The Oscars (2016 TV Special) User Reviews (13)

Chris Rock ruined what was otherwise a pleasant night

[GirishGowda · 6/10 · 1 March 2016]

It started off well enough with the Harry Potter-like magical build up of the Oscar statue and the video mash-up of various nominated movies. And then it all went to hell. The 88th Oscars was a mess primarily because of Chris Rock's amateurish whining about blacks not being represented enough at the Academy Awards. He went overboard with his sarcasm and it was painful to watch him try to be funny. He put forward Jamie Foxx's name as one of the best actors and he is average at best. Where were the Indian nominees? Where were the Chinese nominees? These two make up for so many professional jobs in the US, that its mind boggling not to see them represented with any sort of dignity in the American movies. And what about the very real issue of gender discrimination against women and LGBT people? The black rants were the equivalent of a child crying for attention just for the sake of it.

This was the first time I was excited for the Oscars in a long time since it contained so many diverse and varied titles as its nominees and most of them deserved their spot there. I don't hold the Oscars to any high level of critical praise since the ones who advertise more usually win, but it is the most famous award show and more often than not, they are good movies most of the time. If this is the level of incessant whining one sees at every Oscars, then expect everyone around the world to turn off their TV's in the coming years.

Coming to the winners and presenters, other than Leo's comment on global warming, Louis CK said the most important thing of the night about how these documentary makers will need these awards the most. "Room" was the movie I was cheering for Best Picture, but it went to Spotlight (which I have yet to watch). I was glad to see Brie Larson win Best Actress though. I'd even say the young boy deserved a nomination at the very least. I was also happy for Alicia Vikander, though she deserved an award for Ex Machina far more than The Danish Girl. Mad Max deservedly cleaned up the technical awards. I presumed most people in the audience stood up when the legend Ennio Morricone won because they also thought Mr. Morricone was long dead. My mistake. Leo's win was the highlight of the night. The man finally got what was rightfully his for a long time now. All in all, it was a pleasant show, but Chris Rock ruined it.

PS: Stop pushing off the nominees when they are giving their speeches and instead trim off the extra fat of bringing in school kids to sell cookies and the long walk to the mikes by presenters. You will save far more time then.

Leo finally wins! Spotlight upsets bigger films. But Chris Rock was an overload.

[hikerhetav · 6/10 · 29 February 2016]

Yeah, this was another Oscar Ceremony with less shockers yet few unbelievable results. The 88th Academy Awards was good to see few good awards but except it, most of the sequences were haywire. First things first, Red Carpet was filled with lots of personal interviews with Actors, celebrities and hosts. Lots of tense filled faces, few fun conversations and high temperament among all present at the Oscars were clearly seen. Beginning with the stage and host. Stage wasn't set that grand as previous editions and was lacking overall with some elegant technical boost. Chris Rock as a host was a big overload throughout his role. His beginning speech almost took half an hour before the award ceremony started. His speech contained a lot of humorous racism stuff which led all the present audience with a plethora of laughter. Again, there were few musical performances by Sam Smith, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga etc. which just led the increment in the length of the show. Had it been some another host, I guess it might have been more elegant ceremony. The sequences managed by Glenn Weiss were decent. Again, this year's Awards ceremony wasn't that big or marvelous.

I agree with the others at #Oscarsobrown . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 29 February 2016]

