I loved it! I thought it was so cool how they brought back multiple past winners and not just last year's. I thought the whole ceremony was a lot better this year!

I really enjoyed this when the pairing was right. Some seemed a bit strange though. It seemed the nominated actors really appreciated hearing the kind words from their fellow actors.

I loved it! I thought it was well-done and I think the other actors appreciated hearing from their fellow actors. I hope they do this again next year.

I really did like the way they did this even though, at times, some of the presenters didn't seem as sincere as I might have hoped they would be. Hopefully, this part of the awards ceremony will stay in upcoming years and will get better with age.

For the most part, I loved it. I could have smacked Adrien Brody for saying he had to Google Richard Jenkins, though. That said, the tributes clearly meant a lot to the nominees and it was nice to not have to see the same clips that we saw at the Globes/SAGs/Indies, etc.

I felt it was too maudlin. I don't like how these people constantly pat themselves on the back. Acting is not brain surgery!

I liked the FORMAT... BUT... to me, it made it so obvious how self-important these actors can be... it came across as, "Oh, so-and-so, you are so wonderful and we just think you are one of the most admirable people on the planet because of how you portrayed some character in some movie! Oh, what on Earth could be more wonderful!? Thank you for blessing us all!" [tears flowing] Give me a break. In other words, it was laid on a bit thick. These are ACTORS people, not Mother Teresa or Ghandi.

It was downright awful. One of the main reasons I look at the Oscars is to see the 4 acting winners from the previous year honor one of Oscar's major traditions and return the next year to present their respective category. No Javier, No Daniel, this year - I hope they turned down the offer to present when they found out how teh acting honors was going to be given out. I hope (and am sure there are many also) they never use this strategy again and stick with tradition - that's what makes the Oscar show timeless. HATED it!!!

Not at all. This style would have been more appropriate for the Screen Actors Guild awards. I much prefer seeing the clips of the nominated actors so we get to see just why they're being nominated in the first place. What made it worse is that some of the presenters had a clear intimate connection with the person they were talking about which was good but the contrast of those presenters who had no personal connection with the person they were talking about was so painfully obvious; like Adrian Brodie ouch!

I liked it ONLY when the presenter was sincerely speaking to their nominee and not (very obviously, ahem, Nicole Kidman) reading from the prompter.

Overall, a neat experiment, but it doesn't need to happen again in future. I prefer to see clips from the actors' nominated work and allow their own performance to speak for itself.

LOVED IT! I hope they continue this tradition every year. Yes, some presenters didn't have that great a connection, but overall it was better then seeing ANOTHER clip of their movie, which is overdone.

As one after show put it, it gave each nominee the chance to shine, and the recognition that they deserve, and took the focus off of just the winner. It was much more of a celebration to me!

I can see merit in the idea, but the execution was all wrong in several ways:
(1) All the presenters sounded like they were giving lifetime achievement awards
(2) Went on waaay too long
(3) We didn't get to see the clips of the parts the actors were nominated for -- which is especially important when all but a couple of the films were smaller releases that most of the audience hadn't seen

Kudos to the Academy for trying something new. Next time, put a little more thought into how it'll play to the millions watching on TV.

At first I thought, well this is cool, but then I realized that some of the presenters were genuine and you could feel and see that and some (sophia,walken,tilda, shirley) were just cold and unfeeling and robotic and i felt bad for the nominees they were introducing. I think they should go back to showing clips, instead of relying on past winners to say something nice....

I really thought it was interesting and cool. I don't understand why people hate it so much. I mean really, it's the Oscars, the whole point of this show is for the actors to be patting themselves on the back and to be awarded for their skills. That's why the show is there. So why complain about them doing just that? But I do agree that it was a bummer that some of the presenters seemed to totally not care. Personally I was glad to not see the same clips of these movies over and over again. That gets tired. Bravo to the Academy for trying new things!

I like the idea of peers congratulating and praising each other, but the execution seemed a bit cult-like and saccharine to me. Plus, I think actors are generally too accustomed to flattery and obsequiousness from others, so all in all I wasn't a fan.

Also, I have a feeling Daniel Day Lewis wouldn't have done it even if they asked, he's kind of a recluse.

