yet more smallish films made solely as Oscar bait. Without any popular box office films to root for (even if they have a snowball's chance in hell of winning), why are they constantly acting surprised that the ratings keep going down? The closest thing to a box office hit they had nominated was American Sniper and to say that film was divisive is an understatement.

On the plus side, I agree that the Lady Gaga number (she really was quite amazing) followed by the entrance of Julie Andrews was some of the best TV in the last year - too bad the rest of the show was not up to that standard.

[Pootie2]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 12:04pm

"especially when 11:00 rolls around and they have not even reached the big awards yet."

This is the biggest reason why I stopped watching so many years ago. How fast would the Oscars be if it was limited to the actual award presentations and speeches, with no gags/bits/routines or women paraded around in gowns and fondled?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 12:18pm

"How fast would the Oscars be if it was limited to the actual award presentations and speeches, with no gags/bits/routines or women paraded around in gowns and fondled?"

Sounds like an exciting show!

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 1:25pm

Common and John Legend singing Glory was the highlight of the show, so incredibly powerful.

[DAME]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 1:40pm

Would people complain about the length as much if they started one hour earlier? And why don't they serve them booze in their seats? I really think it would make for a better audience. And also.. time for these producers to go. How many more years can they let them suck so bad?

[fbueller]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 9:20pm

By the middle of the show, I was thinking they might flash Neil's pic during the 'In Memoriam' section.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 10:17pm

Over heard this evening out at dinner, he's too much of a theater boy that doesn't work out in Hollywood and lacks the edge necessary as Oscar host...his cute bits didn't click. He should just do that theater awards show. Anyway, the OSCARS are just plan boring they need to get those celebs liquored up like that other awards show...John Legend & Common's Glory song rocked and GAGA was cool.

Updated On: 2/25/15 at 10:17 PM

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 2/25/15 at 10:33pm

"I find the oscars always to be incredibly boring."

So may I presume you didn't watch this year? I myself don't watch shows I find "incredibly boring," but maybe that's just me.