The nominations for The 35th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards (a.k.a. “The Razzies”) are in, and this time they’re a little bit different. The Razzies have introduced an all-new category – The Razzie Redeemer Award – which would honor the former winner/nominee who turned their career around since getting singled out by the awards body for doing terrible work.
While we applaud the Razzies for adding a hint of positivity to their otherwise cynical yearly awards, it’s important to point out that the Razzie Redeemer Award is still a swipe at the nominees. “You used to suck,” they seem to say. “And now you don’t.”
Related: The 35th Annual Razzies Target Kirk Cameron, ‘Transformers’
But what about the Razzies themselves? Like every awards body their history is filled with “winners” which don’t feel right in retrospect. Just like when the Oscars snubbed Citizen Kane for How Green Was My Valley, or The Social Network in favor of The King’s Speech, we think there are plenty of examples of when the Razzies picked the films that were simply popular at the time (or rather, popular to hate), instead of the actual worst motion pictures or performances that were nominated.
So here are CraveOnline’s picks for The 13 Times The Razzies Got It Wrong. We’re going to stick our necks out for some serious underdogs here, not necessarily because they were great (although some of them were perfectly decent), but because their fellow nominees were so very much worse.
The 13 Times The Razzies Got It Wrong:
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
13 Times the Razzie Awards Got It Wrong
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Worst Picture: Cocktail (1988)
It Wasn't Worse Than: Caddyshack II or Mac and Me
Although Roger Donaldson's film was a silly attempt to do for bartending what Top Gun did for the Navy (and why he even tried, we have no idea), this forgettable drama is a damn sight better than some of the other nominees for Worst Picture in 1988. Caddyshack II is the worst kind of sequel, obnoxious and repetitive, and Mac and Me has since gone on to be hailed as one of the worst films of all time.
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Worst Actor: Kevin Costner in Wyatt Earp (1994)
He Wasn't Worse Than: Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground
Kevin Costner was, like most Razzie Award winners, an easy target when the overlong, relatively disappointing Wyatt Earp came out, but the problems with the movie had little to do with his performance. The Razzie Awards saw this film and Steven Seagal's embarrassing turn in On Deadly Ground (embarrassing, that is, even for Steven Seagal) and either thought Costner was worse, proving they have terrible taste, or that he was just more popular to hate that year. Somehow, Wyatt Earp also won Worst Remake or Sequel over Beverly Hills Cop III, City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold and The Flintstones.
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Worst Supporting Actress: Madonna in Four Rooms (1995)
She Wasn't Worse Than: Amy the Talking Gorilla in Congo
Madonna is another popular punching bag for the Razzie Awards, having won seven Razzies so far (including Worst Actress of the Century), but singling her out for a Supporting Actress Award for Four Rooms was a cheap shot. She's barely in the movie, and her performance is perfectly decent. And saying she was worse than the god awful talking gorilla in Congo is just stupid and cruel.
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Worst Actress: Demi Moore in G.I. Jane
She Wasn't Worse Than: Sandra Bullock in Speed 2: Cruise Control or Fran Drescher in The Beautician and the Beast
It wasn't the hit or even the meaningful drama it was trying to be, but giving Demi Moore a Worst Actress Award for Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane is grossly unfair. She gives a solid performance in the film as the first female Navy SEAL, and was far, far better than Sandra Bullock in the sequel to Speed or Fran Drescher, playing a somewhat shriller version of herself.
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Worst Screen Couple: Leonardo DiCaprio as Twins in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
He Wasn't Worse Than: Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler in Armageddon or any combination of two people playing themselves in An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn
Immediately after Titanic, many were sick and tired of the praise heaped upon the multiple Oscar winner, and giving Leonardo DiCaprio a Razzie Award probably seemed like a soothing balm. It's too bad for the Razzies that he doesn't actually give a bad performance in the film as identical twins, or even appear opposite himself for more than a few minutes, making the "Screen Couple" nomination feel completely inappropriate. In contrast, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler really didn't have much chemistry in Armageddon, and the ensemble cast of An Alan Smithee Film really were quite terrible.
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Worst Director: Gus Van Sant for Psycho (1998)
He Wasn't Worse Than: Roland Emmerich for Godzilla or Alan Smithee (a.k.a. Arthur Hiller) for An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn
Lots of critics and audiences missed the point of Gus Van Sant's experimental, nearly shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, so we're not surprised that the Razzies did too. It was argued that despite using all of Hitchcock's techniques, Van Sant's film came up short, but that was the whole rationale: to explore the ineffable artistic quality of filmmaking. A little highbrow for the Razzies, of course, but even on those terms it's unmistakably a better directing job than fellow nominees Roland Emmerich and Arthur Hiller (as Alan Smithee).
