Sunday night featured the premiere of the fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones and the premiere of another show about people maneuvering for power, the MTV movie awards. The telecast was hosted by comedian Amy Shumer and like any MTV award show, had some memorable moments.
Shailene Woodley Wins Everything
Woodley might as well have hosted the ceremony with how many times she was on stage. First, the actress accepted the award for Best Female Performance for her role as Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars and made the books author, John Green, cry during her speech. Woodley then accepted this year’s Trailblazer award, presented to her by her former costar and ongoing friend Miles Teller. In her speech, she alluded to former recipient Emma Stone’s speech, although she stumbled a little, but the overall message was that she wouldn’t be accepting the award without the “pillars” of her “community.”
Iron Man Gets the Generation Award
Robert Downey Jr. was presented the Generation Award by his costars Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Mark Ruffalo, who all kneeled while Downey Jr. said his speech. During the speech, the actor chronicled his life since the MTV movie award’s birth in 1992 by saying he had “squandered, resisted, surrendered, repented, and labored” and advised the audience to “dream big, work hard, keep your nose clean.” Before leaving the stage, the group presented a clip from the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron, in theaters May 1st.
Vin Diesel Sings
Before presenting aforementioned Woodley with the Best Female Performance award, the Furious 7 actor sang some lines from the Paul Walker tribute song “See You Again.”
Amy Shumer’s Jokes
The host held nothing back with her opening monologue or with anything else she said for the remainder of the telecast. She made fun of MTV’s shows, of members of the audience, and of herself. Shumer was also unabashed about making innuendoes – she said one of her superpowers was having no gag reflex and made an entire skit as an ode to self pleasure. Her funniest moment came with the pre-taped sketch compilation of her “auditions” for some of this year’s top movies: she auditioned for Foxcatcher as if it were about actually hunting foxes, imitated the casting director for the The Imitation Game, and painted her body in purple roof paint and got lead poisoning for Guardians of the Galaxy. Shumer can be seen in her Comedy Central show, Inside Amy Shumer, or this summer in her first feature length film, Trainwreck.
Many Mash-ups
The ceremony’s musical entertainment came supplied first with Fall Out Boy’s “Centuries,” which got the audience excited, and then rapper Fetty Wap emerged and performed his song “Trap Queen” alongside the band, even having a duet with FOB’s Patrick Stump. Another mash-up came from Charli XCX, who began with her own song “Famous,” before being joined onstage by Tinashe and rapper Ty Dolla $ign for a performance of “Drop That Kitty.”
Zac and Dave Can’t Behave
Neighbors costars Zac Efron and Dave Franco picked up the award for Best Duo – dressed as Robert De Niro characters. Efron was dressed as De Niro’s character Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, minus a shirt underneath his jacket, and Franco came as Jack Bymes from Meet the Fockers. Franco opened Efron’s already fairly opened jacket and exposed the actor’s abs – flashback to when the same happened to Efron at last year’s award show- and tweaked his nipples, which caused Efron to reach for Franco’s crotch.
Kisses and Misses
There was a point in the telecast when a Revlon sponsored kiss cam made it’s way through the audience, but stopped at where host Amy Shumer and model Amber Rose were seated and a kiss ensued. Later, Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara were onstage to present Best Kiss but Vergara, jokingly, thought that they were accepting the award. The joke felt flat and got more awkward when Vergara spoke about how many times they practiced kissing for their new movie, Hot Pursuit, and just in the car on the way to the show. The award ultimately was given to Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, who wasn’t there to accept.
Jimmy Kimmel has no Hart
While presenting Kevin Hart with the Comedic Genius award, the talk show host made sure to roast the comedian by calling him “Eddie Smurphy,” “Cedric the Entertiny,” a raisinet, and pointing out the small height difference between Hart and his kids, who he brought with him onstage to accept the award. The comedian was serious in his speech, saying that the reason he works so hard is for his kids, who he’s trying to “leave a legacy” for.
Maybe MTV Will be our Always
The nights biggest award, Movie of the Year, went to The Fault in Our Stars. The book’s author, along with its stars (Shailene Woodley, Natt Wolff) and director Josh Boone, took to the stage but the author, John Green, took to the microphone. Green paid homage to the cancer-stricken teen, Esther Earl, who served as inspiration for the novel: “She taught me that people who are living with a disability are not defined by those disabilities and that the lives of people who are living with illness or disability are just as interesting and complicated and beautiful and interesting as any other lives.” Green’s other novel, Paper Towns, will also make its big screen debut this summer.
Overall, the award show succeeded in what MTV hoped it would do: feature moments that people would talk about for the ongoing week.
