Oscars Were Basically the Same Old Sequel

Last night's Oscars, like its Best Picture, was a throwback to a different time in film history. And though the show may have topped last year's Anne Hathaway-James Franco fiasco, it was boring and tired throughout:

• "The whole night looked like an AARP pep rally," writes Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times. "For a town that prides itself on tinsel and titillation, the night was pretty tame." "It all looked very familiar," but that "is perhaps necessary when so few of the nominated films are."

• "The colossal hosting disaster from last year is now forgotten by the safe, unfunny, retro-disaster that was (Billy) Crystal making jokes that he laughed at repeatedly and overseeing an Oscars telecast that was as poorly paced as any in recent memory," notes Tim Goodman in the Hollywood Reporter.
• But in the Los Angeles Times, Mary McNamara applauds Crystal's dependability. "His hand was steady on the tiller, even if the waters were bathwater calm and very, very familiar."
• Indeed, he's become a kind of comfort food, writes Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly. He's "as reassuring as he is funny—you feel relaxed watching him, knowing he’s in charge and alert to the mood of the house."

(More film stories.)