If we all know the Oscar Awards, to the point that we know at least 5 categories by heart, perhaps we know less what the Razzie Awards are about.
From the idea of journalist John JB Wilson, starting from 1981 every year the Razzie Awards are presented just the day before the delivery of the Academy Awards.
Saying “Oscar” immediately brings to mind the most famous of modern statuettes, while the Razzie Awards consist of a raspberry, since in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, in which the Razzie Awards sink, raspberries are the fruits that were once thrown, more or less in clusters, on the actors who performed at the theater if they met with maximum disappointment, just like we did with tomatoes and eggs.
And it is therefore not surprising if the evaluation and delivery of the prizes belongs to the Raspberry (“raspberry” in Italian, in fact) Foundation, and the prize is precisely a giant raspberry housed on a Super 8 film tape, whose total value is $4.97 (while the value of an Academy Award is around $300).
The most intuitive and accustomed to chewing Anglo-Saxon slang will now have guessed that “Razzie” is the colloquial abbreviation of “Raspberry”, and in fact originally the title was “Golden Raspberry Awards”.
And so, similarly to what happens for the Oscar Awards, every year the films compete – in spite of themselves, it seems very appropriate to say – in this competition on the contrary, won by those who…maybe just don’t want to win!
The categories are almost the same as for the Oscars, but obviously we won’t be talking about “best” but about “worst”! And so there are the categories “worst film”, “worst actor” and “worst actress” leading and supporting, “worst film” and so on.
If Italy boasts the commendable record of country with the most Oscar Awards won as Best Foreign Film (9:…), our beautiful country also boasts the equally commendable annotation of never having won a Razzie as Worst Film, having risked only two occasions: in 1983 with Hercules by Luigi Cozzi and in 2002 with Roberto Benigni’s version of the immortal tale of Pinocchio.
There are some fizzy, or more appropriately juicy, goodies on the Razzie Awards, let’s see them.
The well-known successful actress Sandra Bullock boasts a singular and funny record: in the same year (2010) she won both a Razzie for Worst Actress and an Oscar for Best Actress! She cleared both Awards, respectively in About Stewie And The Blind Side, only, as mentioned, 24 hours apart.
Sylvester Stallone’s record will go down in history (with film critics who often agree): he won 10 Razzie Awards out of 31 nominations.
Stallone, let’s remember, has also been nominated 3 times for the Academy Awards, and like it or not, at least his three film sagas belong to the cult category. Rocky, Rambo And the Expendables.
Stallone also, and despite what has just been mentioned, in spite of himself he obtained the Razzie Awards in 2004 for the Worst Actor of the 20th Centuryand the female counterpart for this category (Worst Actress of the 20th Century) is the famous pop singer Madonna.
Madonna is always the most titled woman in terms of Razzies, having collected 8 in her entire career.
If one says Stallone one cannot but think and not mention Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course. And in fact even the latter could not miss at least one award: the nice singularity is that Schwarzenegger did indeed obtain a Razzie but in the special edition of the 25th anniversary of 2004 when he was awarded the prize “Loser of Losers” because despite having collected 8 nominations he had never yet received any award!
There are also some curious and ironic cases.
There are three actors nominated in the same year for both the Razzie and the Oscars for parts played in the same film, having therefore obtained diametrically opposite evaluations!
It happened in 1982 to James Coco for Only when I laughin 1984 to Amy Irving for Yentland in 2021 to Glenn Close for American Elegy.
However, none of these nominations turned out to be an Award, neither at the Razzies nor at the Oscars.
The Smith family holds a perhaps not too enviable record: with film After Earth in 2014 it triumphed in 3 categories, namely Worst Actor (Jaden Smith, son of Will), Worst Supporting Actor (Will Smith) and Worst Couple (Will and Jaden, in fact).
In fact, in addition to the Oscars, there is the category of “Worst Couple”: if the Smiths set a singular family record, there are those who did it better!
In 2011 for the movie Jack and Jill Adam Sandler won paired with himself (yes!) the Worst Couple award, since the two protagonists, a man (Jack) and a woman (Jill) are played at the same time by Adam Sandler.