. . . that this lame, elitist fad in favor of so-called "Magic Realism" has worn out its welcome. After another year's Top Oscar ("Best Director," of course) goes to a Make-Believer who's not even a native speaker of American--for the third time in a row!--not to mention "Best Cameraman" going to a third Foreigner for his third straight statuette--it's obvious that "The Academy's" switchboards were overwhelmed by livid fans of the overlooked Majority People, including J.J. Abrams, top director of All-Time with his Billion-Dollar-Domestic Box Office haul for STAR WARS 7. These calls no doubt FORBADE the Academy to name THE REVENANT as "Best Picture." (It wasn't even last year's Best Western; THE HATEFUL 8 with its wonderful, Oscar-winning score, was far funnier, as well as being more realistic and entertaining than that TITANIC guy's vanity project--and did anyone else notice that Chris Rock let Leo drone on and on about everything under the sun for THREE TIMES the acceptance speech limit for his individual make-up award, and the band NEVER made a peep to play him off?!) Since Oscar host Rock was making jokes about the alleged Oscars accounting firm--Price Waterhouse--all night, it's fairly clear that the Academy's Head Mistress can write in pretty much ANY last-minute winner she wants to (from the pool of nominees, of course) to appease potential public outrage (next year she'll have the same power over the NOMINATION process, to cancel out 45's Charlotte Rampling, for instance, with MAGIC MIKE XXL's Jada Pinkett Smith). Write-in "Best Picture" SPOTLIGHT, a.k.a., ALL THE POPE'S HENCHMEN, substitutes Michael Keaton for Robert Redford, making it a People's Choice as a retelling of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. (After all, DEEP THROAT played a big part in each flick.) Now that the Pontiff has mandated a Mini-Brain Zika Generation extending from Argentina to Ohio, his institution should be in the SPOTLIGHT of many more film exposes. But, as J.J. Abrams learned, don't expect ANY directing Oscars if you're NOT a person of color, unless your flick makes TWO billion bucks--Domestic!

***

[edwagreen · 7/10 · 2 March 2016]

Yes, folks, Chris Rock is a racist. His comment regarding police shooting black people on their way to the movies was absolutely disgusting. How could he be allowed to get away with a remark like that? Respect the police. They put their lives on the line each day to keep us safe even when it means, heaven forbid, forfeiting their own lives or getting seriously injured.

Vice President Biden and Lady Gaga talking and singing about sexual misconduct on the college campus? What hypocrisy. The Academy gave sex offender Roman Polanski a best director Oscar several years back for "The Pianist."

As for the show, it got better once that Mad Max film won its 6 Oscars.

Sly Stallone losing was a major upset. Could conceivably rank with Roz Russell (Mourning Becomes Electra) losing to Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter or Cliff Robertson in "Charly" beating out Peter O'Toole in "The Lion in Winter."

By the way, when was the last time an Asian person was nominated? A Jewish thespian hasn't been nominated in 2 years as well and no one from the latter community is carrying on. African-Americans carrying on like this are doing a disservice to those of their race who have been nominated and won through the years.

Great hosting, solid show, rare weaknesses

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 22 October 2017]

"The Oscars" is a title that doesn't say too much, but here we have of course the 2016 Academy Awards. Award season 2017/2018 is approaching now, so lets take a look back here at a previous, fairly recent edition. Director Glenn Weiss has worked on many many award shows in the past of course and he has a great record with the Emmys. This show here was also nominated 3 times. The 3 hours and 37 minutes includes commercials I guess as the version I just saw stayed slightly under the 3-hour mark. The host is Chris Rock and I thought he was truly amazing. I am sure many viewers, especially African-Americans, did not like how he approached the diversity issue from both perspectives. Stuff like "People in the 50s did not care for the Oscars as the had actually important issues to fight for. You don't worry about a Best Cinematography Oscar if your grandma's hanging on a tree." was pretty harsh, but I really loved the political incorrectness on several occasions. Or the Will Smith Wild Wild West 20 million dollar reference. I'm sure Jada didn't like it at all and that makes me love it even more. The cookie part was a bit random, but fine too. The Jack Black reference was hilarious, these Asian kids were awkwardly funny and the interviews near the cinema were really good too. As were the Kevin Hart comments. I had not seen much with Rock before this event, but he was a hugely positive surprise and I wish they'd get him again instead of these liberal "blah blah Trump is bad mkay" sleeping pills Fallon, Kimmel and Colbert of course.

Before I say something about the winners, lets have a word on how glad I am this is all about the awards still. It's painful to see the Grammys and other (mostly music-themed) award shows lose themselves in stuff like constant concert atmosphere to an extent where crucial awards are not even handed out live on stage. So as for the awards: Here's what I liked: Brie Larsen was one of the best wins of the night. Best song going to Sam Smith is highly deserving too. And it's nice to see Leo finally win one and Morricone getting a competitive Oscar was good. Haven't seen Mad Max yet, so I don't know if I approve of all the wins. Spotlight is not my favorite of the year or anywhere near, but it is okay I guess. Same is true for the short film winners, could have been better and could have been worse. Lubezki 2 times in a row is even more special than AGI's 2 consecutive wins. I certainly like Rylance's and Vikander's wins too, probably more than Winslet and Stallone as these 2 categories were pretty close unlike the lead actor/actress categories that were basically locks. Ex Machina's win was a big surprise, but definitely not a bad one. Oh yes and Inside Out is one of my favorites of the year, so glad it did deliver. Amy was pretty good too.

