Attention young Hollywood: If you want to host the Oscars, watch Billy Crystal and learn from a pro.
After an eight-year absence, Crystal returned on Sunday to host the 84th Academy Awards aired live from Los Angeles on CTV.
Some critics, such as Hollywood Reporter film critic Michael Rechtshaffen, applauded the comic's comeback, giving Crystal the thumb's up for his solid, if predictable, helming of the show.
"Was it safe and predictable? Yes. Was it classy and not embarrassing like the James Franco fiasco? Yes," Rechtshaffen said on Monday on CTV's Canada AM.
"Crystal did a great job," said Canada AM film critic Richard Crouse.
Others, however, were not so kind.
"Well don't James Franco and Anne Hathaway look better now?
That was Indiewire.com's assessment of the show, while The Washington Post likened Crystal's performance to someone "overseeing a cruise ship dinner show designed to appeal to the over-50 travel club."
Love him or hate him, 63-year-old Crystal deserves kudos for stepping in on short notice to host this year's telecast.
In November of 2011, Eddie Murphy withdrew as the show's host. The move came after Brett Ratner, Murphy's "Tower Heist" director and Oscar producer, stepped down in the face of an industry firestorm over his use of a gay slur.
Crystal's shtick may have felt familiar last evening. As usual, Crystal started the show off is a film-montage tribute to the year's Best Picture nominees. Unlike Golden Globe host Ricky Gervais, Crystal's jokes never drew blood from Hollywood's elite.
Crystal helmed the Oscars the way Russell Crowe led his ship in the 2003's "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."
Crystal took charge.
He never resorted to cheap laughs, as Franco did last year when he took to the Oscar stage in drag.
Though some critics may have found his performance as comforting and inspired as a plate of Kraft dinner, Crystal brought this show home smoothly and efficiently. He also scored enough laughs to breathe some life into an awards show with no surprise wins.
As predicted, the silent, black-and-white film "The Artist" earned top honours for Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius), Best Actor (Jean Dujardin) and Best Picture.
Canadian star Christopher Plummer also scooped up his first Oscar, as critics predicted, for his sterling performance as an elderly gay man in the Mike Mills drama, "Beginners." As expected, 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest actor in Oscar history to win an Academy Award.
The night's one surprise, for some critics, came with Meryl Streep's win for Best Actress.
"The Help's" Viola Davis was favoured to win. Good though she was, Davis could not snatch victory away from "The Iron Lady's" Streep, who has earned 17 Oscar nominations in her career.
Bieber makes appearance
Crystal opened with a chipper film montage of the year's Best Picture nominees. The montage included an appearance by "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" star Tom Cruise and a tremulous kiss on the lips from Best Actor nominee George Clooney.
Teen hearthrob Justin Bieber also appeared in a rewritten scene from Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris."
"So how long do you want me to sit here for?" Bieber asked Crystal.
Just long enough to "help out with the 18-to-24 demographic," Crystal replied
Crystal's best dig, however, came as he summed up Hollywood's biggest night of the year.
"Nothing can take the sting out of the world's economic problems like watching millionaires present each other with golden statues," he said.
But Crystal's performance wasn't without controversy.
Twitter heated up after Crystal appeared in his opener in blackface as Sammy Davis Jr. and then suggested they go kill Hitler.
After "The Help's Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting actress, comedian Paul Scheer tweeted that this "shows just how far we've come since Billy Crystal performed in Blackface."
For the most part, Crystal's delivery didn't shock audiences. But it did make them smile and stay with the show.
In today's era, when the Oscars are struggling to boost their TV ratings, that achievement by a showbiz pro like Crystal deserves a hand.
