Conan O’Brien, Sam Claflin and Josh Hutcherson were among those who actually showed up at the MTV Movie Awards.
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Sunday night, the annual MTV Movie Awards, this year hosted by Conan O’Brien, did their duty of feting the movies that real people like, distinguishing themselves from those snooty Oscars and Golden Globes types, who celebrate ivory tower accomplishments like “American Hustle,” “12 Years a Slave” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The more down-to-earth committee at MTV, by contrast, nominated for “Movie of the Year” — not FILM; MOVIE — such motion pictures as “American Hustle,” “12 Years a Slave” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Of course, they bestowed that award upon “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” which also nabbed trophies for Best Female Performance (Jennifer Lawrence) and Best Male Performance (Josh Hutcherson). The first “Hunger Games” did not win the prize in 2012, which instead went to another YA titan, the penultimate “Twilight” film. This also marked the third time in a row that Lawrence won her award. She didn’t show up. Another big winner for the night was “We’re the Millers,” a surprise summer hit that perhaps you already forgot existed. Very talented supporting player Will Poulter — check him as a kid in “Son of Rambow” — pulled an upset by nabbing the Best Breakthrough Performance from “Fruitvale Station”’s Michael B. Jordan. Poulter had to share another trophy, for Best Kiss, with Jennifer Aniston and Emma Roberts, beating out such momentous snogs as the one between Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence in “American Hustle” and James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson in “Spring Breakers.” Adding to the mischaracterization of “The Wolf of Wall Street” as a comedy, Jonah Hill won for Best Comedic Performance, beating out such competition as Kevin Hart in “Ride Along” and Johnny Knoxville beneath pounds of old person makeup in “Bad Grandpa.” Most awards bodies don’t have a “Best Scared-as-S— Performance” category, but that went to Brad Pitt for “World War Z,” even though he technically spent most of the film so calm and three-day-bearded that it was parodied on “South Park.” Most also don’t have a “Best WTF Moment,” which went to “The Wolf of Wall Street”’s lude set piece, and not, alas, the even more powerfully “WTF” scene in “The Counselor” in which Cameron Diaz has sexual intercourse with a car. (Incidentally, say what you will about these awards, but MTV gave the very brilliant “The Wolf of Wall Street” two more trophies than did the Oscars.) The loose category subjects can sometimes lead to a cheapening of serious subject matter, as witness Michael Fassbender’s turn as a sniveling, sadistic plantation owner in “12 Years a Slave” being lumped in for “Best Villain” with Benedict Cumberbatch in “Star Trek Into Darkness” and Donald Sutherland in “The Hunger Games.” In any case, apparently the MTV committee didn’t think a man who beats humans he owns as property was as fearsome as the winner, namely Mila Kunis’ broken-hearted witch in “Oz the Great and Powerful.” Also among the non-traditional awards were the vague “Trailblazer Award,” which went to Channing Tatum in the year he had his first two flops (“Side Effects” and “White House Down”) since his ascent to the A-list;and the Generation Award, which we’re assuming translates into “You’re Actually Old” and which went to Mark Wahlberg. Throughout the show, calculated pre-planned mayhem followed, like Zac Efron — while accepting the prize for Best Shirtless Performance for “That Awkward Moment” —getting his shirt ripped off, and host O’Brien interrupting a long speech by flashing a giant censored photo of his ween. The complete winners go as follows: Movie of the year: “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” Best female performance: Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” Best male performance: Josh Hutcherson, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” Breakthrough performance: Will Poulter, “We’re the Millers” Best kiss: Emma Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Will Poulter, “We’re the Millers” Best fight: Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly vs. Orcs, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Best comedic performance: Jonah Hill, “The Wolf of Wall Street” Best scared-as-s— performance: Brad Pitt, “World War Z” Best on-screen duo: Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, “Fast & Furious 6” Best shirtless performance: Zac Efron, “That Awkward Moment” #WTF moment: The lude scene, “The Wolf of Wall Street” Best villain: Mila Kunis, “Oz The Great and Powerful” Best on-screen transformation: Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club” Best musical moment: Backstreet Boys, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen and Craig Robinson perform in heaven, “This is the End” Best cameo performance: Rihanna, “This is the End” Best hero: Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, “Man of Steel” Trailblazer award: Channing Tatum Generation award: Mark Wahlberg Follow Matt Prigge on Twitter @mattprigge
