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Kim Hollis: What I took away from last night's ceremony is that Avatar will now always be Abadah to me from now on. I'll never be able to think of it any other way. I was less surprised than most by all of the winners. I know our staff has a lot of love for The Hurt Locker (and it's a great film to be sure) but it's not the kind of movie that the Academy likes to award. And with the ten nominees and the split voting system, I expect it to not win Best Picture. I do think Bigelow could sneak in for director, but the problem is that she didn't direct a movie that was potentially industry-changing and highly regarded at the same time. The only lock I see is Christoph Waltz for Supporting Actor, as everyone knows he is winning (and should win) that award.

My favorite moments were, like many, Robert Downey Jr.'s speech, the Scorsese honors, and Michael Giacchino getting all starstruck up on stage over Paul McCartney. It was kind of a crappy ceremony in general - I think a lot of people were having some trouble with the teleprompter.

David Mumpower: I hate to use the term foregone conclusion, but Avatar strikes me as a mortal lock for Best Picture. Watching last night's show simply reinforced this assumption I'd already made. Even the other Best Picture winner last night, The Hangover, isn't a legitimate threat, almost as if the Hollywood Foreign Press Association wanted to raise Avatar over all the other Best Picture Oscars contenders that much more. The reality is that whether Avatar moved you or not, the rest of the Best Picture contenders this year are too flawed to make a serious run at it. The Hurt Locker earned too little, Up in the Air is a better performance than a movie (to most critics, anyway), Precious has lost momentum and everything else makes for lousy competition. As for whether or not Avatar deserves Best Picture, this is an instance of history repeating itself as the same arguments were made for/against Titanic. I'm sure they will be hotly regurgitated between now and the day after the Academy Awards are held. Independent of whether you agree with any of it, Avatar is THE big fish in a very small pond of awards contenders this year.

In terms of the show itself last night, I thought the big winner was Robert Downey Jr. for a phenomenal, unrehearsed speech. I was annoyed with the production, particularly rushing an accomplished actress like Sandra Bullock (who not only should win Best Actress for The Blind Side but deserves it as well) off the stage. Moments later, Julia Roberts walked on the stage to talk about how the show ran short, giving her time to kill which she used in discussing her children as Calvin Trager addresses above. These people give years of their lives to these projects yet the music plays them off the stage the instant the producer realizes they're not famous enough. If Sandra Bullock doesn't qualify for extended discussion time, what hope does Christoph Waltz have? I also never find Ricky Gervais funny, which continues to be a source of constant outrage to the rest of BOP's staff. Last night's ceremony was no exception. While I give him credit for saying things to the faces of the other celebrities in attendance, all he managed to do was piss off Paul McCartney. At least the people in attendance at the Golden Globes are always nice and drunk, which is probably the doomsday scenario for all of their PR people, but it creates a loose atmosphere where everyone sounds like Mickey Rourke, at least for one night. I like that a lot more than the generally stuffy atmosphere at the Oscars.

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