Oscars 2013!

*SPOILERS* (if you haven't watched it yet)

A very quick round up of the Oscars 2013 and my thoughts. I truly believe that Seth Macfarlane's humour is more Golden Globes and not so much Oscars. He's funny as hell but I think a couple of his jokes fell flat due to this being the prestigious old school Academy Awards. He got lashed through twitter but people with a sense of humour loved him and so did I. With regards to the handing over of the awards...in the future the Academy Award producers need to shy completely away from a number of presenters at once handing out the awards. The 'Avenger's' all on stage handing out an award felt very awkward and either not rehearsed or over rehearsed...either or it was horrible to watch as was the banter between the cast of 'Chicago'. Stick to 2 people MAX, Academy. Overall it was a great show, albeit very long, with great performances by Adele, Jennifer Hudson and Dame Shirley Bassey. The stage was beautiful and there were no unnecessarily long speeches, well there was one, but he was cut very short by the theme music to 'Jaws'.  Here's the basic list of winners: 

Best Animated Film: Brave (great choice)

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained (the undisputed champion of original screenplay)

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables (still battling to take her seriously)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained (deserved, but would've liked Tommy-Lee Jones to win)

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook (deserved!)

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln (first actor in history to have won 3 best actor Academy Awards!)

Best Director: Ang Lee - Life of Pi (Didn't call it but SO glad he won!)

Best Picture: Argo (Deserved!)

Life of Pi

Director: Ang Lee (Hulk; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain)
Cast: Suraj Sharma
Running Time: 127 Minutes

Finally a movie where you don't need to read the book because, well, bar one or two small exclusions, the film matches it perfectly! Although, the book really is beautifully written and I highly recommend it. If you have read the book, like me, your imagination could not have exceeded director Ang Lee's vision for this wonderfully adapted movie. From the amazing opening scene as the camera moves over and through the zoo to the magical floating island laden with millions of meerkats, Pi's journey will have you fixed to your seat for 2 hours. Pi (Suraj Sharma - his debut film having made the cut out of 3000 hopefuls auditioned in India) is a serious yet rather humorous character who manages to not tame a fully grown Bengal tiger on his little lifeboat but trains him. His experiences will leave you laughing and crying (I promise)! A terrific film that I believe will become one of those that students will be studying in matric! On a last note, I had the pleasure of interviewing both Ang Lee and Suraj Sharma for the MNet Movie Show so be sure to watch it! Follow me on Twitter for details on when it will air: @JasonMGreer

Feb 2013 Update:
Well done on winning Oscars for:
Cinematography
Director
Music
Visual Effects