2013 Post-Oscar Reactions & The Bond Tribute
Some thoughts about the pompous Oscar telecast and the Bond Tribute they put on with Halle Berry of all people!

Before I get into talking about that big James Bond 50th Anniversary Tribute that the Oscars put on – that’s what I was excited for – let’s get into some of my reactions of the show.
I did some Oscar predictions and did alright with them. In the major categories I almost got them all right. Christoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor I got wrong, but it was a nice surprise. The Screenplay awards I was completely off.
Most of the time when I do my Oscar guesses it’s either based on what I read or just flipping a coin. I would never have guessed Les Miserables would win a hair and makeup award. I mean, isn’t everyone in the movie covered in dirt with their heads shaved?
Argo won its Best Picture Oscar and Ben Affleck didn’t get his directing one – which he was not nominated for. And people just don’t want to let that go.
I’m wondering if the Academy is going to try to fix this. You know how everyone felt The Dark Knight got snubbed acouple of years ago, so the Academy expanded the Best Picture nominees to ten to allow more chances of mainstream films to eek in.
Perhaps now they’ll make it mandatory for all Best Picture nominees to have their directors nominated too. Maybe make it a package deal. If I were them I would keep it as it is and try to make this kind of thing happen more often. It’s the the one thing that everyone was talking about and is part of the fun of this goofy awards show.
The categories Skyfall was nominated in I did pretty good – four out of five right. The fact Skyfall was able to tie with Zero Dark Thirty to win the Sound Editing award I think surprised everyone. Along with Adele’s Best Song win for the title song, Skyfall walked away with two Oscars. So Bond did better than ever at the Academy Awards.
The big reason I was tuning in to watch the Oscars. The thing that really got me excited this year was their promise of having a Bond tribute during the show to honor the series’ 50th anniversary. As you probably know the rumor was the Academy Awards were going to bring all six Bond actors together on stage. That would have been a real thrill to see for any Bond fan. Alas, that didn’t happen. I’ve read that Connery and Brosnan were the ones who refused to take part in this idea. I have no idea if that’s true or not.
So the Oscars went with Plan B.
The Bond Tribute began and immediately my heart sank when Halle Berry strolled out on stage.
The Bond series has had a lot of missteps through its fifty year history. There are countless things that have irked fans. Flat rear screen projections. Unconvincing CGI waves. Studios going bankrupt. Charles K. Feldman. Awkward dubbing. Kevin McClory. Bond in space. Halle Berry.
I understand why they had Berry be there that night. First, the Oscars are an American program, so they need an American actress. They have viewers to please and these viewers like to see movie stars. Like it or not Halle Berry is a big American movie star. Come on folks, who didn’t love her in Gothika and New Years Eve! Plus, she’s an Oscar winner. So that right there makes an extremely convenient connection between the popular English spy series and this pompous American award show.
On top of that, you have Halle show up and all those entertainment magazines and gossip shows will be talking about what she was wearing and all that garbage.
But as a Bond fan I couldn’t help but shake my head when I saw her stroll up to the center of the stage. If you’ve seen my Bond reviews, particularly my Die Another Day review – well, maybe it was more like a tirade – you know I think Halle is the worst Bond girl ever.
So having her actually intro this tribute made it feel like a slap in the face to me. I would have preferred anyone else to have done this thing! Heck, why not get Judi Dench to do it! She’s an Oscar winner, she’s been involved in the Bond series since 1995 and now after Skyfall her Bond work is done! Crap I would have even taken Tanya Roberts to do this over Halle! At least she was in Beastmaster.
Seeing Halle be the only actor associated with the fifty years of Bond on this night also helped reignite my frustration with her association with 007. It pains me to have to accept she’s always going to be a part of the 007 franchise.
All the admiration and love Halle gets bestowed upon her adds more fuel to my irritated fire. I will never understand why she’s so adored. Yeah, she’s hot, but there are plenty of hot looking actresses around. I was more captivated checking out Stacey Keibler on the red carpet. I would be more psyched to watch her in some cheesy B-Movie than Halle in these big mainstream flicks she gets somehow.
By the way I loved the introduction that host Seth MacFarlane gave her when he said she was “his favorite Bond Girl ever”. Really? The guy lost major points with me with that statement.
This is something that has confused the hell out of me since Halle showed up in Die Another Day back in 2002. People immediately loved her casting as a Bond Girl. They loved her Ursula Andress homage. They loved that she might have gotten her own spinoff film.
WHY????
I’ll never understand where all this affection comes from for not only Halle, but especially her character of Jinx. Absolutely terrible, paper-thin, uninteresting character whose only noteworthy thing about her was the fact that Halle Berry was playing the role – and quite badly I might add.

But I guess that’s enough for most moviegoers. Kind of funny how Halle helped ruin Bond’s 40th anniversary and returned to ruin his 50th. I still suspect the people who say Halle Berry is their favorite Bond Girl never actually watched Die Another Day.