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Worst Actress: Heather Donahue in The Blair Witch Project (2000)
She Wasn't Worse Than: Melanie Griffith in Crazy in Alabama or Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment and The Haunting
None of the Worst Actress nominees in 2000 were really all THAT bad, but singling out Heather Donahue for her performance in The Blair Witch Project was unfair. Before the movie got overhyped, and therefore failed to live up to unnecessarily meteoric audience expectations, she was receiving solid reviews for her realistic performance as a documentary filmmaker falling prey to her supernatural subject. She deserves some credit for helping The Blair Witch Project become the influential success that it is.
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Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D: The Last Airbender (2010)
It Wasn't Worse Than: Clash of the Titans
We're not going to argue The Last Airbender's many other Razzie wins (because it really is a terrible movie), but Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D? Maybe, if Clash of the Titans wasn't also nominated. The shoddy, rushed post-production 3D on Clash of the Titans is still considered a low water mark for the technology, and it remains an industry and audience punchline for just how awful 3D can be.
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Razzie Sweep: 6 Wins for Mommie Dearest (1982)
It Wasn't Worse Than: Endless Love or The Legend of the Lone Ranger
When The Razzies decide to make a statement, they vote for a sweep. Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway as troubled actress and abusive mother Joan Crawford, was singled out for Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Screenplay and eventually the Worst Picture of the 1980s. But the film's campy qualities only exist in a vacuum. It's actually a strong motion picture about an over the top person, and all the scenes people make fun of are genuinely scary in context. There were worse films nominated in 1982, and there were a hell of a lot worse films that came out in the 1980s.
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Razzie Sweep: 8 Wins for Showgirls (1996)
It Wasn't Worse Than: Congo, It's Pat: The Movie or The Scarlet Letter
If you want to argue that Showgirls is a bad movie, we won't stop you. Certainly it's not a "good" movie, although it's earned its fair share of ironic and unironic devotees in the years since it won Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Screen Couple (for any combination of two people, or two body parts), Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star and Worst Song. And it was a damn sight better, or at least more fun to watch, than fellow nominees Congo, It's Pat: The Movie or the truly awful adaptation of the truly classic The Scarlet Letter. And its win for Worst Picture of the Decade, over The Postman and An Alan Smithee Film no less, is yet another low blow from the Razzies.
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Razzie Sweep: 8 Wins for I Know Who Killed Me (2008)
It Wasn't Worse Than: Bratz, Daddy Day Camp, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry or Norbit
One of the many punchlines for Lindsay Lohan's tragic career was I Know Who Killed Me, an ambitious and surreal psychological thriller starring Lohan in a dual role. Most people hate it without having actually seen it, and most people who have seen it seemed to have missed the point. The Razzies awarded it Worst Remake or Rip-Off, citing Hostel, Saw and of all things "The Patty Duke Show"), but it's actually a pretty spot-on homage to the colorful, dreamlike Italian gialli thrillers from Dario Argento, Mario Bava, et al. Chris Sivertson's film also won Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Lindsay Lohan tied with herself), Worst Screen Couple (Lindsay Lohan and Lindsay Lohan, who barely appear on screen together), Worst Director and even Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie, over such wretched fellow nominees as Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem and Hannibal Rising. Say it's a bad movie if you must (we won't), but don't pretend it's worse than Bratz or Norbit.
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Razzie Sweep: 7 Wins for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2013)
It Wasn't Worse Than: The Oogieloves in The Big Balloon Adventure, That's My Boy or A Thousand Words
It took five films for the Razzies to finally notice just how popular/unpopular the blockbuster Twilight movies were, and they responded with one last-ditch Razzie Awards sweep, dishonoring practically everyone involved in Breaking Dawn - Part 2. The damnedest thing is, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is probably the best (or at least most entertaining) movie in the series, with a schadenfreude finale that left Twi-Hards in tears, signaling with a knowing wink to the franchise's detractors that filmmaker Bill Condon knew exactly what he was doing, and was just having fun with a very silly story. The Razzies could have bestowed its awards on pretty much any other film in the series and gotten no complaints from us, but giving Breaking Dawn - Part 2 eight awards, over the despicable That's My Boy and the baffling Oogieloves no less, was the wrong way to go.
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Worst Actor of the Century: Sylvester Stallone
He Wasn't Worse Than: Pauley Shore
When the Razzie Awards decided to name The Worst Actor of the 20th Century, we all knew they would go for the low-hanging fruit. But for some reason they picked on Sylvester Stallone, an actor who - admittedly - has appeared in a lot of terrible films but who has also given some fantastic performances in films like Rocky, First Blood and Copland. Pauley Shore was also nominated, and whether or not you think he's funny, you have to admit he's never done anything even remotely on par with Rocky. Or even Demolition Man.
