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Josh Spiegel: The Hurt Locker and Up winning their awards were the best moments of the night. Aside from that....well, I'd like to forget that the rest of the show even happened. Almost no surprises in terms of the winners, and the hosts were painful. Let's just focus on The Hurt Locker winning.

David Mumpower: I've seen some harsh evaluations of the John Hughes tribute, ones that question whether his work was impacting enough to merit such an extended segment. As someone who grew up during this era, I thought it was transcendent television as his "kids" paid tribute to the man who made them famous. I also felt that the personal tributes prior to the lead acting categories were phenomenal. I loved the way that the women were all so gracious in describing their male counterparts only to have Tim Robbins turn around and bust Morgan Freeman repeatedly. In particular, the shining moment for me was having Oprah Winfrey, one of the most powerful people in the world, spend several moments singing the praises of someone who was a complete unknown at this time last year. Gabourey Sidibe was anointed queen of the moment and she relished every minute of it. That's the type of Oscars moment I cherish. In terms of the low points, I always wince when people get cut off before they even get to speak. Acceptance speech rules need to be modified to allow for the fact that more than one voice is needed for many victories. They're being named the best in the world at what they did in a given year. Give them 30 seconds to tell their loved ones that they care. I also didn't care for the Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin dynamic and it appeared that the producers realized it wasn't working well as Baldwin was gradually phased out. He barely spoke in the second half of the show. The other thing I'll take from this is that there were an odd number of angry winners this year with several of the speeches devoid of grace and dignity. We seemed to turned a corner in this regard the past couple of years before having a setback in 2010.

Kim Hollis: I also loved the Hughes tribute. I think a lot of people complaining about it are simply unaware of what an impact his films have had on the new generation of filmmakers and movie stars. Other things I really liked were Waltz's speech, Giacchino's speech for Best Score, the animated segment and Jeff Bridges' speech. I disliked the dancing (which was incongruous, lame and indulgent), the stretching out of things like the opening monologue and the horror montage (why?) but cutting off speakers from the smaller categories. Also, I thought Mo'Nique's angry, angry acceptance speech was odd and felt unnecessary to me (now if she had lost, that would be another story). I'm also kind of blah on The Hurt Locker's wins since even though I really like the film and consider it one of the best of 2009, I'm not sure that I feel like it's a Best Picture.

Jason Lee: I questioned the John Hughes tribute, too . . . but I thought that Roger Ebert really eloquently put the moment in perspective. "Director John Hughes was too great a legend to be simply included in the traditional 'In Memoriam' tribute. The special clip package of his work stirred desires to see his films again. They seemed good at the time, and in these dreary days, they seem miraculous. As the stars he made - his 'children' - strode forward, it became one of the greatest moments in Academy Award history."

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