The Envelope Report 2007: Al Gore Invades the Oscars

There were two themes touted supremely at last Sunday's 79th annual Academy Awards. The first was a much more serious celebration of the nominees as opposed to only the winners (Nice!). The second was Al Gore.

Now, of course, the environment was actually the second "theme," but Al Gore kept popping up so much (audience shots, on stage, presenting, in gushing thank-yous from award winners, etc.) that I seriously began to think he might be able, by the end of the night, to claim he also invented the Oscars, and people might actually believe him this time. Seriously, I'm not trying to be partisan here, nor am I trying to rip on Gore and his concern for the environment. Truthfully, I'm impressed by some of the things he has done, and even though I have yet to watch the now award-winning An Inconvenient Truth, (it just doesn't seem to be that feel good movie you want to rent on a Friday night after a long week), I do indeed plan on viewing it soon.

However, is it just me, or is anyone else sick of watching Hollywood fawn all over their favorite politicians, as well as pretend to be the leaders in cultural and political change, as if they know so much more about how everything works - at the highest levels - than the normal American? As much as I do believe global warming is a serious issue that should be dealt with more deeply and actively, I find it hard to listen to Hollywood affirm Gore's words, which were spoken from the stage after he co-accepted the Best Documentary award when the actual director became too choked up with worshipful affirmations for the former Vice President that he had to let Gore take over the thank-yous. He called global warming a "moral issue" rather than a "political issue." True. And I'm glad Hollywood, with their first-ever "green" broadcast of the Academy Awards, could make sure we Earth-dwellers would come out of our pollutive stupor to wise up and stop destroying the planet. It is interesting, though, that the ones preaching to us about this are Hollywood elite, who cause uber amounts of waste in trash, fumes, electricity, etc. on every movie set they work on. As Jon Stewart added on Monday's The Daily Show, Los Angeles is a town filled with so much smog and waste-mindedness that it staggers the mind when one finds him or herself taking their moral lessons about the environment from one of its representatives.

Rant over ... for now. All in all, it was an interesting, if not slightly boring, Academy Awards show. Ellen DeGeneres did well when they gave her time to talk, and most of the people that won deserved the win, though Melissa Etheridge taking home a Best Original Song award was a bit of a surprise for a song that sounds more like she is singing from the perspective of someone who has been "woken up" for years and is scolding the rest of us for our complacency.

Finally, the biggest shock of the night, in my opinion, was not the announcement of winners, but the complete snubbing of the film, Wonder Boys, from the film montage compiled to illustrate the life and struggles of writers. An Oscar nominee itself, it was totally left out of the montage despite the fact that several key scenes and/or lines would have fit perfectly. Granted, I'm a huge fan of the film, but come on, some films got six or seven clips in, and Curtis Hanson's amazing flick is shut-out?! Someone must pay...

Well, until next year, this concludes my reflection on the Academy Awards. Nothing left to do now but start searching for the stand-out films of 2007. Best early bets look to be on Reno 911: The Movie.
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Below are my picks of the winners - the ones I got right, and the ones I got wrong:

Correct - Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Short Film - Live Action, Best Makeup, Best Film Editing, Best Documentary Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Animated Feature, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director

Missed - Best Visual Effects, Best Original Song (surprise), Best Supporting Actor (surprise), Best Short Film - Animated, Best Original Score (should have known, but he ripped off music from Michael Mann's "The Insider"), Best Foreign Language, Best Documentary Short, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, and, of course, Best Picture

Click on this link to watch the hilarious musical sketch by Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and John C. Reilly.