For the 77th Oscar broadcast, things were looking bad when the ceremony ended its opening clip reel with the cinematic blasphemy of a digitally inserted Shrek walking alongside Charlie Chaplin. However, the show moved at a brisk pace and proved to be highly entertaining as "Million Dollar Baby" won four of its six nominations: Best Picture, Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Actress for Hilary Swank and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman.
The other acting awards went to Jamie Foxx for "Ray" and Cate Blanchett for "The Aviator." Both were heavily favored to win their categories.
First-time host Chris Rock made up for the lack of surprises. The comedian received a standing ovation from the crowd to which Rock replied, "Sit your asses down." Instead of a song-and-dance, Rock offered an opening monologue that echoed his stand-up, discussing last year's controversial films "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "The Passion of the Christ," as well as ridiculing Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Tobey Maguire. Rock was a continuing presence on the show, introducing Halle Berry as the star of the "heavily anticipated 'Catwoman 2'" and appearing in vignettes with Albert Brooks and Martin Lawrence.
Film geeks everywhere offered a collective sigh of relief as Pixar's "The Incredibles" toppled over Dreamworks' films "Shrek 2" and "Shark Tale" to win Best Animated Feature. Other notable wins came as critic favorites "Sideways" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" won awards for writing.
While Hilary Swank was fighting the notorious "wrap-it-up" music to give all of her thank yous, "Eternal Sunshine" screenwriter Charlie Kaufman said he was intimidated by the clock on the teleprompter counting down the seconds he had to give his speech, and then remarked, "Who am I kidding? I don't want to take my time, I want to get off the stage."
-DAN LONGINO
