I still remember Sandra Bullock winning an Oscar for The Blind Side the night after she won Razzies for worst actress and worst couple for All About Steve. She showed up to the Razzies ceremony and brought a wagon full of All About Steve DVDs for the audience. The 2020 Razzies ceremony hasn’t been scheduled yet, but the nominations were announced this past weekend, and Cats and The Haunting of Sharon Tate are among the nominated films:
Three films tied for the most Razzie nominations. Cats, A Madea Family Funeral and Rambo: Last Blood each received eight nods, all three getting mentions for worst picture, supporting actress, screen combo and screenplay.
Rambo: Last Blood, “assaulting to the senses/insulting to the intelligence,” according to Razzie organizers, will compete for worst picture alongside Cats, A Madea Family Funeral, The Fanatic and The Haunting of Sharon Tate.
Tyler Perry alone is mentioned five times in the nominations, one of which is for worst actress as Madea, a category where he’ll compete against Hilary Duff (The Haunting of Sharon Tate), Anne Hathaway (The Hustle and Serenity), Francesca Hayward (Cats) and Rebel Wilson (The Hustle). Perry’s also up for worst supporting actor for two parts in A Madea Family Funeral as well as worst screenplay and screen combo between Perry and himself.
Among the other nominees for worst screen combo were any two “half-feline/half-human hairballs” and Jason Derulo and his “CGI-neutered ‘bulge'” in Cats, Rambo star Stallone and his “impotent rage” and John Travolta and “any screenplay he accepts.”
James Franco (Zeroville), David Harbour (Hellboy), Oscar winner and “Hathaway’s backside-bearing co-star” Matthew McConaughey (Serenity), Stallone (Rambo: Last Blood) and Travolta (The Fanatic and Trading Paint) round out the nominees for worst actor of 2019.
A lot of people liked Serenity and thought it didn’t get a fair shake! (Celebitchy told me that she really liked it.) I tend to love movies that most people don’t enjoy, but I don’t think I’ve seen any of these, oddly. I had no idea there were more Rambo films, and I’m still chuckling and smarting from that swipe at John Travolta. Ouch.
Joker is the only film this year to receive both a Razzie nomination and an Oscar nomination: It is nominated in the new Razzie category that “recogniz[es] the worst reckless disregard for human life and public property.” It’s competing against Dragged Across Concrete, The Haunting of Sharon Tate, Hellboy, Joker and Rambo: Last Blood. I wasn’t planning on seeing Joker, but wanted to see it even less after I heard how it depicted mental illness. I am unsurprised (and unamused) that Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar. I also would love for Hollywood to get away from movies and films that inadvertently end up giving more notoriety to murderers. I’m reminded of writer Lily Dancyger’s piece that was published just after Netflix’s Ted Bundy movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (starring Zac Efron, was released and a few months after its Ted Bundy documentary, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, premiered_. Dancyger wrote about what it’s like to be the relative of a murder victim in the midst of the popularity of true crime movies and television shows. (CW: Dancyger’s cousin was murdered in 2010.)
It looks like Tyler Perry is going to get an award or two; I doubt that Joaquin Phoenix is going to get a Razzie, but if he did, he’d be the first actor to get an Oscar and a Razzie for the same role.
The nomination for Francesca Hayward is a bit harsh – it was not her fault that the movie was shit. She danced beautifully.
I agree and, while I have not seen the film, there were a few reviews that indicated she did a passable job with her acting
Yes, this is her first “acting in film” job, she had little say in the whole mess. Seems unfair to nominate her.
I liked Cats. Come at me.
The choice to use CGI was bad. I’m not going to defend that part. But every performer gave 600% and sang and danced their furry little hearts out. I’ve seen the play three times (my mother took me when I was little, and it was like a tradition for us), and as a fan of the play, I enjoyed the movie. I was almost disappointed in how not absolutely awful it was.
On a completely different note, YES to what this article says about Joker. The moral of the movie seems to be “treat people with mental illness better or they might snap and start killing people.” Not because you should treat everyone with respect and dignity. Not because both society and medical care let people with mental illness slip through the cracks. But to avoid murder.
About the Ted Bundy films and documentaries … I didn’t even see the Zac Efron film, but as I enjoy true crime documentaries, have seen most of the big ones about famous murders and serial killers. The best Ted Bundy documentary to me, is the new docu-series about the women in Bundy’s life. I believe it is a first to focus on the women and to hear them speak. There were several “ah now I get it” moments as before I never saw the appeal that Bundy had over these women. He really was very manipulative and vile.
I like that there is finally a new focus on the women who become victims of “great murderers”. See also Hallie Rubenhold “The Five – The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper”. That is seriously a great book! Makes you think about how we’d all think differently about other famous murder victims and the narrative we buy into …
Yup, that documentary is really good. I honestly didn’t know people within the law enforcement realm too so long to believe it. What a shame. How many ladies might have been saved. My husband side-eyes my murder interests. But I truly find it fascinating how someone gets to that point and the entire process, start to finish, and beyond.
Great to hear the Rubenhold book is good! Got it for my other half for Xmas and looking forward to reading it myself. And yes – nice to see a shift in focus to the women, too often seen as interchangeable and disposable (plus the victim blaming etc).
Keith Allan! I love him from z nation, a funny campy, crazy zombie show.