Razzie time again! I was a bit delayed releasing this due to work, but that allowed me to hopefully avoid another embarrassing incident like with my last one, as I will mention soon. As with my previous two posts, I plan to analyse every single recipient of these "awards" as well as give my thoughts on whether they deserved them or not. I saw the many guesses that people had made as to which films would be nominated - some of the ones I'll be mentioning were expected, but others came off as a surprise.
Before I start reviewing though, I would like to discuss two things from last year's post.
The first is the business with Bruce Willis' award. A whole category was set up for all the dreadful movies he was part of in 2021, due to there being so many. However, it was discovered afterwards that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia and the "award" was rendered null and void in response. I honestly think this was the best course of action. Sure, the movies are still horrible and I cannot believe that so many could have been made in one year, but if his illness affected his acting, it shouldn't be right to hand him an "award" that makes fun of him. Especially since the disease affects his cognitive abilities such as language and speech.
The second is about a case of bad timing on my part, specifically with regard to Will Smith winning the Razzie Redeemer award for King Richard. You see, I made sure that the article was up in the afternoon just after the Razzies were announced - in fact, I wrote a lot of the article before the Razzie winners were announced, with the appropriate edits being made afterwards. Keep in mind that the Razzies get announced the night before the Oscars. I wrote quite a glowing piece on how King Richard was a redeeming moment for Will Smith and that he was the favourite of the awards season and how hopefully his career wouldn't go downhill again in the future...
...And then at the Oscars, he bitch slapped Chris Rock onstage for making fun of his wife and got kicked out of the Academy as a result. Honestly, my views on it are very mixed. On the one hand, I don't think much of Chris Rock anyway. When he was at the Oscars last time, he made a derogatory comment about voice acting and how it was so easy, even though in reality it's an entirely different beast when compared to onscreen acting. If anything, I think it's harder due to having to focus more on the voice than anything else and some people who are brilliant on-screen actors like Sandra Bullock don't do so well with the voice-acting part. The tasteless alopecia joke was simply a new low for Rock, even if the rumours that he didn't know about Jada Pinkett-Smith's alopecia condition turn out to be true. Considering he made jokes about her before, I think he just has a really misguided conception that since they were together in Madagascar, it gives him the right to joke about her. And it doesn't help that some people were all like "it's just a joke, why do you have to be offended?", even though alopecia is a genuinely serious condition that can really play havoc with your self-esteem.
On the other hand though, don't slap someone live on TV like that. Everyone else was already moaning and showing distaste for the joke, so in hindsight the slap wasn't really necessary. All it ended up doing was overshadowing the rest of the night, which saw some surprisingly diverse films and actors win for once - kind of a surprise considering how the Oscars has a pretty poor diversity track record. And as much as I look down on Rock at times, he actually did recover well from that incident. Word of advise for next time someone makes a tasteless joke about your wife at an award ceremony - either make a snide comment in response to the joke without any swearing, or better yet, wait until you get your award and then make a joke about him in response. NEVER bring physical violence into the equation.
Anyway, now I've got those two points out of the way, it's time to look at the categories from this year's ceremony!
Worst Picture - Blonde.
From everything I saw, Morbius was THE biggest contender for Razzie nominations, and it of course got nominated for this category, along with four others. The nominee in this category with the most nominations overall (eight in total) is Blonde, another exploitative movie in the same vein as The Haunting of Sharon Tate that this time focuses on Marilyn Monroe - like Morbius, it was also highly expected to get nominated in the first place. Another major contender is Disney's live-action remake of Pinnochio, which one of my friends (a major Disney fan) stopped watching after ten minutes due to how awful it was - it was also nominated for five other categories. Next is The King's Daughter, a bizarre film about King Louis XIII capturing a mermaid for the sake of gaining immortality (a thing that makes sense in you understand Japanese mermaid folklore, but doesn't work here) - "fortunately" for it, it has only received two other nominations. Finally, there's Good Mourning, a Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun "stoner comedy" project that scored 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and received six other nominations here.