As for the weak moments: The Big Short winning Screenplay over Room is an embarrassment, even if it was expected. The Hungarian film I am not a great fan of, but that era in history always works with the Academy. But the by far weakest moment refers to Lady Gaga. Neither the artist nor the song nor the painful performance did justice to the heavy subject and I am so so glad that she did not win the Oscar for it. Pretense at its most despicable. Kinda disappointed Diane Warren was a part of this mess. Will she ever win? The better and far more deserving song won. Sam Smith's number was maybe the best thing about the pretty mediocre Spectre. And that's not the only way they messed up there. Why only have 3 songs performed live? Have all (my choice) or none, but this is even worse and more disrespectful than when they picked other performers like the year Jorge Drexler won. On a completely different note I wondered what some category winner announcers were doing there. I mean I don't expect Oscar winners en masse, but they sure could do better than Kerry Washington or Sarah Silverman (really cringeworthy) or Margot Robbie. In memoriam sequence did not impress me either. But still despite all the negative, it was still a good watch overall and for award show lovers like myself it is definitely seeing, maybe even more than once. We really should be thankful that the Oscars have not turned into garbage like the Grammys recently. And a final statement: Bring back Chris Rock!!!

Stallone is upset by a Russian Spy! Leo finally wins! And it's "Spotlight" as best picture!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 28 February 2016]

"The 88th Annual Academy Awards" was one that moved along about the same pace as host Chris Rock bombed joke after joke about the no black nominees crisis, really he went overboard yet he tried to be funny. Still the music and presenters and parody parts were okay like the use of girl scout cookies and "Star Wars" robot appearances. Still the big surprise and most disappointing thing was Mark Rylance winning for supporting actor! This should have been Sly's night why did the voting members knock him out! Stallone has been in the business to long he deserves an Oscar. And as expected Leo finally wins a little gold man as his "Best Actor" win was well deserved for his raw and tough performance in "The Revenant". And again in a little surprise for best picture "Spotlight" wins true it was an excellent drama an investigative film with a good message of exposing corrupt religious leaders, as it's clear that Hollywood and voting members still love news and journalism films as it's brains over brawn and grit as the toughness of "The Revenant" could not match the grace and elegant powerful message of "Spotlight". Overall okay "Oscars" with Chris Rock speaking to much and a big knockout blow to Stallone, and a deserved win for Leo, and ending with a powerful film named "Spotlight" taking the top spot in front of the Academy light at the end!

I really tried to enjoy it, but WTH Chris rock?

[mkopa-24030 · 4/10 · 29 February 2016]

Seriously? Noblackoscars? Here is a little numbers for you all believing this nonsense: 12.5% of all Oscars given were given to black people. Population percentage of black people? 13%. What you want America? I don't get how you people can even coexist.

And who the hell is Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Will Smith or any other talentless actors or directors or whatever to say they deserve an Oscar? I chuckled when Jamie Foxx was mentioned as one of the best actors of all time. I mean, come on! He isn't bad. He is noteworthy. But one of the bests? Nooo

We can talk when real talents, like Denzel Washington, Idris Elba, Forest Whitaker, Don Cheadle go out of their way and boycott Oscars. THEN AND ONLY THEN should this 'problem' be discussed.

Anyways, everything about 2016 Oscars evolved around #noblackoscars, but even without it, it was really dull. Not much surprises in nominations I would say. I am happy for Brie Larsen. I have quite a few favourite actors and actresses and she has definitely become the one.

Also, what's wrong with the limiting of time? It became so obnoxious. I don't remember interrupting people's speeches with stupid music in earlier Oscars.

Leo Takes On The Spotlight!

[namashi_1 · 10/10 · 29 February 2016]

The 88th Annual Academy Awards happened today & after much fanfare, hype & ridicule (THE diversity issue), the prestigious ceremony delivered more ups than downs.

