I've been reading lukewarm reviews of last night's Oscars, which really surprises me. Maybe people are getting their reactions to the winners confused with their reactions to the show itself.

Hats off to Gil Cates (and there's something I never thought I'd say) for learning from his past mistakes! There were no pointless montages -- just the death roll and the necessary montages during the specially awarded Oscars. There were no separate, time-wasting dance segments; the few silly dance bits were included in the song performances. The score performance was classily done this year.

It was between 3:15 and 3:30 in length! Right there, a huge improvement. I've long said there's no earthly reason it can't be done in 3 hours, even with all the ads, and this is the closest they've come in years.

Steve Martin -- wow. Best host since Johnny Carson, maybe. Yes, Billy Crystal was fine for the first few years, but his schtick was old and repetitive in recent times. Martin was literate, smart, and just downright funny without being cynical, smirky, off-color, or mean, unlike most of the other recent hosts. I laughed more during his 10-minute monologue than I did during the entire Oscarcast last year. And the improvised bits (like with Tom Hanks and the kidnapping gag, or Danny DeVito and the dip) were all great.

The worst part of the ceremony was the opening bit leading to the astronauts. OK, I guess that did count as a pointless montage. And the song nominees -- my word, were those awful. Bjork may have achieved the impossible and done a song worse than Randy Nemwman's, though it's neck-and-neck there. Dylan's song was catchy and deserved to win, but for all I know it could have been a Satanic chant; I couldn't understand a word of it.

As to the winners: Gladiator is unquestionably the worst Best Picture winner in decades (beating out even Braveheart for that dubious honor). I was very disappointed that CTHD didn't take it home. There wasn't too much exciting -- the three big nominees split almost evenly (Gladiator 5 Oscars, Traffic 4, CTHD 4). But you can't expect exciting winners in an overall unexciting movie year.

Best speeches: Julia, of course, and the cinematographer who rattled off all those Asian names so quickly.

Best-dressed: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia, Benjamin Bratt, Julie Andrews, plenty of others. Worst (aside from Bjork) were Kate Hudson, Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise -- geez, guys, just get a basic tux that fits and groom yourselves, wouldja?

Overall grade: A-minus. Bring Steve Martin back again next year!

-- Trip