THE RED CARPEt has been rolled up as the “best of the best” for film in 2009 was announced at last Sunday’s Oscars telecast. Co-hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the show came in at about 3 1/2 hours with some exciting moments (Kathryn Bigelow’s history-making award for Best Director), some not-so-great moments (the predictability of winners) and some low ones too (the acrobatic and robotic dance number). Something for everyone!

The Good: Co-hosts Martin and Baldwin were amiable and funny enough. From the moment they appeared on stage, after descending from the rafters, the duo had a vaudevillian-comedy team vibe. They playfully jabbed each other and then turned to the nominees in the audience using their names, lifestyles and films as punch lines. It worked most of the time to hilarious effect. Their pre-taped cutaway in a Snuggie-for-two was priceless. Last year’s tradition of multiple presenters for the acting awards was successfully tweaked as co-stars and others connected to the nominees serenaded only the Best Actor and Actress categories this time around. Oprah Winfrey literally brought Best Actress nominee Gabourey Sidibe to tears as Oprah talked about the young actress’s remarkable journey. Ten presenters closely connected to each Best Picture nominee worked nicely even if not always obvious.

The Bad: The opening – it seemed like there were three of them - was odd and old. The first was the appearance of all the Best Actor and Actress nominees in a line-up. It’s not like we weren’t going to see them again…and again. A song and dance number followed with Neil Patrick Harris repeating some of his well received host duties from several of last season’s award shows. It was tired and not very clever. The Best Score award was presented with a mind-numbing interpretive dance number that probably worked better at the Kodak than for the audience at home. It also seemed unfair that horror movies received a special clip tribute (to lure younger viewers?) but lifetime achievement winners including Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman were refused their moment in front of millions, only to receive a delayed standing ovation from their seats in the audience.

The Indifferent: Not much can be done about the predictability of who takes home the prize. Even if the Oscars were pushed up a month, the myriad of award shows would do the same and cause publicists to implode sooner than they usually do. Unfortunately, with the front-runners as conclusions, all we can hope for are rousing and short acceptance speeches (and not a litany of names, Mr. Bridges!), and happy accidents to entertain and move us. Did anyone notice or care that the phrase the “And the winner is…” reappeared after a two-decade absence? Kate Winslet stuck with the tradition of “And the Oscar goes to…” And finally, did doubling the Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10 make a ratings difference? It certainly rushed the presentation of the final award as Tom Hanks ran out and announced the winner without reiterating the nominees.