Lets face it, we love the Movies & we love knowing about the Oscars, even if we don't believe in them or don't watch them, we still do wanna know whats happening. And the Academy-Awards celebrate Movies royally, even if they don't get it right all the time in terms of their Winners.

After opening to a TERRIFIC Oscar-Intro, which featured clips from the very best films of the year, our host for the evening Chris Rock took upon the stage. Being a Black-Man, Rock did a stupendous job, while digging into THE Diversity issue, without offending many (Jada Pinkett Smith wasn't happy for sure, but then again, she wanted A Best Actor Nomination for After Earth for any of the Smith's). Rock spoke openly about the hypocrisy that exists within the Film Industry & how things have changed, but not the way they probably should have. It was a hilarious opening monologue & it was fun to see Rock in such comedic form after such a long time.

The very first Oscar of the night went to the astonishing Spotlight, picking up Best Original Screenplay. It followed with the scary economic drama The Big Short taking home Best Adapted Screenplay. A surprise followed when Ex Machina crushed its opposition to win Best Visual Effects, a surprise win, given the fact that Jedi's & Mad Max were also in contention.

And suddenly, The 88th Academy-Awards turned into The Mad Max: Fury Road Night. Oh yes, George Miller's breath-taking action-packed blockbuster won a total of 6 Oscars, as the night progressed, sweeping away with Sound Editing, Production Design, Make-Up & Hairstyling, Film Editing & Costume Design. Of What A Day, What A LOVELY DAY!

Mad Max's incredible winning streak came to an end, as Emmanuel Lubezki Won his Third Consecutive Win for Best Cinematography for his work in The Revenant. John Seale's work in Mad Max was furious, but it was Roger Deakins's matchless work in the masterful Sicario, that was the real trump card here, but that didn't stop Lubezki to create history.

Inside Out Won Best Animated Feature, Amy Won Best Documentary & Son of Saul Won Best Foreign Language Film. No Surprises in any of these categories!

And when Ennio Morricone Won Best Original Score for Tarantino's despicable The Hateful Eight, the world stood up in respect. The legend spoke in Italian & choked up, given the respect & adulation from everyone. You Deserve It!

Mark Rylance Winning Best Supporting Actor for his SUPERB Performance in Bridges of Spies, left me overjoyed. Though many rooted for Stallone's comeback performance as Rocky Balboa in the smash hit Creed, it was Rylance who defeated the hot favorite & ended up giving a beautiful speech. Alicia Vikander took home Best Supporting Actress for her sensitive performance in The Danish Girl, a film where the performances clearly made it what it is. Too bad for Jennifer Jason-Leigh, as her turn in The Hateful Eight, was the finest female performance in a Tarantino film to date.

Brie Larson continued her unbeatable streak, taking home Best Actress for her flawless performance in Room.

And then LEONARDO DICAPRIO Won the Oscar for Best Actor for his impressive (though not best) performance in The Revenant. As overwhelmed as we are for Leo, its kinda sad to know that the jokes, memes & prayers for Leo to win the Golden Statue are now a thing of the past. Michael Fassbender's portrayal of Steve Jobs, however, remained my favorite.

Best Director went to The Revenant's Alejandro González Iñárritu, A Second Win in a row for the master storyteller. George Miller's passion was killing, Tom McCarthy shook us all, but it was Iñárritu's year, yet again!

And Then Came The Night's Best & Biggest Win - SPOTLIGHT Won Best Picture. Well Deserved. Well Deserved. Well Deserved. This was a Landmark Film & it stood tall, despite strong contenders.

All in All, The 88th Annual Academy Awards rocked! After many years, The List of Winners were rather...correct!

Oscar Night

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 29 February 2016]

The 88th Annual Academy Awards took place and diversity was in the spotlight.

Chris Rock was the host with a big opening but as the show went on the gags and sketches about race, the lack of diversity became grating. You think enough, the jokes are wearing thin now.

Mad Max: Fury Road was the early runner grabbing the technical Oscars. There were a few surprises, Sam Smith got the Best Song Oscar for Spectre despite his dodgy warbling during the ceremony.

Mark Rylance grabbed the Best Supporting Actor Oscar from front runner Sylvester Stallone.

