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Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin: Hosting an impossible gig.

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Dear Mr. LaSalle: I was a bit surprised after reading that you found the Oscars “one of the better ones.” The hosts were fairly awful, the jokes flat, their interaction too staged and the tributes overly long. All in all, it was mediocre entertainment.

Ellen Gust, Palo Alto

Dear Ms. Gust: We don’t disagree. You say it was “mediocre entertainment,” and I say, hey, good deal, they raised the bar to mediocre. At this rate – sky’s the limit – next year’s show might even be pedestrian! This year, I guess I was just grateful that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose to remove the biggest device from its torture chamber, the performances of the nominated songs. You know how that goes: Three or four songs that are so bad that they make the bad Randy Newman songs sound like genius in comparison. Plus, I felt sorry for the hosts – I always do – having to play such a tough room. They stand up there making jokes about nervous people who are looking straight at them, in front of an audience trying to figure out if the jokes are funny or over the line. Oh, and every critic in the country is duty-bound to say that they were lousy in the next day’s paper. It’s just an impossible gig.

Hi Mick: I may have to stop watching movies and the Oscars, too, for choosing “The Hurt Locker” over “Avatar.” That choice was not only political, it was beyond ridiculous. What do you think?

Jean Lister, San Rafael

Hi Jean: I think it was a good choice, which in that category is unusual because, traditionally, best picture winners don’t age well – sometimes even a year later (“Crash,” “Slumdog Millionaire”) people wake up and think, “Huh?” “The Hurt Locker” is a fine movie, the best to come out of the Iraq war so far, perhaps not a great film, in that you sort of get the point inside an hour. But I’m quibbling here: It’s a good picture, and I’m glad it won. As for the choice being political, I really don’t see it. Aside from a small percentage of liberals who mistake it for a pro-war statement, the film appeals to people across the political spectrum: A lot of conservatives like it because they don’t quite get that it’s a critique of the warrior personality, and most liberals like it because it’s saying things that they approve of. Or, by political, do you mean politics within the academy? Even then, “The Hurt Locker” made very little money at the box office, and “Avatar” has made a ton. If it were political, the academy would have followed the money.

Dear Mick LaSalle: Thanks to the Internet, I saw a superb French film, “Les Soeurs Fвchйes,” and recommended it to friends. However, they are unable to get the DVD anywhere. Have you seen it? Any reason why this film is unavailable?

Ethel Ruymaker, Oakland

Dear Ethel Ruymaker: It’s a very funny movie. It’s not available here because very few foreign films make it to DVD. However, you can get it as an Australian import under the title “Me and My Sister.” To watch it, though, you’ll need an all-regions DVD player, which costs about $50. Of course, once you have the player, the world is yours.

Dear Mick: I actually agreed with you about women’s capabilities of fixing men. But then I started thinking of my friends and realized how often that doesn’t work. Maybe a better (reason that casting directors are usually women) is the number of successful women in human resources positions.

Steve Thrush, Berkeley

Dear Steve: Sometimes you see guys wearing clothes combinations and think no woman would have ever let them out of the house like that. I agree that you can’t fix somebody for things like temperament or character, but for external things like diet, haircut and clothing, a woman has a fighting chance.

Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchroncle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. On SFGate To hear Ask Mick LaSalle with commentary, trivia and lots of extras, download his podcast at sfgate.com/podcasts.

This article appeared on page Q – 24 of the San Francisco Chronicle