Whoope she’s a Bond girl who won an Oscar. Like that’s supposed to give her some credibility. Let’s be honest – she can’t act worth a crap. Have you seen her work since she won that Oscar? She’s really made some brave and challenging choices huh? It’s only February 2013 and already she has appeared in what I’ve heard is almost guaranteed to be the worst film of the year Movie 43. Let her focus on her important acting work and leave my James Bond alone!
And why are they letting Jennifer Aniston in the building???
I’m always left wondering what kind of standards the Academy Awards actually has? They feature people who do abysmal work. It’s crap that isn’t furthering the art of film by a long shot. Or do they have a different opinion on the Bounty Hunter than everyone else?
Everyone does some stinkers now and then, but I’m talking about their entire careers consist of just going from one horrible movie after another. It’s really goofy seeing people at the Oscars whose names get more attention at the Razzie’s! They’re lucky if their flicks are forgotten a week later. That’s actually gauged as more of a success than its stink lingering until the end of the year.
Maybe I’m being hyper-critical, but if I was in charge of these awards I would crack down on who would be attending my show that is meant to honor the best the film industry has to offer. I understand the Oscars want to have popular stars there to attract attention and viewers, but give these people something else to do that is a bit more honest with their roles in the Hollywood Machine. Let them stay outside and parade on the red carpet in their dresses and wave to the fans for the entire show. Maybe have Aniston escort people to their seats, don’t have her be a presenter.
In fact, I would try to recapture what the importance of receiving an Oscar truly means by holding Oscar winners to a higher standard for the rest of their careers! They got the bald, gold guy – well, now there are expectations attached to having him. They start to doing easy, terrible paycheck movies and they have their Oscar revoked. I would have forced Halle to turn hers in on the opening day of Catwoman.
Wow. I could go on with this line of ranting, but let’s get on with the Bond montage.
It sucked.
So Jinx says that in keeping with tonight’s theme, they would be saluting the music of the Bond series.
This was news to me. This wasn’t what the producers had said when they were hyping this Bond Tribute. The music? They said this was going to be a “unique and exciting” tribute.
This also struck me as pretty odd when I started to think about it. The whole theme of the evening was meant to honor musicals and music in films. However, they didn’t even have an orchestra in the building. They were acouple of blocks away in the Tower Records building. Did that strike anyone else as a little odd?
Well, I will say it is unique to honor a film series and disregard the films themselves. I gotta hand it to them that approach is certainly ‘unique’. So the actual movies were not at the forefront of this honorary tribute and the music of Bond was the focus. This is one of the reasons I don’t watch the Oscars anymore – everything about them really aggravates me.
This salute to the music apparently only covered the James Bond theme and Live and Let Die – not counting Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger. So three songs were all that warranted inclusion out of the fifty years of films. What I found particularly odd was they didn’t even squeeze in some of the Bond songs that were nominated for Oscars in the past. No For Your Eyes Only. No Nobody Does It Better. Although that song I believe was played later during the night over someone’s intro or when they were going to a commercial or something.
I thought the montage was pretty lousy. We got plenty of shots of Connery and Craig. Roger Moore was barely in it for some reason. Although they were sure to include plenty of shots of Halle throughout it. Damn, they even used that awful shot of her diving off the cliff. That’s the clip I use for joke purposes!
The montage was very disappointing. It was like an advert for a Bond DVD collection or something. As some of my fellow Bond-fans had remarked after watching it, you could see much better Bond montages on Youtube.
The Oscars did hold true to their word and paid tribute to the Bond series in music. Bassey and Adele’s performances overshadowed any of the Bond actors or films. I think Bassey was very good. Adele seemed stiff to me and the song sounded off to my ear for some reason.
So the big Oscar Bond Tribute was a complete bust. The consolation of the night was Skyfall being the most successful Bond film at the Oscars ever. Getting five nominations – more than any other Bond film and winning in two categories. Goldfinger had won for the Best Sound Effects Editing and Thunderball won for Best Visual Effects. Since then no Oscar wins for 007. Until last night.
This “unique and exciting’ Bond Oscar tribute was pretty disappointing. It really seemed like the Oscar producers just slapped that tribute together after they couldn’t get all the Bond actors together on stage. At least the Bond series won two Oscars though. Although personally I don’t place too much importance on that bald gold guy as everyone else apparently does.
Sheena Easton’s 1982 performance at the Oscars when For Your Eyes Only was nominated for Best Song. Check out how cheesy this number gets!
Yeah, it sucked.
I've seen Oscar tributes in the past that were longer than the Bond one including Bassey's performance (which was good).
Last fall the Academy did a tribute to the music of the James Bond series. They even had Vic Flick perform the Bond Theme. Shame they couldn't call him up again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeuhXwvb3V8
I was pointed to this fan made tribute on youtube. Easily better than Oscar Montage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t10mNXtfdUw
The montages for your reviews are ten times better =)
The only props I can give to the editors of the Oscar montage is that they showed every Bond which I can't say the same for the Bluray promos .
Here's a question; what did you think of Macfarlane (ignoring his love for Halle Berry)?
