Oscar night as it always has been known is a long, overbloated night as well. Hugh Jackman is the most curious selection as Oscar host in many years. Last year's Jon Stewart isn't the quintessential movie guy, but his off-the-cuff quips made him an improv darling. Jackman is handsome, amiable, elegant and gracious – he's People's Sexiest Guy Alive. But he's not a funnyman. He probably had less lines as host than any other in recent history. Fortunately, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Jack Black and Ben Stiller as presenters filled in the best comic deliveries of the night.

About Hugh Jackman : he's not the supreme host nor is he the most celebrated thespian in the movie industry. Most famous for Wolverine in the “X-Men” movies, Jackman has never secured the ultimate Oscar-worthy role. His career best performances in film (I don't know enough about his Australian stage work) are “The Prestige,” “The Fountain” and most surprisingly “Kate & Leopold.” The latter is really a cookie-cutter comedy that co-stars Meg Ryan, but as Leopold – this chivalrous Duke from 19 th century aristocracy in contemporary transported to 21 st century New York – is actually a brilliant performance. Jackman is often better than the rom -com material, but with Leopold he proves that he is an actor of tremendous untapped gifts. In a number of years, Jackman will eventually land that perfect part that will demonstrate range and Oscar appeal.

That said , Jackman's first song and dance routine was a mixed bag of stunningly comical and just plain awkward. I liked his moment lampooning “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” best with his old-to-young cardboard cut-outs, and his “Frost/Nixon” duet with Anne Hathaway was a giggly treat. Then there was “The Reader” ersatz song rendition which was so bad it was funny, and Jackman played it up knowingly corny. His segments with “ Slumdog Millionaire” and “Milk” was … just plain awkward.

The sole memorable joke by Jackman of the evening came early. After commentary on the U.S. economy recession, the star of “Australia” said the industry will give him a cheaper gig next year: “New Zealand.” Hollywood insiders are familiar that production costs are among the cheapest in the world in that country yet I think it pokes fun that Jackman , if anything, doesn't have the persona that belongs in New Zealand.

Yes, the better jokes and spontaneity of the evening were supplied by Steve Martin (To Tina Fey: “Don't go falling in love with me!”) and I loved Jack Black's strategy in Hollywood: Making dough for DreamWorks animated division and then betting everything by Pixar at the Oscars. The laugh riot of the evening, however, belonged to Ben Stiller doing a merciless Joaquin Phoenix impression. I honestly can't believe he got away with trouncing Phoenix. What was so powerfully hypnotic about it was that thousands inside the Academy's Kodak theater were laughing hysterically – basically laughing at the self-destructive career of Phoenix (really wasting his talent) who recently bowed out of acting to pursue a hip-hop career. “You look like you work at a Hasidic insane meth lab,” co-presenter Natalie Portman said to Phoenix, eh, Stiller.

But look at the celebrity reaction shots of those falling out of their seats in laughing hysteria at Stiller's impression. You had Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Marisa Tomei ., Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Dev Patel, and Taraji P. Henson losing it. I doubt any of them would ever dare to work with Phoenix if he ever returned to Hollywood. Phoenix may have ruined his fanbase for those who saw him recently on David Letterman, but Stiller just helped ruined his reputation within Hollywood. Favorite moment: Stiller's perfect body language as he wanders off during Portman's recital of nominees and watching the nominee clips fecklessly.

Jackman's other showstopping segment involved an elaborate musical number accompanied by the ever-sexy Beyoncé . Bordering on burlesque, for sure, but the costumes and choreography were Busby Berkeley- esque . Yet I wish that it hadn't been a rapid-fire multi-medley revue going through every famous movie song under the sun. The number overloaded with quick lyric excerpts from “Moulin Rouge,” “All That Jazz,” “Grease,” “ Singin ' in the Rain,” “West Side Story,” “Mamma Mia,” “Wizard of Oz,” and “ Evita .” And there were so many other ditties that it was near impossible to attribute some of the lyrics to films we have forgotten.