I kind of liked the idea, but I think it went on way too long. And some of the people presenting were legends, while others were just jokes. I mean, it is kind of cool to have a screen legend like Robert DeNiro talking about how awesome you are. It's quite another to hear it from, say, Cuba Gooding Jr.

i actually really enjoyed the new format and i thought that it was a great way to get people to watch more. the one thing that i did miss was actually seeing what got the actors nominated.

Myeh, I got bored and started TIVO'ing through them towards the end.

I really liked it, but I agree that some of the choices were ridiculous. I mean, does anyone really care what Goldie Hawn thinks of them? Some of them said wonderful words, and some of them sounded like they could have cared less. And I really wish Daniel Day-Lewis had been a presenter, but I kind of suspected that he wouldn't be.

I thought that Adrien said something about how he didn't like to be Googled but if some random person Googled Richard Jenkins then they would find that he's been in a lot of great films.

Overall I didn't really like the set-up, it took foooorever and the show is already super long! It would be sad to know that they had to cut down the length of performance time for Original Song so they could do that new thing, I'd rather see those performances!

I did enjoy seeing Anthony Hopkins' tribute to Brad Pitt, as I am a huge Legends of the Fall fan, but some were really awkward, like Cuba Gooding Jr trying to get "more work for the brothers" instead of saying nice things about Robert Downey Jr! And Nicole Kidman on Angelina Jolie was just weird...

I really liked the Shirley McClaine-Anne Hathaway one, I thought it was really sweet and I loved how obviously honored and touched Anne was. I liked the idea overall, but some of them were really awkward. They should have gotten people to do the presenting who would actually take it seriously and speak from the heart.

At first I liked it but then it started to seem like the presenters were almost like the animatronic humans in disney world...

No, I really didn't like this at all. I agree with Misshouston that it seemed more like they were giving a lifetime achievement award. Also, some of the presenters did not come off at all sincere.

I'm a classic Hollywood buff, so naturally I loved it... but it would have been nice to get a clip from the movie the noms were in... they can do without the stupid musical numbers and have more time to spare on the actually awards.

I loved it for the most part. A couple of the presenters sounded a little awkward but overall I loved it.

kscincotta: "For the most part, I loved it. I could have smacked Adrien Brody for saying he had to Google Richard Jenkins, though. "

I could be wrong but I don't think that's what he was saying. What he said was that while he hated the idea of being googled, if you google Richard Jenkins you'll see... etc. I think he was saying that he didn't like that you can find out so much about a person on google but that people should google Richard to see all of his accomplishments in acting. That's how I took it anyway.

Yes, for the most part it was touching and offered a great way to honour lesser-known nominees like Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo and Michael Shannon. BUT it was just too damn long! If they want to keep this format, they need to trim all the other fluff – like that ridiculous Musical tribute and those silly romance and action montages. Those weren’t necessary.

I loved seeing the past winners but it just dragged on!!! Why not bring the past winners up there, show clips of the movies and then have them welcome the new winner into their circle?

We were trying to guess who was going to be there before they showed them.
I liked a lot of the moments between actors/actresses. Anthony and Brad, Shirley and Anne (she seemed to adlib about Anne's singing prowess), Nicole winking at Angelina.
Some were awkward though. I didn't think the Whoopi/Amy Adams pair was very good. Sophia Loren was painful to look at.
Overall I liked it though.

I liked it (granted we went to bed before the best actor and best actress ones).

It was interesting to hear more about the actor and the role instead of just showing a 5 second clip and their smiling face as they panned the crowd. It kind of made it more engaging.

i thought it was very indulgent. and, frankly, kind of rude to all the nominees in the other categories. acting is just one part the machinery that goes into making movies. i agree that this format would better suited to the SAG awards.

I liked it, but i wanted some Jack Nicholson.

I liked the montages of past winners, but I missed seeing clips of the nominees' performances. And while the little actor-to-actor tributes almost worked, they felt a little too long and awkward.

The people I watched it with and myself loved it. It was different, and for most parts (even though there were notable exceptions), we ended up seeing clips from the films throughout the show anyway, so it felt nice to have some categories where it was a lot more personal.

I agree that it would have been nicer if the relationship between the presenters and the nominees had clearly been good in all the instances, but you can't have everything.

When the show is getting that long (and you're watching it in Denmark, you definitely feel the length, believe me…) it would have been nicer if they had cut the amount of commercials.

suziryder I agree with you. I actually liked it overall, nice change from just showing movie clips. So boring!!

I loved it and thought it was a nice change!