Dion TohThe MTV Movie Awards 2014 has come and gone but fan girls all over the world are still reeling from Zac Efron’s abs. What exactly went down and dirty during the star-studded night? UrbanWire gives you the lowdown (pun intended) after attending the live screening at MTV Asia’s office. 
Like the American Music Awards where Adam Lambert was flamed for performing tongue acrobatics with his keyboardist, you could sense the narrative for award shows these days – they just got bolder and bolder.
Indeed, the MTV Movie Awards (MMA) wasn’t afraid of being even more risqué and bizarre. This was made apparent when host Conan O’Brien opened the stage with this memorable line: “Welcome to the Satanic Cult Awards everyone! All hail the dark lord!” in reference to the not-so-holy-looking sets on stage.
The freak show continued with Johnny Depp in an eccentric outfit, Grumpy Cat in attendance, O’Brien’s 6-second vine movie recaps, and a cleverly disguised product placement for Pepsi (okay, the last one didn’t really make sense but who cares?).
The awards kicked off proper with Jared Leto taking home the “Best On-screen Transformation” for his role as a transvestite woman in Dallas Buyers Club – nobody would forget his sans-eyebrows look in a long time, and neither would we forget how well he played the role. Other awards included Mila Kunis for “Best Villain”, Jennifer Lawrence for “Best Female Performance” and Jonah Hill for “Best Comedic Performance”. In a surprising turnabout, Will Poulter emerged king in a battle of steamy onscreen romance – the “Best Kiss” award went to him for his adorably confused face while trading kisses with Jennifer Aniston and Emma Roberts in We’re The Millers.
In what was perhaps the most surprising stunt of the night (or not, it was after all an award for shirtless-ness), Rita Ora did the world a favor when she rushed on stage and pulled off Zac Efron’s shirt while he was accepting the “Best Shirtless” Performance award. Efron then gamely took the rest of the shirt off, and his speech ended just about there. A picture is worth a thousand words, but his impressive musculature is worth a million eyeballs on screen.
The kid-unfriendly awards continued with Mark Wahlberg giving the bleeper in a vulgarity-fueled speech. Even Johnny Knoxville looked impressed, and that’s no mean feat. Mark ultimately winded it down with a comparatively docile, “I love the lord, I love you guys, I love my wife and my family, thank you guys.”
However, there were misses during the event as well. The 21 Pilots and Rihanna x Eminem performances sounded garbled, and the puppy showcase during the pre-show felt inappropriate.
On the bright side, the show was consistently humorous throughout, and struck a great balance between entertainment and the integrity of the awards themselves. Perhaps the only way for MTV to top this year’s great show would be for Zac to lose his bottoms next year.
Photos Courtesy of MTV, Christopher Polk and Jason Merritt