This year, Blonde took the win for Worst Picture. It's an interesting win, as while it still has a Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it isn't that low compared to some of the other films on the list. Plus, I know that a lot of people were banking on Morbius to win overall. But it's still a well-deserved win for Blonde - it's shallow, exploitative and sexist, with the message it tries to send out ringing hypocritical in the process. At least Morbius is an enjoyable film to watch despite its flaws, mainly in the "so bad it's good" manner. I remember a few people who would have preferred the equally offensive Haunting to have won over Cats a few years ago due to them seeing the latter as "so bad, it's good", but the similarities between Haunting and Blonde mean that this essentially makes up for that.
My main offense is that both the 365 Days sequels are not in this category, despite people highly suspecting they would be, due to them being tasteless sequels to an already tasteless movie that glorifies trafficking and sexual abuse. Oh well, at least it was nominated for two other categories, which I'll get to later. And Blonde is just as sexist and exploitative as well, so that also makes up for the absence.
Worst Director - Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun for Good Mourning.
Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun receive a joint nomination for directing Good Mourning. As for solo nominations, Andrew Dominik is nominated for directing Blonde, Daniel Espinosa is nominated for directing Morbius and Robert Zemeckis (whose career has really gone down the tubes in recent years) is nominated for directing Disney's Pinocchio. Another interesting to note is that Judd Apatow, most known for successful comedies such as Superbad, Pineapple Express, Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Funny People, has been nominated for The Bubble, which may be one of his first major missteps. Of course in the past, he was nominated for a Stinker's Bad Movie Awards for his screenplay for the mediocre Fun with Dick and Jane remake in 2005 and was placed in the Hall of Shame in 2009 by the Women Film Critics Circle Awards due to his questionable ways of portraying women in his films, but this is his first ever Razzie nomination.
MGK and Mod Sun "enjoyed" a joint win for this category. The whole movie comes across as some dire vanity project which doesn't even come across as the comedy that it's supposed to be. I mean, they not only star in it, but also star in it and write it - kind of similar to when Shane van Dyke wrote, directed and starred in the utterly abysmal Titanic II in 2010. In fact, last time I looked at Rotten Tomatoes, Good Mourning was still at 0%, which should warn you about the quality.
I will also note that this is not the first time a musician has "won" for Worst Director, as Sia "won" for her offensive film Music in 2021. Sure, she didn't star in it, but it was still an absolute mess. Maybe having musicians dabble in film directing is something that should be avoided in the future.
Worst Actor - Jared Leto as the titular character of Morbius.
After winning Worst Supporting Actor last year for his laughable performance as Paulo Gucci in the otherwise decent House of Gucci, Jared Leto has now been nominated for his role as the titular Morbius, another role in which he carried out some bizarre method acting for it. Tom Hanks also received his FIRST EVER Razzie nomination for his role as Geppetto in Pinocchio, a role in which he puts on a bizarre accent and thus played a major role in making my friend stop watching the movie. Next is Colson Baker (a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly), more of a music artist by trade than an actor, nominated for his role as London Clash in his own movie Good Mourning. And then of course there's Razzie veteran Sylvester Stallone being nominated AGAIN, this time for his role in Samaritan as Joe Smith/Samaritan/Nemesis (?). One nomination I was heavily surprised by though was Pete Davidson for his voice role as the titular Marmaduke - mainly because I didn't even know they'd made another one recently after the live-action trainwreck from 2010 with Owen Wilson.
I mean, is it really a surprise that Leto won for the second time in a row? Pretty much everyone banking on the Razzies saw this one coming. His method acting was so laughably bad, just like in the role he won the Razzie for last year. Hanks was dreadful in his role, I will outright say, but Leto just outright overshadows him when it comes to bad acting. Overall, a category win that not only most Razzie fans (including myself) predicted, but was also well deserved.
Worst Actress - The...Razzies itself.
