#CriticSpeak: “Colossal disaster!” – Did Billy Crystal host the most boring Oscars telecast ever?

by Wilfred Okiche

The 84th Academy awards were held Sunday night and big winners include the silent film, ‘The Artiste’, ‘Hugo’, Meryl Streep and Octavia Spencer. Billy Crystal returned as host for the ninth time after Eddie Murphy controversially pulled out. While his return was widely considered a safe and welcome option, his eventual performance as host, together with the whole telecast has come under fire from the critics for being sub par and largely boring.

Here’s what they are saying:

‘’The colossal hosting disaster from last year is now forgotten by the safe, unfunny retro-disaster that was Crystal making jokes that he laughed at repeatedly and overseeing an Oscars telecast that was as poorly placed as any in recent memory’’     Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter.

Crystal seemed to be overseeing a cruise ship dinner show designed to appeal to the over-50 travel club. Early on, it hit the rocks. Almost everyone drowned.’’     Hank Steuver, The Washington Post.

‘Billy was back and it was very good to have him back. But the hard truth is the Oscars, like life itself, has moved on. Sometimes it’s better to cherish our memories than rehash them.’’     Verne Gay, Newsday.

‘’A lifeless show featuring a bunch of pre-ordained winners and Crystal looking repeatedly surprised that his jokes were dying.’’     HitFix

‘’I cannot think of any major tv franchise that has become so disconnected from cultural relevancy as the Oscartelecast has in recent years. And this one with Billy Crystal was truly pathetic.’’     The Baltimore Sun

‘The whole introductory sequence felt like a pallid sequel- a ghost of Oscars past…Joke all you want but for a night, Oscar unabashedly showed it’s age’’     Variety

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