The MTV movie awards took place Thursday night. If you didn’t see it, try putting on MTV right now because chances are they’re replaying it as you read this. I can’t say it was the best MTV Movie Award Ceremony ever but it definitely had its moments.
Some of the highlights of the evening were:
The movie parodies – while the MI3 and Divinci Code ones were funny, they saved the best for last with the King Kong spoof. Alba really brought the funny with her in that last clip in which she played a negligee wearing realty saleswoman attempting to sell some cliffside property to Mr. Kong himself. It was goofy but it worked.
The Host – Jessica Alba was just ok. There wasn’t anything truly memorable about her performance. Her jokes were mild, as were her outfits. She did her job. That’s all I can really say about her.
Acceptance Speeches – Christian Bale spoke eloquently (I always forget he’s British) and seemed very appreciative while Hayden Christensen took much less time to say thanks for the award that “didn’t suck”. Steve Carrell was funny and brief and the chick from The Wedding Crashers (also surprisingly British) was adorable. Nothing too eventful with the acceptance speeches except of course for Jim Carrey but we’ll get to him later.
Presenters – The presentations of the awards seemed oddly unscripted this time around. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly came dressed in Nascar gear (promoting their new movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) and fumbled through their presentation in an odd back-and-forth sort of way that for some reason was pretty funny. Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock were similarly candid with their banter and this too seemed to work in a “I’m not sure why that was funny but it just was” kind of way. The best of the presenters was of course, the great Samuel L. Jackson. He spent most of his time at the podium pimping his upcoming movie Snakes On A Plane (as though that movie needs any more publicity). Mr. Jackson was emphatic in his belief that his new picture is a lock for next years Best Movie Award and that the lack of snakes in any other film will surely cost that movie the grand prize at next years MTV Movie Awards.
Performances - Gnarls Barkley was fantastic. They performed “Crazy” dressed in authentic looking Star Wars costumes. The song plus the costumes proved to be quite a surreal yet entertaining performance. Christina Aguilera performed as well. She brought her usual power-vocals with her but the performance itself was a bit underwhelming. AFI performed “Miss Murder”. I’m sure the kids loved it but it just made me feel old because frankly, they scared me a bit.
Best Part of the evening – easily goes to the awarding of Jim Carrey for the MTV Generation Award. The montage they put together managed to capture Carrey’s career perfectly. They didn’t just focus on one aspect of his act when they chose the clips for the montage. Anyone familiar with Carrey’s work knows he’s no one-trick-pony. The man can make us laugh but he’s also made us cry and smile. They portrayed that beautifully in the montage and when Carrey came out, surrounded by angels, it was perfect. HE was perfect. Acknowledging his achievement in having received the most popcorn awards in MTV history, he gave a speech about his own gloriousness and topped it off with a delicious little dance (of which presenter Will Ferrell willingly participated in). Without a doubt this was the high point of the evening. Rock on, Mr. James Eugene Carrey.
All in all it was a pretty good ceremony. Definitely not the best or most memorable but without a doubt, funny and worth rewatching (over and over until MTV stops playing it).
