Oscar Postmortem Pt. 3: John Travolta must be stopped

This is about as silly a microcosm of last Sunday's Academy Awards broadcast there is, but I feel like this level of snarkiness merits its own post.

You'd think John Travolta would have learned to tread more carefully when the whole world is watching him on camera. Last year's infamous "Adele Dazeem" flub -- the hilarious mispronunciation of Idina Menzel's name -- seems destined to be one of those celebrity bloopers that stands the test of time, admittedly dogging Travolta far more than the sporting Menzel.

Banking on the longevity of this much Twitter-ized and parodied moment, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron had the wherewithal to have Menzel and Travolta present an award together, with Menzel introducing him as "Glom Gazingo".

Cute banter ensued (in fact, the only funny presenter shtick of the night), but so did this...

[Menzel whispers:] "send help..."

... and social media exploded once again with a fresh wave of mockery to last us until next year.

When Aliens see a human being. pic.twitter.com/qVUBq5HNPG
— Sam Kalidi (@samkalidi) February 24, 2015

Review - Django Unchained

In Quentin Tarantino's latest revenge fantasy Django Unchained, Jamie Foxx plays the titular slave who is freed from bondage by the eccentric Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to become his partner in bounty hunting. As much as Django likes his new job of “killing white folks for money”, his bigger yen is to rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from the plantation where she serves the childlike but intangibly dangerous Calvin Candi (Leonardo DiCaprio).

While a great deal of Django Unchained is very enjoyable, it is self-indulgent to a fault. I understand that criticizing a Tarantino film for being indulgent is like criticizing the sky for being blue, but the excesses of this movie really makes you feel the length of it. At 165 minutes, it's a picture as badly in need of a trim as our unshackled, unshaven ex-slave is at the beginning of it.