10 Best and Worst Moments From the 2014 MTV Movie Awards
Has it really been 22 years since MTV started handing out golden-popcorn statuettes for Best Screen Kiss, Best Fight and Best Shirtless Performance? How time flies when you're watching Transformers movies win accolades. The populist alternative to the usual awards-season black-tie affairs, the MTV Movie Awards has always prided itself on being a for-the-people show, paying lip service to summer blockbusters and OMG moments that make younger filmgoers go ape.
Watch the '50 Celebrity Cameos' Intro to the 2014 MTV Movie Awards
While we shed a tear for our favorite awards that have been put out to pasture (R.I.P., Best Sandwich in a Movie Award), the 2014 edition and host Conan O'Brien delivered everything we expected from the gloriously giddy ceremony. Here are the highlights and the low points of this year's broadcast.
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BEST: The ’50 Celebrity Cameos’ Intro
So Jean-Claude Van Damme allegedly got eight celebrity cameos back in 1992? That's nothing: When you're Conan O'Brien, you can easily get 50 famous faces to drop by. It was an ingenious way to bring star power into the mix from the get-go, with everybody from Skrillex to Grumpy Cat to Tom Arnold (who only barely squeaks by as a celebrity) getting shanghai-ed by O'Brien. The MVP award goes to either Taylor Swift, who endures Conan's awkward flirting during a manicure, or Jack Nicholson's middle finger. Check it out.
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BEST: Conan’s Monologue
"Welcome to the Satanic Cult Awards, ladies and gentlemen! All hail the Dark Lord!" Most people thought MTV would have gone with somebody younger and more hip for the host this year; instead, they opted for funny and irreverent, and it paid off. After opening with a series of one-two zingers about the Showgirls-like set ("Kids, don't do drugs and go into set design"; "This stage doubles as a commercial for Adderall") and moaning about performing for Grumpy Cat (sporting a cat-sized Pharrell hat), he whizzed through a series of Vine-video versions of the Best Picture nominees and a "Best KissFight" sketch co-starring Will Arnett. Well-played, at least until….
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WORST: Conan’s Opening Song
…He decided to sing an unfunny song about how he wasn't there to sing a song. Not even a guitar descending from the ceiling, Workaholics' Adam Devine and a gospel choir could save this D.O.A. bit.
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WORST: Amanda Seyfried Presenting the Best Comedic Performance
Maybe we can blame her stilted delivery on the fact that she forgot her contacts, as she mentioned onstage. Maybe it was just a lack of chemistry with her co-presenter Seth MacFarlane, who doubled up on the charm to make up for Seyfried's awkwardness. Either way, it was painful to witness her floundering onstage. "So far, this is going just like the Oscars," MacFarlane joked, referring to his stint as the host of the Academy Awards in 2013. Okay, so compared to that debacle, this wasn't that bad — but it was close.
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BEST: Jonah Hill Hijacking Channing Tatum’s ‘Trailblazer’ Award
Hill had already picked up the golden-popcorn statuette earlier for Best Comedic Performance (for his turn in The Wolf of Wall Street), but his introduction of his 21 Jump Street costar for the honorary "Trailblazer" award was one of the truly best comedic performances of the night. "I forgot to thank two people that were very important [to me]," he said, "Pitbull y Kesha." After that semi-bilingual non sequitur, he dropped the bomb: "Think about the idea of a trailblazer: A super good-looking guy who becomes the lead in movies. That is an amazing trailblaze! What's a more trailblazing experience than a fucking gorgeous man becoming a movie star?" It was affectionate and sarcastic and hilarious.
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WORST: Twenty One Pilots Performing ‘Car Radio’
The Columbus, Ohio duo performed their hit song in front of an audience wearing ski masks — an oddly compelling, vaguely Pussy Riot-ish move that did nothing to hide the fact that their "hip-hop inflected synth-pop" tune is both tepid hip-hop and lukewarm synth-pop. Come back, Macklemore, all is forgiven.
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BEST: The Paul Walker In-Memorium Segment
Walker was a staple of the Fast & Furious franchise and a marquee name for Movie Awards' viewers — so it was fitting that this was the awards show that gave the late actor a proper tribute. His Furious co-star Jordana Brewster introduced the segment by talking about Walker's wit and generosity of spirit; in between clips of his films, Vin Diesel spoke of his close bond with the star, and how his philanthropy and charity work was inspirational. This is a show that prides itself on being a giddy, fluffy alternative to the 456 other awards shows out there, but this moving goodbye proved that the show could go deep when the occasion called for it.
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BEST: Mark Wahlberg Dropping F-Bombs
MTV calls it the "Generation" award, designed to honor the stars who've been delighting the MTV Movie Awards demographic for a while. This year's recepient Mark Wahlberg had another name for it: "This is the 'you're-too-fucking-old-to-come-back' award!" After cracking wise about being a former 'one-rap-hit wonder,' not being Channing Tatum, and the fact that he was making Ted 2, Wahlberg dropped a few more f-bombs ("I married a Victoria's Secret model…I don't know how the fuck that happened") and gave a shout-out to the fact that it was Palm Sunday. It hit all the right fucking notes, this speech.
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BEST: Eminem and Rihanna Performing ‘Monster’
MTV had been hyping the fact that the duo would be performing their hit "Monster" on TV for the first time, and the performance lived up to the hype: After some dodgy sound problems got fixed after Eminem first took the stage, the hip-hop legend and the R&B star tore into this song with a livewire intensity. You're used to seeing these kinds of performances at the VMAs, not the Movie Awards; it was the musical highlight of the night.
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WORST: Ellie Goulding and Zedd Performing ‘Beating Heart’
Zzzzzz….