Despite being peppered with accolades for the serious teen drama The Fault in Our Stars and its thoughtful star Shailene Woodley, the 24th MTV Movie Awards still managed to provide several moments of silliness on Sunday, including a rump-shaking Channing Tatum and a scantily clad Rebel Wilson. As always, the prizes were secondary to the irreverence.
Downey’s The Man
Robert Downey Jr was enthusiastically presented with the Generation Award, the show's version of a lifetime achievement honour, by Earth's mightiest stars: his fellow cast mates from The Avengers. Downey's poignant acceptance speech, in which he recalled his struggles with drug addiction, was perhaps overshadowed by his awesome entrance. The star of the Iron Man movies emerged on the cartoon-themed stage from inside what he called a "massive, trippy cat head".
Twerking Tatum
After the hunky cast of Magic Mike XXL presented Jennifer Lopez with a trophy for her performance in the thriller The Boy Next Door, the American Idol judge prodded the guys to show off their dance moves. Without missing a beat, Tatum turned his back to the crowd and gyrated for Lopez. Unfortunately, neither his co-stars Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer and Adam Rodriguez, nor JLo, joined in. "Maybe next time," she teased.
Funny host
The first-time host Amy Schumer seemed to get positive reviews for her brand of squirmy humour. The stand-up comedian, who stars in Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow's forthcoming film Trainwreck, joked about California's water crisis, MTV and some of the year's biggest films. Of the Comedic Genius winner Kevin Hart, she said: "Do you know how many movies Kevin made this year? Two million. He made two million. Did you see Boyhood? He's the boy, age 9. He was the fake baby in American Sniper."
Cat’s miaow
The unlikely trio of Charli XCX, Ty Dolla $ign and Tinashe managed to drag in the show's most energetic routine with their fresh pop-rap collaboration Drop That Kitty. From behind an oversized inflatable guitar, Charli kicked off the performance backed by her all-girl band on Famous before she was joined for Drop That Kitty by Ty, Tinashe and a chorus line of female dancers clad in tight pink jumpsuits and cat-inspired hairdos. The new ditty had the Nokia Theatre crowd purring.
Spreading her wings
Rebel Wilson, who hosted the MTV Movie Awards in 2013, turned heads at this year's extravaganza when she joined her co-stars on stage dressed as a Victoria's Secret model – wings and all – to introduce a clip from their a cappella comedy sequel. The funny lady wasn't finished showing off, however. Wilson not-so-accidentally dropped the winner envelope on stage, prompting her to jokingly bend over and expose the word "THINK" scrawled across her form-fitting trousers.
From the Hart
The usually goofy Kevin Hart showed off his paternal side as he received the Comedic Genius award. The Ride Along funny man was joined on stage by his children, daughter Heaven and son Hendrix. Hendrix clutched his dad's golden popcorn-bucket trophy as Hart accepted the accolade, even though the tyke could barely lift it. Afterward, the Hart boys showed off a signature handshake that culminated with the duo cutely prancing around each other, drawing giggles from the audience.
