I went to Sunday’s 2008 MTV Movie Awards expecting the unexpected. After all, this is the show that prides itself on not being like those other "boring" award shows. This is the show that honors "movies" instead of "films." This is the show where, last year, Sacha Baron Cohen got away with kissing Will Ferrell, and Sarah Silverman got away with taunting jail-bound Paris Hilton.
And, yes, this year’s show had its share of surprises, but the whole production felt a bit off. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that just down the hill from the Gibson Amphitheatre, firefighters were still struggling to contain the morning fire at Universal Studios Hollywood. Iconic backlot sets that had been used for everything from To Kill a Mockingbird and Inherit the Wind to Back to the Future and Bruce Almighty were destroyed. Thousands of the studio’s film reels were damaged. The 30-foot animatronic robot of King Kong himself perished under the flames.
A slice of film history was dying, but the MTV Movie Awards marched on. And how many times did the show mention the fire that was blazing just a couple of hundred yards away? Zippo.
Oh well. I guess it’s the role of award shows to make you forget about the real world, and this show sure did try to do that. Here are some of the highlights of what I saw from inside the theater:
- By far, the most spontaneous and hilarious moment of the show wasthe result of one clever audience member. Steve Carell, Dwayne Johnson,and Anne Hathaway were presenting the award for Best ComedicPerformance. Carell kept on leaning into the microphone to speak, andJohnson kept on telling him that he didn’t need to do that. Carellquipped, "I think I can handle this, Dwayne," and, without missing abeat, a guy from the loge level yelled, "That’s what she said!" Theaudience erupted into laughter and applause, and Carell and Johnsonnervously smiled while knowing that they just got owned.
- It was interesting to see which celebrities received the loudestcheering. You could almost predict the winner of each award simply bylistening to the decibel level of the audience. Johnny Depp, naturally,came in first place (which explains why he was the only person to wintwo awards — best villain and best comedic performance). Chris Brownmust be on his way to becoming a superstar because he also received anear-piercing greeting from the audience. Tom Cruise got a rather mildreception — most of the audience members stayed in their seats when theactor came out to present the Generation Award to Adam Sandler. And thewoman whom everyone here seemed to love: Ellen Page.
- I’ve always shrugged off Coldplay, but their new album’s title track, "Viva la Vida,"is quite a lovely song. It was therefore disappointing that MTV decidedto attack the band three times with butterfly-shaped confetti duringtheir performance. The confetti machines were so obnoxiously loud thatthey drowned out Chris Martin’s voice. I later watched the show on TVand noticed that there were no audio problems. Just goes to show youthat these award shows are tailored for TV viewers and not thein-person audience.
- If you want proof that mostly young women vote for these awards, consider that the winner for the Best Fight Award, Never Back Down, was the only nominee in which the actors were shirtless.
- If you want proof that Edward Norton still isn’t excited about promoting The Incredible Hulk, consider how utterly bored he looked while introducing Coldplay.
- And if you want to see how a true movie star acts, just watch WillSmith (pictured, with son Jaden), who seemed (or pretended to be) genuinely moved when he won forBest Male Performance for I Am Legend. "I haven’t always made great movies," Smith said. "But I’ve tried real hard." Nobody works harder.
- Where did the movie parodies go? Instead, we got interview sketches with host Mike Myers as an eccentric, poop-eating animal trainer and a heavily accented food service woman. The skits were serviceable, but I’d rather have those infamous movie parodies any day.
So, PopWatchers, was the show a hit or miss for you? Did you think Myers was a funny host? And will you see The Love Guru, which Myers made sure to plug on three separate occasions?
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This award show continues to go further down the toilet every year. I miss my movie parodies. They used to be classic. Like “The Matrix: Reloaded” with Justin Timberlake and Sean William Scott, or “Scream” when Mike Myers first hosted in 97. The only redeeming factor last night was when Zac Effron won Breakthrough Performance because I had a bet with my sister that he would win just because of votes from the mass amount of little girls who like High School Musical.
How did you not mention Wayne’s World!! Shwinnnnggg!
The “thats what she said” was the best part. And Johnny Depp. Very 21 Jump Street
The Waynes World reset was lost on probably 85% of the audience, but us old timers in our 30s appreciated it. I am worried that Mike Myers is heading down the “Robin Williams Thats Not That Funny” slope. Maybe a movie more like “So I Married An Axe Murderer” would be a better step than another over-the-top character.
The constant “The Love Guru ” pimping didn’t really bother me since I decided long ago I wasn’t going to see it anyway .Any time I have suffered through the trailer in theaters the silence afterward is shocking not many people laugh at all . The highlight for me was the “Tropic Thunder ” viral . Ben Stiller ,Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr are very funny together .I really didn’t think the alleged pot smoking was funny at all
I thought that the Robert Downey, Jr., Ben Stiller, Jack Black “viral video” for Tropic Thunder was really, really funny- for no other reason that it seemed like the three of them (especially RDJ) were having a blast. RDJ’s last line, “I’ve got some priors, so i’m gonna roll…Boom-boom-boom.” had me laughing pretty hard.
Used to love the show cerca 1995-96. They had awards like Best Dance Sequence, Most Desirable Female and Best Action Sequence- my favorite category.
They also nominated movies that may have been overlooked by the Oscars, but were still bad-@ss, (The Crow, Se7en, The Professional)
Even though they celebrated “pop” blockbusters, they still managed to filter out the crap back then. That hasn’t been the case now for about 5 years. (National Treasure 2 nominated for best movie?)Who even remembers This Christmas? The show sucks big time now.
the wayne’s world bit was the funniest for me – it was great to see dana carvey and mike myers back together after all these years. and yeah, where were all the parodies of the movies? i feel like an old lady saying, “back in my day…MTV used to *not* suck” but that will just be lost on the younger viewers…
I didn’t find Mike Meyers all that funny. I absolutely missed the movie parodies which are what the awards show is about – movies, not Mike Meyers skts.
