The Oscars came and went last weekend without any real upsets or surprises, except maybe for Whitney Houston’s absence from the musical lineup for reasons that are a little fuzzy.

Other than that, things went as planned, with “American Beauty” winning five awards, including Best Picture.

While the Oscars may be a good excuse for celebrities to get dressed up, have a night out and then get trashed by the fashion police the next day — not to mention cry like a baby if they win one of the awards — they are also good for something else.

They give the general viewing public an excuse to go out and see the movies that we wanted to see before the Oscars but never got around to going to.

After seeing the previews for “American Beauty” when it first opened, I knew it was a movie I wanted to go see. However, I didn’t.

I don’t really know why I didn’t go when it first opened. I could say I just didn’t have the time to go see it. That would be a lie, though, considering there was that one night I had plenty of time to go see “Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo.”

Not that I am saying anything bad about “Deuce Bigalow,” mind you. It was a fine piece of cinema. I did laugh a few times. It’s just that for some unknown reason that movie was put into a different category than Oscar-nominated movies like “The Sixth Sense,” “Boys Don’t Cry” or “American Beauty.”

Back to “American Beauty,” I don’t know why I didn’t go see it right away, but I used the Oscars as an excuse to go see it this weekend. I also used the fact that it was playing at the theater where it costs $4 for a student.

Apparently, I am not the only one who used this excuse.

The theater was practically full, which is really rare for a movie that has been out as long as this one has, with the possible exception of “Titanic.”

That movie was full even after months of being released.

Granted, the majority of the people who were at that movie months after it was released were people who had already seen it 12 times.

They were just hoping one day they would show up and there would be a “new” ending where Jack and Rose realize that if she moves over a little bit, there would have been plenty of room for both of them on the floating piece of wood.

Or maybe even Jack could have just got really fed up and pushed Rose off and saved himself.

Whoever is in charge of the previews before the movie was obviously counting on full theaters after the Oscars.

I believe I counted about 27 previews before the actual movie, but I walked in during the middle of one, so I don’t know how many they actually showed.

After about an hour of previews, they started showing the actual movie, which was pretty good itself.

It’s a different movie, which sometimes Oscar-nominated movies are, and probably isn’t for everyone.

But to people who are open to a movie that isn’t your classic love story, the way “Titanic” was, it was a really good flick.

Basically if you haven’t seen it, it is about a guy, Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey, who is having a little mid-life crisis.

Spacey, who won the Oscar for Best Actor for this part, steals every scene he is in, but everyone in the movie did a pretty good job, including Annette Bening, who plays Spacey’s wife.

However, she didn’t win the Oscar for Best Actress. Hillary Swank, who stars in “Boys Don’t Cry” did.

This movie was one of the 27 previews they showed before “American Beauty,” and it too looks like a really good movie.

Even though I haven’t seen “Boys Don’t Cry” yet, just from the previews, I am convinced that Swank’s performance was probably the best.

She really, really looks like a guy.

I am not talking about someone who pretty much could pass for a guy if she needed to.

I mean, if I had never watched “Beverly Hills, 90210” and saw her before and knew who see was, I would have really thought she was a guy.

That alone could convince anyone to give her the Oscar.

Well, that and the fact that if they gave it to Bening she might have given birth while thanking the Academy, and that might have gotten a little too messy.

The only disappointment, to me, of the evening was that the Best Supporting Actor award was not a tie between Michael Clarke Duncan from “The Green Mile” and the little boy from “The Sixth Sense.”

The little boy from “The Sixth Sense” is now his legal name — I think he had it changed.

So 50 years from now when he is an old man, in the credits, it will still read “The little boy from ‘The Sixth Sense.'”

My reasoning for wanting to see this happen was strictly for my own enjoyment rather than that I thought they were better than the guy who won.

I just wanted to see those two on stage next to each other trying to talk into the same microphone.

My advice to everyone is this: Use the recent Oscars as an excuse to go out while you should be studying.

It’s a good way to get a little relaxation in before finals, which are right around the corner.

And hey, if you go see “American Beauty,” you won’t even have to worry about being on time because you will have only missed three or four or 14 previews.

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Jenny Joanning is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Norwalk. See you at the movies.