The Academy Awards is pretty much the film industry’s Super Bowl. Sure, it’s nice to win a Golden Globe or a SAG award but if you don’t take the Oscar—you didn’t take shit. It’s a good show, especially for people who like movies, and it does not drag on like a lot of other award shows. There’s a limited amount of categories—which makes most of it watchable.

Here are my highlights of last night’s show:

1) Hugh Jackman is Sort of a Huge Jackass:
So for the 81st Academy Awards they signed up Hugh Jackman to host. He’s now in the company of people like Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and Billy Crystal…and he’s Hugh Jackman. Strategy: make bad movies, become sexiest man on earth, host Oscars. The producers put his theatre experience to great use as he mostly danced around the stage when he was actually on it. Thankfully, he didn’t get in the way much and his parts were pretty limited. The main announcer got a lot more play than he did last night.

2) Kunio Kata Can’t Talk English:
Kunio Kata won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. His piece was “Le Maison en Petits Cubes,” and from what I can tell it’s about a guy who uses cubes to build things. Anyways the fun really started when Kunio accepted his award. He literally knew maybe six words in English—and he couldn’t care less. Happy as hell he said, “Sank you to my supporters. Sank you to my pencil.” And then he delivered probably the best line all night—“Domo origato, Mr. Roboto.” Kunio won an Oscar and that was all that mattered to him. Well played, Mr. Kata.

3) Dark Knight Loses Best Makeup:
Look I understand that Benjamin Button took some great makeup work. It’s not easy to turn Brad Pitt into a little boy with the body of a really old guy. They pulled it off very well. But have you seen The Dark Knight? Heath Ledger’s makeup was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It was haunting and it was completely different than Nicholson’s Joker makeup. The makeup artists on Dark Knight killed it and in my opinion they definitely deserved the award.

4) Ben Stiller as Joaquin Phoenix:
If you haven’t seen the interview between David Letterman and Joaquin Phoenix, then stop reading and go watch it now. Okay, ready? Ben Stiller walks out with my future wife, Natalie Portman, to present the award for cinematography. He’s got a long beard and the same shades Joaquin was wearing. Stiller looks around with the exact mannerisms of Joaquin and Portman plays on it perfectly. Joaquin took his gum out, so Stiller took his gum out. No one even really knew what Natalie was saying because they were so focused on Ben Stiller. Aimlessly walking around the stage while the award was still being presented was a great touch.

5) Heath Wins:
Is anyone surprised here? He deserved it, and after his tragic death I don’t think anyone would want to take the award instead. I almost felt bad for the other nominees—it was a bad year to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

6) The Oscars Go Indian:
After Ledger took his award, the Kodak Theater turned into Bollywood. There was literally a period of the show that was owned by Slumdog Millionaire. Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Musical Score, Best Musical Song, Best Director. Whew. It was like a 40 minute chunk of the show. Then it was like, “Oh, man I wonder who’s going to win best picture.” And the winner is: Slumdog! I definitely am not in a place to say they shouldn’t have taken all those awards. I was just bummed that the suspense was taken out of the show.

7) Mama Mia, Sophia:
Sophia Loren won Best Actress in 1960. It’s 2009, you do the math. When she came on stage to present this year’s Best Actress award, it looked like she was still trying to be 26 years old. In reality she is not 26—she’s 75. Just let yourself get older, Sophia. No one expects you to look like a teenager. And instead you’ve turned yourself into a really, scary human being.

8) The Right Actors Win:
Say what you want about Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler or Meryl Streep in Doubt or Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married. The two actors that I wanted to take the awards did—Sean Penn for Milk and Kate Winslet for The Reader. Sean Penn completely embodied Harvey Milk and stole a movie filled with great performances. Kate Winslet gives her heart to every film she does and that’s why she’s been nominated six times. She completely deserved her award and I was so glad she finally won this year.

In summation: Slumdog killed it. Heath got his award. And a couple funny things happened. It was a really good year with really good movies. We can only hope 2009 will be just as good. See ya next year. And hopefully next year, Hugh Jackman won’t be hosting.