Oscars 2014 Analysis: Best & Worst Moments at the Academy Awards

The Academy Awards always features numerous high and low moments. Here are the best and worst moments of the 2014 Awards show.

Worst Moments

Jim Carey came onstage seemingly ready to add more hilarity to an already comic evening. But his attempts at humor fell flat. At one point he turned to Bruce Dern and seemingly attempted to re-enact a moment from Dern's previous performances. Unfortunately he looked like he was trying too hard, particularly while communicating directly with Bruce Dern. It didn't help that Carey was introducing one of the superhero tributes, another major low of the night.

Another horrid moment arrived when Harrison Ford came onstage to heroic music from "Indiana Jones" to present the first three Best Picture nominees. But his performance was far from heroic. Han Solo himself stumbled over words, looked uninterested and seemed to open his eyes uncomfortably wide (was he on something?). It was easily one of the most embarrassing moments in the entire evening.

Kim Novak's appeared on stage alongside Matthew McConaughey to present the short animated film award and animated feature film. However, the iconic actress from Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" seemed a bit out of place. Her attempt to add suspense to the announcement of "Frozen" as the animated feature unfortunately flopped.

Idina Menzel's performance of her song "Let it Go" for "Frozen" was far from the singer's best moments. Her high notes sounded screamed and she looked nervous throughout. Regardless, the song won.

We all know he's quirky, but who exactly was Spike Jonze thanking in his acceptance speech for best original screenplay for "Her?" It was a rather strange speech.

Best Moments

Jared Leto got the evening started with a stirring speech in which he thanked his mother. Near the end of the night his co-star from "Dallas Buyers Club," Matthew McConaughey, gave a master class in oration. His speech, while not as stirring as Leto's calls to the Ukraine and Venezuela, was organized and created tremendous suspense as he revealed the person he looks up to, the people he looks forward to, and the person he chases.

Ellen Degeneres was a terrific host throughout, even if she admittedly lost steam near the end. She got the night started with a series of terrific jokes (one in which she stated that if "12 Years a Slave" did not win then the Academy would be considered racist and another in which she joked about Jonah Hill's genitals). She took a picture with a number of major movie stars with the aim of beating a Twitter record for most reTweets—which she did. But her best moment involved pizza. She walked about asking the audience if they were hungry and then promised to order pizza. That joke was funny on its own but later she actually walked onstage with a pizza deliveryman and proceeded to serve pizza to numerous hungry stars. In the final act of the joke she went around collecting money (and Lupita Nyong'o's lip balm).

Other notable moments featured one of the recipients from the documentary "20 Feet From Stardom" singing as part of the acceptance speech.

The winners of the "Frozen" song "Let it Go" also delivered a short, sweet and rhyming speech that was quite tender in its execution.

What do you think were the best and worst moments at the Oscars?