This was the category with the nominees I recognised the least. By that, I mean that I wasn't aware of these roles in the first place. Bryce Dallas Howard is a well-known actress and Jurassic World: Dominion was a known critical disappointment - she plays Claire Dearing in the movie. Meanwhile, Alicia Silverstone and Diane Keaton are also well-known actresses, but I was unfamiliar of their respective roles in The Requin as Jaelyn and Mack & Rita as Mackenzie "Mack" Martin/Rita. And I'm certainly not familiar with Kaya Scodelario, who plays Marie-Josèphe in The King's Daughter, though the film is also a major Razzie contender this year.
Though Blonde has been nominated for nearly every single other category at this year's Razzies, Ana de Armas, the actress who played Marilyn Monroe herself, was not nominated here due to critics seeing her as the one positive thing about the movie. Bizarrely enough though, she was nominated for an Oscar despite it still not being an outstanding performance, and it just makes the exclusion of Danielle Deadwyler for her outstanding role in Till even more ridiculous and further proof of the diversity issues with the Oscars - thank goodness that Michelle Yeoh ended up winning it in the end over Armas.
It should also be noted that Ryan Kiera Armstrong was originally nominated for her role as Charlene "Charlie" McGee in Firestarter, but was ultimately removed from the list after extreme public outcry. I think this was definitely the right thing - after all, getting underage actors involved in this sort of thing is extremely risky business and could definitely cross the line into bullying rather than simply saying "they were a bad actor". The only thing I will add though is that Maddie Ziegler still deserved her Razzie for her offensive role in Music as an autistic girl two years ago despite being neurotypical (besides, I think she was eighteen at the time anyway), though removing Armstrong from the nominees list this year is still the right move.
...Which is why this year, the Razzies ended up taking the win itself for the embarrassing and tasteless blunder, with their mascot Razz Berry giving the acceptance speech at the online ceremony. This was BY FAR the biggest surprise of the night - it turns out that voting still went ahead as normal, but they put themselves in the place of Armstrong and won by a landslide. But hey, I'm not complaining - it shows that they're willing to own up to the blunder, especially considering the Bruce Willis controversy from last year. I will also say that none of the other roles on this list are memorably bad like some of the other nominees in different categories, so I would not have had any strong opinions on them winning. Fortunately however, this one will certainly be a memorable win. ;)
Worst Supporting Actor - Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker in Elvis.
Two films dominated this list - both Mod Sun and Pete Davidson (again, but in a cameo role this time) from Good Mourning were nominated for their respective roles as Dylan and Berry, as were Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams from Blonde for their respective roles as Charles "Cass" Chaplin Jr. and Edward G. "Eddy" Robinson Jr.. But the biggest shock I got was Tom Hanks (again!) being nominated for his role as Colonel Tom Parker in the film Elvis. That film was a major critical darling, with Austin Butler in particular being praised for his role as Elvis Presley, and I feel that it was a much-needed return to form for Baz Luhrmann...up to the point in which I forgot that the same critics had also slated Hanks' performance in the same movie. And for good reason too. It sure seems that Hanks has either had a dud year or is starting to have his career derailed.
And of course the unthinkable has happened - Tom Hanks has actually WON his first Razzie ever, all for this category. Good films have been nominated for and won Razzie awards for this category in the past (Fahrenheit 11/9, Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm and House of Gucci being prime examples), and this is no exception. I think that a LOT of people out there thought that Hanks would never have receive a Razzie nomination itself, let alone a Razzie win. But I'm just going to say it outright at the risk of outrage - I think he's kind of overrated sometimes. Some of his film roles like in Toy Story and Saving Private Ryan are brilliant, but others like Forrest Gump should not have received the acclaim they did in the first place. Guess we'll just have to see what happens afterwards and whether he can keep his Hollywood darling status after this blunder.
Worst Supporting Actress - Adria Arjona as Martine Bancroft from Morbius.
