After 70 years of being ignored by the Academy, Godzilla won his VERY FIRST OSCAR last night.  And it wasn’t that goofy American Godzilla.  The superior Japanese flick “Godzilla: Minus One” got the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

The guy who spoke for the team was obviously NOT fluent in English, but he read his speech off a piece of paper, and his enthusiasm was pretty awesome.  And they all wore shoes with Godzilla claws for heels.

The award was presented by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, who joked about both trying to “kill Batman” in the movies.  And Arnold called Batman a “Son of a [B-word]” twice.

(WARNING:  Here’s the whole, uncensored Batman / Godzilla clip.)

 

 

Here are some more random observations from the show:

1.  “Barbie” has been getting its clock cleaned by “Oppenheimer” this award season, but Ryan Gosling’s I’m Just Ken” may have been THE highlight of the show.

Gosling sold it HARD, and Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen even showed up to do some shredding.

 

(Here’s Ryan and Emily Blunt “arguing” about the “Barbenheimer” rivalry while honoring stunt people.)

 

 

2.  Billie Eilish and Finneas performed the OTHER nominated “Barbie” song, What Was I Made For.  They won, by the way.

 

 

3.  Let’s face it:  John Cena may never be in contention for an Oscar.  But he had a pretty big moment when he presented an award NAKED.  This was the 50th anniversary of the Oscars where a streaker hit the stage while David Niven was presenting an award.  So host Jimmy Kimmel and Cena turned it into a pretty hilarious . . . and somewhat titillating . . . comedy bit.

 

 

4.  The In Memoriam segment was accompanied by a live performance from Andrea Boccelli and his son, Matteo.  The only problem was, they sang Andrea’s “Time to Say Goodbye”.

That’s the song that Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly perform at the Catalina Wine Mixer in “Step Brothers”. . . and because of that, I couldn’t think about anything else.  In fact, I kept expecting Reilly to jump in and shout “Boats ‘n’ Hoes!”

(WARNING:  Here’s the UNCENSORED version of that “Step Brothers” scene.)

(And here are this year’s supposed In Memoriam snubs.)

 

 

5.  Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue was good, although some people thought his Robert Downey Jr. drug jokes were a little over-the-top.  Downey took them in stride, though.

 

 

6.  John Mulaney kinda stole the show with a comedy bit about “Field of Dreams” while he was presenting the award for Best Sound.  And now people are calling on HIM to host the next Oscars.

 

 

7.  Toward the end of the show, Kimmel read a scathing review that Donald Trump posted about his performance on his social media site.  Then he added, quote, “Thank you for watching.  I’m surprised you’re still [up].  Isn’t it past your jail time?”

 

 

8.  Oh . . . they gave out some awards, too.  “Oppenheimer” won Best Picture, while Cillian Murphy won Best Actor, Robert Downey Jr. won Best Supporting Actor, and Christopher Nolan won Best Director.  Emma Stone won Best Actress for “Poor Things”. . . and Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress for “The Holdovers”.

“Oppenheimer” won seven awards altogether.  “Poor Things” was second with four.  “Barbie” only got the one for Original Song.  And “Killers of the Flower Moon” got shut out, despite 10 nominations.