Post-Oscars Reaction

As movie years go, 2007's crop of hopefuls aren't going to remembered with some of Oscar's best over the years.

I watched last night's broadcast, rushed because of the strike, with some trepidation, especially knowing it was going to be a big night for the awful "No Country For Old Men," and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Jon Stewart did a very capable job with short prep time, and the pace of the show was fairly brisk, though I found the segments celebrating 80 years of Oscars with past clips to be redundant after a while. At least Michael Moore didn't win, so we were spared a controversial acceptance speech.

A few highlights:

NICEST MOMENT: (Tie) The troops in Iraq presenting an award (Best Short? I'm drawing a blank) and host Jon Stewart bringing back best song winner Marketa Irglova to say a few words after the orchestra cut her off when her partner, Glen Hansard, ran a few seconds long.

MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE: Tilda Swinton. I figured the Academy would go with Ruby Dee in Best Supporting Actress as a sort of lifetime achievement award even though Dee only appeared for about 10 minutes in "American Gangster." The always-terrific Swinton was phenomenal in "Michael Clayton," and it was nice to see her recognized.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Speaking of lifetime achievement awards, I find it remarkable that Hal Holbrook only got his first-ever nomination for "Into The Wild," and having just turned 83, he might not get too many more chances to win. He was much more the supporting actor than Javier Bardem, who was basically the lead in "No Country For Old Men."

BEST PRESENTERS: Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan, and their "I'm Halle Berry" bit. Fortunately, neither of them gave any of the award winners an Adrien Brody-type kiss.

WORST DECISION: The Academy's choice to honor "No Country For Old Men" with four Oscars, including Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor. This is one of the most overrated movies in recent memory, and pretty forgettable I thought. It had no ending and the inciting incident to get the ball rolling was one of the most insipid in movie history. I admit I've never read the Cormac McCarthy novella, so I don't know how true it was to the source material, but as a movie, it just plained sucked.

BEST DECISION: Diablo Cody's win for Original Screenplay with "Juno." My gal Diablo (OK, I met her for 30 seconds, but still) has become a rock star among screenwriters.

What were some of your notable Oscar moments?

After the broadcast, I caught some of Jimmy Kimmel. Normally, I'm not a huge Kimmel fan, but this running "feud" with Matt Damon has been hilarious. First, Kimmel's girlfriend Sarah Silverman said they were "breaking up" because she was now with Damon. You can catch the brilliant music video on YouTube. So Kimmel retaliated last night by announcing he was now with Ben Affleck, complete with a "We Are The World" type video with the likes of Harrison Ford, Don Cheadle, Josh Groban, Robin Williams and others. It was insanely funny.

MONDAY'S BEST BETS: The Lorraine Hansberry classic play "A Raisin In the Sun" (ABC, 8 p.m.) has drawn about as much critical praise as anything I've seen this year. The TV movie version reunites the Tony Award-winning cast, including Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald, while Sean "Puffy" Combs has met with a lot of success in a role originated by the great Sidney Poitier. The play deals with a struggling black family in the 1950s that suddenly comes into some money from a life insurance policy, then debates how to spend it to improve their lives.

On "Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles," (Fox, 9 p.m.), the good cyborg (Summer Glau) takes a ballet class. I'd like to see Arnold Schwarzeneggar do that. Seriously, I would.

CBS has new episodes of "Welcome To The Captain" at 8:30 p.m. and the terrific "Old Christine" at 9:30 p.m. On NBC, "Medium" is new at 10 p.m.

On cable, both "Kyle XY" and "Wildfire" are new on ABC Family.

Finally, the coolest program of the night may be the season premiere of "Top Gear" (BBC America, 8 p.m.), which has Oscar winner Helen Mirren as its guest driver.