I thought he was alright. He had acouple of good jokes – I liked his Lincoln/Booth joke. I think the Boob Song seems to be getting way too much criticism. These critics are taking it a bit too seriously. I can understand the flak McFarlane is getting about his weight jokes aimed at Melissa McCarthy and Adele. They seemed kind of tasteless and he should have just dropped em.
hey dude, i love you site and your reviews,but I got a question for you I've you seen it ''Monster's Ball'' the movie that gave Halley Berry a Oscar or Jungle Fever its a film when she plays a drug addict called Vivian i saw it that one and i think she was pretty good in that film. Please answer with honesty. no hard feelings, bye.
Honestly, I've only seen acouple of minutes of Monster's Ball flipping past it on TV and really don't even remember it. I remember at the time when she won her Oscar wondering if the only reason she got it was for 'glaming down and ugling it up' in that movie. Maybe she was good in it, I can't say I haven't seen it along with Jungle Fever. I did see her in the Flintstones though. I guess she was passable as Sharon Stone :o)
I had a lot of problems with this, besides Shirley Bassey belting out singing the classic uninteresting title song for Goldfinger is just sounded annoying as hell and of course Adele singing the unusual Skyfall movie theme was not like a bond movie at all but a typical revenge drama which didn't work for me!
I think the montage would turn off anyone looking to get into the Bond films. They should have hired the guys who made much better videos on YouTube and have them put together the best James Bond Montage ever. Instead all we get was action, naked silhouettes of women and Halle Barry.
Also, if Seth is going to tell offensive jokes he should have gone all out. Maybe would have caused the show to go off the air. Could have been spared of this atrocity of a tribute.
I agree. I honestly can say ANY Bond montage on Youtube was better than that one. And I was PISSED to see Halle. Why not have the Skyfall women come out and say some words, and represent the different type of women the Bond series had. M-Damsel in distress, Eve Moneypenny-the tough girl, Severine-the Femme Fatale! Just wrong. And as a Bond fan I was very upset.
Simply a shame they could not get the 6 actors out there. The idea of Craig coming out as a presenter or to intro the highlights of the series would have been so much better. As Craig stepped up and says, "Hello my name is" each of the others one by one walk up and say, "Bond" followed by dramatic pause and then Connery there or via satalite say "James Bond" would have been a classic moment for both the Oscars and the Bond franchise. After that intro the crappy montage would not have seemed as bad. Even better one of the catagories nominated in and say, "The Oscar goes to us." (If they won the catagory.)More importantly no need for Jinx.
Connery has done Bond jokes before. Him and Moore did a simular gag on the Oscars before. Also he flew on to teh stage at the Letteman show with the jet pack to tell everyone he wasn't dead. (There were rumers to that effect at the time)
Well we can always imagine what could have been. By the way Seth was a really good host. Made an entertaining show that had great water cooler buzz. Good for him.
I didn't care for the montage either – really shoddy. In fact the only thing about the whole evening that was good was Shirley Bassey – that woman has a pair of lungs! I don't care for Adele's song – I'm amazed at how many people think it's right up there with Shirley's songs. Wow! Halle Barry isn't my favorite or least favorite of the Bond women – I can take or leave her. I think my least favorite is probably Tanya Roberts – but I'm way too busy to waste nine paragraphs ranting about how bad she was. Connery will never have anything to do with Bond anymore – the producers ripped him off big time and he knows it so I can't say I blame him. I think Brosnan got screwed over too but I don't care as much, although I think he's my second favorite Bond after Connery which surprised me as I didn't like him or that silly TV show he was on – but he does have quite a dramatic range. I just don't care for Craig at all – sorry! The man just does not have any screen presence to me although quite a fine actor. All of them suffer when compared to Connery – he was, is, and always will be the real deal.
Well, this cap it. The end of Bond 50 can now be officially stamp with this. I have to say, I'm not surprise. Mostly any tribute to something classics alway's gets the cheap run around effect unless the movie company want to help by spending more money on it. As for Miss H. well it Hollywood. They only going with big stars. I don't Dennis or Teri would be big enough to have some major TV time consider where their careers are. Still, one thing about Berry career is that it was flat. But thx to mag and gossip TV she manger to stay in the spot light. Just look at her movies another then X-men films, she hasn't had a hit movie in a LONG TIME. I bet she praying Thank God for her chance to come back of X-Men Future Past sequel.
Well as you know there a lot of Bond rumors since this monster hit Skyfall did. I'm afraid the Bond producers might be going back to their old ways. Talk of 3D, Craig rumor for a 6th time as Bond. I hope Skyfall business doesn't corrupt them in making a good Bond film.
I see you are on Twitter now. I be following. Well, here's to a great year Bond had. Let's hope they don't "muck it up"-M quote from FYEO.
Sorry for the old pump but I have to say I agree with angel's sentiments here. Halle Berry is actually a decent actress who deserved her oscar win mind you, while she had her bad films (DAD and Catwoman), she had her good ones too. The problem is that she's one of those Hollywood names who would either turn in a good performance, phone it in or just ham it up.