Every year The Golden Raspberry Awards (a.k.a. “The Razzies”) try to capitalize on the media swarm surrounding the Academy Awards by announcing their nominations for the worst films and performances of the year, one day before the Oscars nominate the best. It’s a cheap shot of pranksterism, and that’s pretty fitting, because The Razzies are all about cheap shots.
This year is no exception: with only a handful of exceptions, The Razzies have only seen fit to nominate the most infamous movies of the year, and not necessarily the worst. It’s popular to talk smack about Fifty Shades of Grey and Jupiter Ascending, so of course they’re nominated for Worst Picture. Never mind that lower profile films like the Roland Emmerich’s laughable Stonewall and the despicable erotic thriller The Loft are even worse, or that The Human Centipede 3 came out this year and made us all want to vomit. (Weirder still, Human Centipede director Tom Six WAS nominated, which means the voters actually saw his movie and still somehow thought that it was better than Pixels.)
The Razzies have such a reputation for firing off shots at easy targets that it’s actually surprising to see some high profile bombs fail to make their list. Cameron Crowe got no end of grief from his confusing melodrama mishmash Aloha, and yet the ambitious film from a former Oscar winner is completely absent from the list of Razzie Awards nominations. Every critic on the planet also seemed to recoil in horror from Get Hard, and that repellant and homophobic comedy didn’t make the cut either.
Universal Pictures
Related: 13 Times The Razzies Got It Wrong
And it just wouldn’t be The Razzies unless at least a few arguably good films got nominated. Jennifer Lopez gets a Worst Actress nomination for The Boy Next Door, which isn’t fair because A) that movie knew exactly how cheesy it was, meaning her cheesy performance is actually, by definition, “good” (or at least appropriate for the material), and B) both Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara were just terrible in Hot Pursuit.
What’s more, the criminally underrated Jupiter Ascending received multiple nominations, including one for Eddie Redmayne, whose fabulously over the top villain performance isn’t functionally all that different from Gary Oldman’s acclaimed turn in Leon: The Professional. But whatever. It’s fun to hate on Jupiter Ascending right now. Give it time. The tide will turn.
The complete list of Razzie nominations are below. The “winners” will be announced on February 27, the day before the Oscars.
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 and 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
Gwyneth Paltrow, Mortdecai
WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Chevy Chase, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and Vacation
Josh Gad, Pixels and The Wedding Ringer
Kevin James, Pixels
Jason Lee, Alvin & The Chipmunks: Road Chip
Eddie Redmayne, Jupiter Ascending
WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Alvin & The Chipmunks: Road Chip and The Wedding Ringer
Rooney Mara, Pan
Michelle Monaghan, Pixels
Julianne Moore, Seventh Son
Amanda Seyfried, Love the Coopers and Pan
WORST REMAKE/RIP-OFF/SEQUEL
Alvin & The Chipmunks: Road Chip
Fantastic Four
Hot Tub Time Machine 2
Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)
Paul Blart Mall Cop 2
WORST SCREEN COMBO
All Four “Fantastics,” Fantastic Four
Johnny Depp and His Glued-On Moustache, Mortdecai
Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey
Kevin James and EITHER His Segue OR His Glued-On Moustache, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2
Adam Sandler and Any Pair of Shoes, The Cobbler
WORST DIRECTOR
Andy Fickman, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2
Tom Six, Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)
Sam Taylor-Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey
Josh Trank, Fantastic Four
Andy and Lana Wachowski, Jupiter Ascending
WORST SCREENPLAY
Fantastic Four (screenplay by Simon Kinberg, Jeremy Slater and Josh Trank, Based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)
Fifty Shades of Grey (screenplay by Kelly Marcel, Based on the Novel by E.L. James)
Jupiter Ascending (written by Andy and Lana Wachowski)
Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 (screenplay by Kevin James & Nick Bakay)
Pixels (screenplay by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling, Story by Herlihy, Based on a Work by Patrick Jean)
RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD
Elizabeth Banks (RAZZIE “Winner” for MOVIE 47, Multiple Hit Movies This Year)
M. Night Shyamalan (Perennial RAZZIE nominee & “winner,” director of The Visit)
Will Smith (For following up After Earth with Concussion)
Sylvester Stallone (All-Time RAZZIE Champ, award contender for Creed)
Top Photo: Universal Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