As for best picture, despite only winning the Best Original Screenplay, it added the big one as its second one. I guess it is the Michael Keaton effect.

Best speech of the night. Louis CK when presenting the Best Documentary Shorts and how much the Oscar would mean to the winners rather than most of the millionaires in the front row of the auditorium.

Chris and Leo said what needed to get said

[lee_eisenberg · 8/10 · 29 February 2016]

The issue hanging over the Academy Awards this year was the lack of ethnic diversity among the acting nominees for the second year in a row. It was to be expected that host Chris Rock would tear the Academy (and Hollywood in general) a new one over that. He was as merciless as I expected (and I really liked his explanation of why African-Americans didn't protest all-white lists of nominees in years past). I also liked when he inserted black actors and actresses into the nominated movies, and when he went to Compton to ask the people there about the nominees (and got some, ahem, unusual answers).

Anyway, of all the nominated movies in all categories, I have so far seen only "The Revenant", "Mad Max: Fury Road", "Carol", "The Hateful Eight", "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", "Ex Machina", "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" and "Cinderella". I can't understand why they nominated "Mad Max: Fury Road" for Best Picture. It was impressive as an action movie, but not as anything that one would treat as a high-quality story. It sounds as though "Spotlight" did tell one of the most important stories (and the producers used their win to condemn the Catholic Church's cover-up). It was especially great that Ennio Morricone won for "The Hateful Eight", since he's deserved an Oscar for a long time.

Sam Smith erroneously called himself the first openly gay person to win an Oscar. Previous openly LGBT winners include Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, Pedro Almodóvar and Dustin Lance Black. As for Smith's win, it sounds as though the documentaries "The Hunting Ground" and "Racing Extinction" were the more important productions, so one of the songs from those should have won. It was a surprise to see Joe Biden introduce Lady Gaga's performance. The performance itself was great, especially when she brought the survivors of sexual assault - male and female - onto the stage. A controversy in that category was that the singer of the song from "Racing Extinction" didn't even get invited to the ceremony.

And then there was Leonardo DiCaprio's win. As with his Golden Globe win, he used his platform to draw attention to global warming and the plight of indigenous peoples. And then when Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Director for the second year in a row, he again used his platform to condemn racism. Well said.

In the end, I liked the show.

Poorly executed show

[kearjr · 3/10 · 29 February 2016]

Considering this is Hollywood's big night of the year, I found the show sorely lacking in execution.

1) wasting time with run-on and overly staged presentations; 2) lost time for honorees to speak due to length of time it took them to get to the stage; 3) disrespect to the honorees with attempts to play them off with the music.

2) At some point someone...hello director... should have decided to simply have the presenters already on stage ready to go and allocated the saved time to the people who actually got awards.

3) Also, if truly necessary to have music as a cue to get ready to end...again hello director... how about softly introducing it and gradually building up as time went on rather than just starting to play while honorees were mid sentence.

4)And finally, how about those last two songs getting some airtime.

Louis CK gets a shout out for helping to make sense of a part of the Awards, but here again, he got more respect than the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy got because she was interrupted by the music.

4 Stars out of 5 Stars

[ajneeago96 · 8/10 · 1 May 2021]

For me, this was the peak of the Oscars. The Revenant stands as one of my favorite films ever so seeing it winning Best Cinematography, Best actor, and Best Director, it was amazing. All of the other contenders are top notch as well so this was definitely my favorite Oscar ceremony that I've seen.

Chris Rock rocked when it came to race issues...mostly

[safenoe · 3/10 · 4 March 2016]

Chris Rock rocked when it came to his opening and he mostly didn't let done. He really highlighted the sad racism against African- Americans, but was balanced in highlighting some of the absurdities of their arguments.

Where many of the audience cringed was the "joke" by Chris Rock featured three Asian kids trotted on stage as the Price Waterhouse accountants, and all the distasteful lines about it. Ali G soon followed so you can imagine what came forth about Asians. When it comes to jokes nothing's off limits (I'm confident Chris Rock would have done a similar joke about LGBTs) but it's sad this joke was made in the context of some Asian roles being shut out to Asian actors!!!

It's indicative that these three Asian kids aren't even credited in IMDb. I guess that sadly says a lot, big time, or perhaps they and their parents had buyer's remorse.