I recognised the films in this category slightly more than I did for Worst Lead Actress. Adria Arjona are Lorraine Bracco are nominated for respective Razzie favourites Morbius and Pinocchio for their respective roles as Martine Bancroft and Sofia the Seagull. Meanwhile, I remember Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend being slated and being seen as a potential Razzie contender, and Mira Sorvino has been nominated for her role as Annita in it. I was not so familiar with The 355, which has Fan Bingbing and Penélope Cruz (likely the most famous actress in this category) nominated for their respective roles as Lin Mi Sheng and Graciela Rivera, though it should be pointed out that Fan Bingbing has also been nominated due to her role as the Mermaid in The King's Daughter, which has already popped up a few times at this awards ceremony.
Morbius took its second "win" with regard to Arjona this time round. This was likely the most forgettable win in my opinion, with the main thing standing being that she was named "Adriana" for some reason in the accompanying video, but as I said, I'm not familiar with these roles on the list anyway. Plus, Morbius itself is a memorable movie for all the wrong reasons and Arjona was legitimately bad in her role - though not to the same extent as Leto in his.
Worst Screen Couple - Tom Hanks and his latex-laden face (and ludicrous accent) in Elvis.
The main non-joke nominees are Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun for Good Mourning, due to not only starring in the film together, but also directing and writing it together, and both of the 365 Days sequels (I say "non-joke" due to the tragic reality of their existence and the horrific aspects of them). In fact, the nomination of "both real life characters (Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy) in the fallacious White House bedroom scene" from Blonde could also be a non-joke case due to the exploitativeness of the film, but the way that the Razzies wrote it down is slightly tongue-in-cheek. As is Andrew Dominik and his issues with women from the same movie, which is also written in a tongue-in-cheek manner in the Razzies website but is ultimately criticising a man for his misogynistic creative choices. What is most certainly a "joke" nominee though is Tom Hanks and his latex-laden face (and ludicrous accent) in Elvis, which is mainly just joking about a man's dreadful prosthetics and fake accent.
And for a SECOND time, Hanks takes a Razzie for the same role. I am just going to say outright that yes, the accent is indeed stupid. And it's not the first time he's done something like that either. Forrest Gump involves him putting on a stupid accent too, but people chose to fawn over that performance anyway because he was playing an "inspirational" autistic person - despite the fact that it's an extremely stereotypical portrayal of autistic people and insulting for autistic people like myself. In fact, there are MANY problems with that film that people overlook, but that would be deviating from this subject for now. What I will say is that any of these nominees would have been the right winner for this category anyway, and this combo certainly was.
Worst Remake, Rip-Off, Or Sequel - Disney's Pinocchio.
We have three sequels and three remakes here. For the sequels, both 365 Days: This Day and The Next 365 Days follow on from past Razzie winner 365 Days (obviously) while Jurassic World: Dominion is the third Jurassic World movie. Disney's Pinocchio is obviously a remake of the much better animated film from 1940, as well as an adaptation of the book of the same name. Firestarter is essentially an adaptation of a Stephen King novel, but is also a remake of the 1984 movie (which also did badly, but hey, at least it has a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream). Finally, Blonde is based on a book by Joyce Carol Oates, but is essentially a bad "remake" of Marilyn Monroe's life.
The 365 Days sequels did not win here, so unfortunately they did not win any awards at all. However, I am perfectly willing to accept Disney's Pinocchio as the actual winner of the category. It's yet another dire live-action remake of a Disney classic, following in the footsteps of duds like Beauty & The Beast, Mulan, Aladdin, The Lion King (even though that remake is still animated in a sense) and Dumbo (I am also willing to count Maleficent here too). Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket look unintentionally creepy (even creepier than the new Dumbo) and Hanks is of course overacting with a ridiculous accent. There's also the fact that it has the bad fortune of coming out around the same time of the Guilliamo del Toro version, which is downright fantastic and also extremely surprising with its take on the original story. That one definitely deserves the awards that it has received...while this one only deserves at least one Razzie.
