Once upon a time, The Golden Raspberries were a counter-cultural kick in the pants. Even as recently as 2010, the Golden Raspberries were expressions of frustration with the Hollywood system and what it stood for. At the 2010 awards, All About Steve and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen dominated the awards, causing Sandra Bullock to be the second actress to receive the Razzie and the Oscar in the same year. Transformers 2, meanwhile, was the second largest movie at the box office behind Avatar. The awards and the nominations were middle fingers to trends they saw developing and fads people were ticked about.
The Razzies nominations happen the same day as the Oscar nominations, and the awards ceremony happens the same weekend as the Academy Awards as well. This year, while Oscar was courting controversy with their usual whitebread slate of nominees, the Razzies were merely content to go with the crowd of internet outrage. Instead of aiming for the goalposts, this year’s Razzies were dominated by such infuriating movies as Fantastic Four, Pixels, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. In a world where the number 1 and 2 movies at the box office – Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World – experienced a severe backlash, and controversial multi-million dollar movies like Stonewall completely died on its own whitewashed petard, the Razzies had the potential to say something witty or sharp about our culture. Instead, they went for some easy gags.
The first Golden Raspberries have more of a pissy feel to them fueled by being against certain trends in Hollywood. Homophobic movies (Cruising and Windows), Disco movies, (Can’t Stop the Music and Xanadu), and rote cynical formulas (Get Smart remake The Nude Bomb, and Friday the 13th) all make appearances as bad movies not to be overlooked. The Worst Director is littered with big names: Stanley Kubrick, John G. Avildsen, Brian DePalma, and William Friedkin. Even the acting categories are filled with well-established names: Michael Caine, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Faye Dunaway and Marlon Brando. Rather than feeling like a tired exercise in commonality, the first Razzies was a demand for Hollywood to try better at all costs.
This year has its fair share of well-established names – Johnny Depp and Gwenyth Paltrow for Mortdecai, Julianne Moore for Seventh Son and Chevy Chase for Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and Vacation – but, they’re mostly mundane choices or perennial punching bags, like Adam Sandler and Jennifer Lopez. Though few of the movies nominated are undeserving (one can argue in support of Jupiter Ascending and The Boy Next Door), few of the nominees sharp, insightful, or surprising. And, really, that’s kind of a shame.
Worst Picture:
Fantastic Four
Fifty Shades of Grey
Jupiter Ascending
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Pixels
Worst Actor:
Johnny Depp (Mortdecai)
Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey)
Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2)
Adam Sandler (The Cobbler, Pixels)
Channing Tatum (Jupiter Ascending)
Worst Actress:
Katherine Heigl (Home Sweet Hell)
Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey)
Mila Kunis (Jupiter Ascending)
Jennifer Lopez (The Boy Next Door)
Gwenyth Paltrow (Mortdecai)
Worst Supporting Actor:
Chevy Chase (Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Vacation)
Josh Gad (Pixels, The Wedding Ringer)
Kevin James (Pixels)
Jason Lee (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip)
Eddie Redmayne (Jupiter Ascending)
Worst Supporting Actress:
Kaley Cuoco (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, The Wedding Ringer)
Rooney Mara (Pan)
Michelle Monaghan (Pixels)
Julianne Moore (Seventh Son)
Amanda Seyfried (Love the Coopers, Pan)
Worst Screen Combo:
All four “Fantastics” in Fantastic Four
Johnny Depp and his glued-on mustache in Mortdecai
Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in Fifty Shades of Grey
Kevin James and either his Segway or his glued-on mustache in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Adam Sandler and any pair of shoes in The Cobbler
Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off, or Sequel:
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Fantastic Four
Hot Tub Time Machine 2
The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Worst Director:
Andy Fickman (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2)
Tom Six (The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence))
Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey)
Josh Trank (Alan Smithee?) (Fantastic Four)
The Wachowskis (Jupiter Acending)
Worst Screenplay:
Fantastic Four
Fifty Shades of Grey
Jupiter Ascending
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Pixels
The Razzie Redeemer Award:
Elizabeth Banks (for going from Movie 43 to Pitch Perfect 2)
M. Night Shyamalan (for The Visit)
Will Smith (for going from After Earth to Concussion)
Sylvester Stallone (for going from all-time Razzie champ to Creed)