On top of all that I thought it was in bad taste for the Rogan/Franco fake pot ’skit’ was scheduled for an award that was almost a guaranteed win for Robert Downy, Jr. This man is a recovering addict and the fact that MTV placed the fake pot ’skit’ prior to his award was in extremely poor taste.
I didn’t watch much of it, but I did happen to pass by MTV and see Wayne and Garth. I was a big fan of that skit when it was big (and I was 12), but didn’t it seem really, REALLY desperate to include it now? I mean, all the jokes (other than the top ten list) were pulled DIRECTLY from old skits and/or the movies. It’s sad that the first time we see Dana Carvey in a dog’s age is on stage rehashing something that’s almost two decades old (and definitely no longer relevant).
I was thinking the same thing as everyone else about the Wayne’s World skit. I’m 23 and it’s a bit dated for me, so I was thinking oh the emo children won’t get it!
But I was dying with the Top 10 list.
And the Rock/Steve Carell bit was the best. Great audience participation!
The best part – Johnny Depp. He looked absolutely, incredibly GORGEOUS. The funniest bits were the Wayne’s World skit and Viral Video for Tropic Thunder. I agree with Mells regarding the potsmoking bit prior to the IronMan award – very tasteless. Also, where was the best dance sequence? AND, you would think that it being MTV (music? television), that they would award a song or musical number from a movie.
what? no movie parodies?
i guess i won’t watch the reruns
I already decided that I wouldn’t see The Love Guru after the totally shameless promotion during the Idol finale, and the MTV Movie Awards just hammers that point home more. And is it just me or was the entire show shameless pimping of summer blockbusters? Lame.
Nice full circle for Transformers, which won last year as the Favorite Summer Movie That Will Open Soon or something like that. Wait, aren’t MTV and the Transformers studio sibling companies?
The Carell-Johnson-Hathaway intro was the best, followed by the L2-Verne Troyer-Diddy bit. I’m afraid the political subtext escaped many in the audience.
How tiny did SJP look next to J.Hud and the girls?
Hey, MTV: Bring back the fun categories like Most Desirable Male and Female. Split the Best Perf back into Male and Female. And for crying out loud, don’t be sooo obvious.
http://moviemartin.blogspot.com
Seriously, my husband was very annoyed at how much time I spent gushing over Johnny Depp and his fantastic “Back to 21 Jump Street” look. He hasn’t looked that hot in 20 years and I was instantly reduced to a squealing thirteen year old. The rest of the show: Meh.
Without a doubt, Adam Sandler singing with Solid Gold-esque dancers was the highlight of the show! Very entertaining…forgot how much I missed Solid Gold (yes, I’m old).
Also thought Johnny Depp was incredibly hot. Wow! totally looked fantastic. Couldn’t keep my eyes off of him.
Kid to Robert Downey Jr.: Christian Bale would kick your ass.
Robert Downey Jr. after Jack Black’s head explodes: “I’ve got priors so I’m gonna have to roll.”
Most of the show sucked except for Johnny Depp. He is so hot. I’m glad I tuned in because I got to see him twice – made my night.
Johnny depp rocks
He desrves those awards
so hot
Worst. Show. Ever.
Tropic Thunder bit was servicable, the rest was crap. Mini-Me scares me senseless. Depp was rockin’ the 21 Jump Street hair though.
Worst. Show. Ever.
Tropic Thunder bit was servicable, the rest was crap. Mini-Me scares me senseless. Depp was rockin’ the 21 Jump Street hair though.
Thanks to MTV for proving that Johnny IS the BEST actor out there. They could have just let him stand on the stage for the full 2 hours and let us all scream for him and I would have been happy. All the rest was garbage.
Sorry to all of you who don’t have children and don’t know what the bfd is, but I agree with Mells on Rogan/Franco fake pot ’skit’. The bit started, and I turned off the TV. It’s tough enough to raise healthy, aware kids without this ongoing romanticizing of drugs. RDJ didn’t look too thrilled, either. And kids watch MTV. It’s not Showtime or HBO at night.
I was extremely surprised that Superbad didn’t win anything, especially Breakthrough performance (Zack Efron, really? reaaallly???? c’mon!)
The Video Movie Awards was a parody of its former self.
I completely agree with Mell about not only the innapropriateness of the pot smoking comment, but about placing it right before handing out an award to a recovering addict. Tasteless and insensitive.
98-99 was the best. The parodies were funny and well produced. I still remember Kudrow’s Phantom Menace and ArmageddoN*SYNC. Plus her opening monologue taking questions from the audience was absolutely hilarious. Sarah Jessica Parker took over the next year and it was horrible. The big joke was how many times she could change her outfit. 03 was okay for the Two Towers acceptance speeches. Love the overlooked PJ speech where Viggo comes out at the end.
By far the best part was Johnny Depp and Diablo Cody swooning over him. I agree with LJ. They could have just put Johnny on the stage for 2 hours and I would have been happy.
The worst part, yes, the pot smoking skit before RDJ’s award. How insensitive.
The best part is the film parodies they do every year, they fucked up on the show this year by bypassing it and letting Mike do his crap. Zach winning his award was BS to, All girls voting is correct for sure!
I thought Rainn Wilson mention “the fire” in that skit he as Rainn Wilson: Movie or Super Star