My favorite serious moment of the night belongs to the documentary filmmakers who spoke upon the value of their non-fiction occupation. With legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog offering the most intelligent insight of the night, “During the last two decades we have experienced a massive onslaught on our sense of reality: Digital effects in cinema, photo shop, virtual realities on the net. So as filmmakers we have a task to redefine our sense of reality… Probably we move in the direction of poetry and the direction of something that really illuminates us.” Herzog's supercool Antarctica documentary “Encounters at the End of the World” was a nominee, but lost out to the equally terrific “Man on Wire.” Winning filmmaker James Marsh revealed that Herzog had predicted him to win, and the film's subject Phillipe Petit balanced the Oscar on his chin. The amazing trapeze artist at age 72 still has the right stuff.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” took home most of the early awards in technical fields, which led an excuse to immediately cut to Brad Pitt clapping in a reaction shot. The worst acceptance speech of the evening in terms of uncreativity can be attribute to “Curious Case” Best Make-Up winner Greg Cannom who listlessly read off names of people to thank of people no common audience member would care.

The best original screenplay award went to Dustin Lance Black for “Milk.” Also worthy would have been “Wall-E.” The best adapted screenplay award went to “ Slumdog Millionaire” which set up a foretelling sign that it could sweep the evening. Also worthy would have been “Frost/Nixon,” but hence its loss, it pretty much ensured that it would go home empty-handed the rest of the evening.

The masterstroke to speed up the awards ceremony was to have presenters give out multiple awards, with Will Smith in particular presenting four consecutive awards. This is more time-efficient than having brand new presenters for every new award. Yet I think the best new improvement is to bring out five actors to present the Acting Awards, and giving honorary intros to each nominee – this is far more touching and recognizing and respectful to nominees than having their names listed off. The first award of the evening was for Best Supporting Actress with former winners Eva Marie Saint, Goldie Hawn, Tilda Swinton , Anjelica Huston and Whoopi Goldberg presenting to all the nominees. The winner was Penelope Cruz for “Vicky Christina Barcelona” which proves if you're an actress in a Woody Allen film you have a good chance of winning on any given year.

Five more former winners presented the Best Supporting Actor award, but I got a kick out of Christopher “Crazy Hair” Walken presenting to “Revolutionary Road” nominee Michael Shannon, who's like a heir to the Christopher Walken school of acting. Posthumous winner Heath Ledger (“The Dark Knight” whose only other win was Best Sound Editing) may have received the biggest applause of the night. His family accepted the award with generous words of thanks, with mom beginning: “We thank the Academy for recognizing our son's amazing work. Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan in particular for allowing Heath the creative license to develop and explore this crazy Joker character.

One more insight about the extraordinary Ledger performance. I've heard the only plot complaint about “The Dark Knight” was that the Joker, to some viewers, seemed to be implausibly omnipresent everywhere in Gotham City at every convenient time necessary. My defense is that Ledger brought so much mad dog adrenaline and energy to the role that he made me believe that the diabolical Joker could be everywhere and every essential moment in perfect clockwise synchrony. Just as I believed Al Pacino in “ Scarface ” could be shot a dozen times and remain standing because he was so coked up and therefore impervious to pain, and believed that Javier Bardem could go on an endless serial killing spree and never get caught in “No Country for Old Men.” Ledger belongs in this league of the great psycho performances for demonstrating this kind of metaphysical power.

If any other nominee had stolen the Best Supporting Actor award it might have been awkward and spurred the winner to obligatory praise of Ledger. That theoretical winner would have also been the actor forever known for stealing the award away from Ledger who has been the subject of a million blogs since last July for delivering perhaps the greatest final performance of a passing actor in movie history. Yet for as great as Ledger's performance was, I still think nominee Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder” was very much his equal for his astounding comic work. And I still think Downey Jr. should have also been nominated for Best Actor for his work in “Iron Man” which elevated the stakes, and the pedigree, for comic book movies.

Following Ledger's tribute the “ Slumdog ” sweep continued, although I think “The Dark Knight” should have won for Best Film Editing, and if I had my way, split the Best Cinematography award as well (both “ Slumdog ” and “The Dark Knight” featured extraordinary camerawork). “ Slumdog ” became automatically popular in every competing category, and seemed like it could not lose.

