Carrie and I are movie buffs. Even during our first few years of marriage (when we were making very little money) we averaged 5 visits to the movies a month. That’s why we watch the Academy Awards every year. I don’t watch in a “ohmygoshicantwaittoseewhatangelinaiswearing” sort of way, but more like, “I read the first two lousy books in this series so I HAVE to read the last lousy book to see what happens.”

This year’s format was wildly different from the boring, self-congratulatory, embarrassment designed only to stroke the egos of Hollywood’s elite. There was still plenty of that, but on the whole we found this year’s show very, very entertaining. This year’s first-time producers did a fantastic job.

Some highlights:

The Stage Design and Layout. The low stage and close seating gave the show a very personal feel. I also liked that the band was shown on-stage and off to the side of the stage instead of buried in a pit. The stage was designed by architect David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group.

Large, Moveable LED Screens. During the show these screens were sometimes combined to display a single, large, widescreen image and at other times divided and moved left and right, up and down to supplement and enhance the physical set pieces. I really liked the way that the screens were divided into five, dropped to the floor, illuminated with images of past winners for a given category and then raised like curtains to reveal those past winners in the flesh.

Thematic Award Presentations. Instead of the usual endless role call of paired actors making lame jokes, the producers ordered the presentations around a sequential narrative that outlined the movie making process. The show started with writing (screenplays, adaptation) and pre-production awards (production design, costumes, make-up) and moved all the way through post-production (visual effects, editing, sound design). Awards were handed out in logical groups against fantastic physical sets enhanced by digital displays.

2008 Movie Yearbooks. Throughout the show we were shown nicely edited overviews of films from 2008 within a given genre (including non-award nominees) set against contemporary music. The best by far was the sketch featuring James Franco and Seth Rogen (playing their characters from “Pineapple Express”) with a cameo by “Saving Private Ryan” cinematographer (and two-time Oscar-winner) Janusz Kaminski.

Ben Stiller as Joaquin Phoenix from his bizarre David Letterman appearance.

Slumdog Millionaire cleaning house. I accidently saw this movie with a dude way before it was an international phenomenon and Oscar-favorite because I was lead to believe that it was a gritty independent film. If I’d know that it was a romantic comedy packaged as a gritty independent film I would have gone with Carrie.

Will Smith’s fumbled line and subsequent reference to “Boom Goes the Dynamite.”