I will also discuss my friend for a moment - she loves Disney movies, especially the animated types. She is not so fond of the live-action ones however. For instance, she actually cried when watching the Mulan remake due to how bad it was. The fact that she stopped watching this one after TEN MINUTES should be an indicator of how horrible the movie is. Definitely a Disney film that should be skipped altogether.
Worst Screenplay - Blonde (Andrew Dominik).
MGK and Mod Sun are once again nominated, this time for "writing" Good Mourning (yes, the Razzies put "written" in speech marks as well). Dominik also gets nominated again for writing Blonde, based on the "bio-novel" by Joyce Carol Oates (again, the Razzies put the quotation marks around "bio-novel"). Meanwhile we have some newcomers at this ceremony - Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless have been nominated for Morbius, while Emily Carmichael, Colin Treverrow and Derek Connolly have been nominated for Jurassic World: Dominion (Carmichael wrote the screenplay, Connolly wrote the story and Treverrow wrote both). Disney's Pinocchio is also nominated, with Robert Zemeckis making a return but Chris Weitz getting his first nomination at this year's awards (and according to the Razzies, the screenplay is not authorised by the Estate of Pinocchio's original writer Carlo Collodi for some reason).
Fitting that the last of the Worst awards should go to the first winner on this list, making it go full circle. Though the original book is very controversial itself with regard to its take on Monroe's life, it seems that the movie and its script heightened all of its flaws. The fact that Dominik also directed the film just adds salt into the wound, even if he didn't win that category in the end. It's clearly trying to be all "stylistic" and "arty", but is basically an outright exploitation film. Definitely up there with The Haunting of Sharon Tate with regard to bad taste and sexism towards its actress lead.
Razzie Redeemer Award - Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin.
To finish this off, I will mention the Razzie Redeemer Awards, the award that honours the good rather than the bad. Three nominees were here this time - Colin Farrell, who had a major blunder with the 2004 movie Alexander, for his role in The Banshees of Inisherin, regular Razzie nominee Mark Wahlberg for his role in Father Stu and Val Kilmer for his role in the Netflix documentary Val.
Farrell won this category, in what I feel is a well-deserved win. The film is just another masterpiece from Martin McDonagh, who has worked on other brilliant films such as In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. And Farrell is brilliant in his role too. That scene they showed where after a moment of awkward silence, he tries to insist that his friend loves him only for his former friend to say no is absolutely heartbreaking. I highly recommend you check this film out, along with the other McDonagh films I just mentioned.
Overall, a very interesting ceremony with some surprise wins, as well as an interesting distribution of awards. Blonde, Morbius and Elvis won two awards each (the latter film mainly for Tom Hanks) and Good Mourning, Disney's Pinocchio and the Razzies awards themselves won one award each. There were also many nominees that I didn't expect to see on the list, but ultimately made sense - Tom Hanks for his role as Colonel Tom Parker being a primary example.
As I said earlier, I feel that the 365 Days sequels should have been in the Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay categories (it would have even been nice if it had won a category) and I still think that the major dud Don't Worry Darling should have been nominated for some awards - I'm thinking Worst Picture, Worst Director (Olivia Wilde) and Worst Lead Actor (Harry Styles), given that Wilde cast Styles simply because they were dating at the time. That said, the more "positive" award shows like the Oscars, Annies, BAFTAs and Golden Globes screwed up BIG time by not nominating The Bad Guys for Best Animated Film despite its major critical and commercial success (plus the fact that it's a brilliant film anyway), and of course the Oscars made a MAJOR mistake in not nominating Deadwyler for Till, so it's not like only one award ceremony left something out.
Anyway, that concludes my Razzie review for this year. I'm interested to see what garbage makes it onto the nominees lists next time, and hopefully the Razzies doesn't make any mistakes with the nominations like with Armstrong next time around. Hope you enjoyed the ceremony just as much as I did and I'm curious to see other people's opinions on what they thought of the chosen winners as well. ;)
