If you missed Sunday night’s presentation of this year’s MTV Movie Awards and you’re still wondering who won, the answer is, well, nobody. Nobody who tuned in anyway.
This crude presentation didn’t do any favors for the films it cheered (The Twilight Saga: New Moon) or the soon-to-be-released flicks it advertised (Grown Ups). Shackled with all the sleaze, lame jokes and low-ball shenanigans on hand, nothing looked appealing.
The network’s execs have been making statements of late about changing to fit the times, keeping tabs on today’s youth culture and becoming more socially aware. But if that’s the case, the Movie Awards hardly felt like an event that’s in tune with today’s youth. Instead, it seemed like a gig run by fiftysomethings who never grew out of a frat house mindset when it comes to what they consider chuckle-worthy.
What am I talking about, you ask?
Well, if you missed the show (and I hope you did), here a just a few of the gags you can be glad you didn’t witness: a “Kiss Cam” segment that prodded celebs to smooch and focused on Jonah Hill and Russell Brand in an open-mouthed make-out session; Steve Carell joking about “s—ting” himself; Katy Perry auditioning for the role of Miss Cleavage 2010; an award recipient accepting his trophy on behalf of himself … and his genitals; an awkwardly staged girl-on-girl lip-lock between Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johansson; Tom Cruise trying once again to revive his image, this time by dirty dancing in a fat suit; and a camera zooming in for a close-up of Christina Aguilera’s crotch, which was emblazoned with a flashing neon heart.
Get the sense of things?
The one serious moment in the broadcast, when young actor Tom Felton expressed genuine gratitude for his “Best Villain” award (for his role in the last Harry Potter pic), was rudely upstaged by Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell hanging overhead and cussing a blue streak.
And they weren’t the only foul-mouthed guests. Everybody was dropping the f-bomb. In fact, the crudities got so profuse and frequent that they became the biggest “giggle” of the night. But not everyone was laughing.
“The more craven bits, far from selling the films, often just drew attention to how creatively bankrupt they really are. Is someone actually more likely to see Grown Ups after watching [Adam] Sandler, [David] Spade et al. trot out their lukewarm shtick?” asked the L.A. Times entertainment blogger Steven Zeitchik. “It’s probably not an accident that the biggest conversation piece from last night wasn’t about a film but about the frequent swearing.”
In fact, the last acceptance speech of the night, by New Moon cast member Peter Facinelli, was filled with so many f-words that the censors only caught about half of them.
The broadcast’s dearth of anything that might be called creative or inspiring was underlined by Kristen Stewart’s acceptance of her “Best Female Performance” statute for New Moon. She looked bored to tears in every camera shot we’d seen of her during the evening and appeared almost embarrassed to be walking up onstage. “I guess I agree with you,” the actress mumbled after receiving her award. “Twilight is awesome. Woo.”
Her underwhelmed reaction spoke volumes.
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