Conference bookie::movies

214.0. "MTV Movie Awards" by HUMOR::EPPES (I'm not making this up, you know) Fri Jun 11 1993 19:36

The other night (June 9?), I happened to catch the 2nd Annual MTV Movie
Awards (on, coincidentally enough, MTV).

What a hoot!  A really hip, laid-back, funky, and immensely more entertaining
version of the Academy Awards.  They had interesting categories such as "Best
Kiss," "Best Duo," "Best Comic Performance," "Most Desirable Female," and 
"Most Desirable Male," in addition to more standard categories such as 
"Best Male Performer," "Best Female Performer," and "Best Movie."

It was hosted by Eddie Murphy, who was remarkably low-key (for him).  Musical
performers included Duran Duran, Rod Stewart, and a couple other groups that
I, not being terribly hip myself (I actually don't watch MTV regularly), was
not familiar with ("Stone Temple Pilot" or something like that, was one of
them).

Many big stars were there, and everyone was casually, if not downright
funkily (?), attired.  The whole atmosphere was relaxed and informal.  They
had TV cameras backstage who followed the award-receivers as they came off
the stage.

I believe the winners were chosen as a result of popular vote by viewers,
though I'm not sure how that was accomplished (there was no explanation).

My favorite bits:

o Instead of showing actual scenes from the films nominated for "Best Movie,"
  they showed "dramatic re-enactments" of scenes by - brace yourselves - 
  The Brady Bunch!  Yes, actual cast members Florence Henderson and the ones
  who played Greg, Peter, and Cindy (whose real names I can't recall).  The
  scenes were a riot!  And they were all twists on the Brady Bunch show; that
  is, they didn't do the actual lines from the movies, they put a "Brady" spin
  on them, as it were.  The scenes they did included: one from "Basic Instinct,"
  with Florence being interrogated by "Greg," "Peter," and "Cindy"; one from
  "A Few Good Men" with Florence as Mrs. Brady but with the Jack Nicholson
  persona, and "Greg" as Tom Cruise; and one from "The Bodyguard" with Florence
  as Whitney Houston and "Greg" as Kevin Costner.  

o Before some of the commercial breaks, they showed brief interviews with 
  several "older" stars - Charlton Heston, Merv Griffin, Angie Dickinson, 
  James Coburn, Tony Curtis - where each would talk about "previous" MTV Movie
  Awards shows, as though there has been a long history of them (but of course
  this was only the second one).  These interviews were hilarious, and the 
  stars did a great job of making it seem like the previous awards shows and 
  the incidents they were recalling really happened.  Plus some of them were 
  slightly, uh, off-color, which was especially funny coming from someone like
  Merv Griffin.

It was funny enough to have been a Comedy Central production... :-)

Altogether an enjoyable show.

Anyone else catch it?  What did you think?

						-- Nina

P.S. The winners that I can remember off the top of my head are:

	Best Kiss:	Marisa Tomei and Christian Slater
			(shoot! I can't remember the film title! 
			"One from the Heart"? Or something like that...)

	Best Duo:	Mel Gibson and Danny Glover ("Lethal Weapon 3")

	Most Desirable Male:	Christian Slater (same movie as Best Kiss)

	Most Desirable Female: 	Sharon Stone ("Basic Instinct")

	Best Comic Performance:	Robin Williams ("Aladdin")

	Best Song:	Whitney Houston's performance of "I Will Always 
			Love You"  ("The Bodyguard")

	Best Male Performer:	Denzel Washington ("Malcom X")

	Best Female Performer:	Sharon Stone ("Basic Instinct")

	Best Breakthrough Performance:	Marisa Tomei ("My Cousin Vinny")

	Best Movie:	"A Few Good Men"

And the band is Stone Temple Pilots, a Seattle band from San Diego (or
something like that).

Sounds like a hoot.  Maybe I'll actually have to get cable.

    Well, the base noter left what I thought was the funniest part.  The
    opening act for the show was... the Village People!!  They sang brief
    snippets from all their "hits" but the words were changed to reflect
    the movies, like "In the Navy" became "In the Movies".  The funniest
    was when they showed scenes from flicks like BASIC INSTINCT, SINGLE
    WHITE FEMALE, and THE HANDS THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE and the V.P. started
    to sing "Macho Man" but the words were changed to "Psycho Bitch"...
    
    It was hilarious...
    
    - Skip

RE .2 -- That's because I missed the first few minutes because I wasn't
paying attention to the clock.  Rats!  I wish I'd seen that!  Sigh...

						-- Nina