The biggest contest of the night belonged to Sean Penn vs. Mickey Rourke for Best Actor. Penn's nuances in “Milk” were incredible, so was his compassion and empathy, but I figured there might be some prejudice against him winning for playing a gay character (I guess Hollywood is a much more open-minded society than I figured. Naïve me). But Rourke's performance for “The Wrestler” is simply the best performance I've seen cinematically since Nicolas Cage in “Leaving Las Vegas” 14 years ago, summoning power worthy of Brando or DeNiro in their heyday so I guess I couldn't imagine him not winning. The surprise winner, and upset, was ultimately Penn.

Leave to Penn to deliver an unconventional acceptance speech that reflects his politics: “I'm very proud to live in a country that is willing an elegant man as president, and a country for all its toughness creates courageous artists and this is in great due respect of all the nominees.” Penn continued by offering support for gay rights, “For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think this is a good time for them to reflect on their shame.” He finished by paying tribute to his main category opponent, “Mickey Rourke rises again and he is my brother.” Penn must have known that the votes for Rourke must have been very close. And therefore, it was tremendously classy for Penn to offer kind words to Rourke , an actor down-and-out who returned this year with an incomparable comeback performance.

The Best Actress award went to the deserving Kate Winslet for “The Reader,” which is almost funny that the distributor had mounted a campaign for her as Best Supporting Actress in the pre-season. (Supporting what?) That was simply a case of trying to get Winslet nominated for “Revolutionary Road” in the head category and a double nomination for Supporting in “The Reader.” Frankly, I would have been happy for Winslet winning for either film. “I want to say to the other nominees, I can't believe were nominated along Meryl Streep !” (Great Joke.) For once, Winslet was better than Streep and truly didn't have to adhere to modesty.

The Best Director award went to Danny Boyle for his virtuoso structuring and breathless pacing for “ Slumdog Millionaire,” and again, how could it not? Boyle began by jumping up and down. “My kids – I swore to them if this miracle ever happened, I would receive it in the spirit of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. You've been so generous towards us this evening… An extraordinary, beautiful show you've done this evening. I don't know what it looks like on television everybody, but in the room it's bloody wonderful really.” Boyle's other great films include “Sunshine,” “28 Days Later,” and “ Trainspotting ” yet none of those previous films had the proper Oscar ingredients. But Boyle finally got his due.

The least surprise of the night belonged to “Wall-E” for Best Animated Film. Did the other two nominees deserve to be mentioned in the same breath? The presentation of the award began with a montage of the year's remembrance in animated film, which assembled clips of far worst animated fare. Here we have the class act of “Wall-E” stuck amongst a bunch of inferior clips of way less worthy animated movies.

But maybe even less of a surprise was the Best Picture win for “ Slumdog Millionaire” which had won awards left and right up to that moment. But it was a glorious moment nonetheless. If it had lost, it would have been the biggest surprise since “Shakespeare in Love” took down “Saving Private Ryan” in 1998. Steven Spielberg happened to be the presenter to Danny Boyle & Company. Boyle called up the cast of Indian actors to the stage, and they seemed to be the happiest group of the night even though they wouldn't go home with any official statuettes. I'll list the other nominees in order of my preference: “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Reader,” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

What do the awards mean for “ Slumdog ?” Grossing $98 million to date, it will likely in prediction take home another $30 million theatrically. While it is a visually rich tapestry of impoverished but beautiful India, it also is such an accessible entertainment that doesn't alienate audiences unfamiliar with the country. It's a rousing Best Picture winner that has become the year's most beloved film, chock with an ending that leaves you thunderstruck. Storywise it also neatly packs in a promise that faith and goodwill reaps the greatest success in life, and of course such life-affirming merits made this film an Academy favorite. I am actually very happy with the last three year's winners for Best Picture, “The Departed,” “No Country for Old Men,” and “ Slumdog Millionaire” which are among the best films to ever win Best Picture. If it weren't for the omission of “The Dark Knight” as a Best Picture nominee, I'd almost say that the Academy Awards appears to know what it's doing.