And similarly to what happened to the Smiths, Sandler won both the reference categories for the two parts that make up the couple: in 2011, in fact, he won both the Worst Actor (Jack character) and Worst Actress (Jill character) categories. .
Jack and Jill it is also the film of records for the Razzie Awards: with 10 awards obtained in 10 categories it is the most awarded film ever, what a story! …we don’t feel like suggesting it as a film to see tonight.
On the second step of this podium on the contrary we find with 8 Razzie, collected in 2007, The name of my killerwhile in 2013 the third chapter of the Twilight Saga got 7, as well as Showgirls in 1995, e Battlefield Earth in 2001.
Battlefield Earth he also obtained the additional award in 2004 Worst movie of the last quarter of a century.
Following choices that perhaps today would not be free from criticisms of politically correct and machismo, over the years 4 male actors have won the Worst Actress award:
Dom DeLuise, Eddie Murphy, as said good Adam Sandler and Tyler Perry.
As well as the Oscars, although moment highlight of cinema and the film season, they are indeed a point of reference mainstream but certainly not the gospel of film criticism, equally and specularly the achievement of a Razzie is not enough in itself to quash in full and all the way a film.
Just as the Oscar can be an indicator of a good product and/or a good one performance… well, let’s say that a Razzie can help us approach a film with different expectations: why not think about spending an evening having fun giggling or laughing out loud following ridiculous dramas or comedies, not masterfully acted if not even with results bordering on the ridiculous? We must and deserve to have fun too!
Any special mentions?
Over the years they have won the -unique Razzie award and not present today at the Oscars- Worst Newcomer: Ronald McDonald -yes, the symbolic character of the famous chain fast food– (in 1988, in My friend Mac); Sofia Coppola (1990, The Godfather Part III); Janet Jackson (1993, Poetic justice). In this category Jim Carrey ran in 1994 with 3 films: Ace Ventura: The Pet Detective, Dumb & Dumber, The Mask – from zero to myth., but this was not enough for him, as mentioned, to triumph.
For the prize Worst Remake, Sequel or Prequel -another category not present at the Oscars: it wouldn’t hurt to have it there too!- special mentions are for: Kevin Costner and his Wyatt Earp in 1994; Roland Emmerich (1998, Godzilla); Tim Burton (2001, The Planet of the Apes); Steven Spielberg for the 4th installment of the Indiana Jones saga (2008, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull); Zack Snyder and his chapter on the clash between Batman and Superman (2018, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice).
Anglo-Saxon irony is universally well known, and after all the Razzies are well inspired by it. And yet one is always well aware that it is a bit all wrapped up in jokes and mockery, certainly not wanting to crush careers or ruin the images of artists and professionals to be respected also and above all as workers.
In this sense, since 2014 there has been a sort of redemption prize (Razzie Redeemer Award) precisely to signify that whoever won, or rather collected the most Razzies, later was able to express himself instead in excellent performances, redeeming himself from those awarded at least one Razzie. They have obtained, among others, this recognition over the years: Ben Affleck (2014), Sylvester Stallone (2015), Will Smith (2022).
The Razzie Awards 2023 still deserve a few notes: not so much for some clamorous winners, but for some nice winners!
Colin Farrell was awarded the just mentioned Redeemer since the nomination for Worst Actor in 2004 this year has come to that of Best Actor at the Oscars.
Worst Movie this year was Blondeand Worst Actor Jared Leto in Morbius.
The sympathetic notes, further proof of the goliardic nature of the initiative, are two this year.
Tom Hanks alone won the Worst Couple category, as well as the aforementioned Adam Sandler. Except that Sandler won playing two different characters, while Tom Hanks won together with…”his face full of latex (along with his ridiculous accent)”!
Finally, remedying with class an almost unforgivable indelicacy by nominating the very young 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong for the Razzie Award as Worst Leading Actress (risking to really nip a career in nuce), she awarded herself for this year just this Razzie ” for the blunder made in the nomination for the 43rd Worst Actress”. Brilliant.
In short, even the Razzie Awards are to be marked as a fixed deadline every year, just before the Oscar Awards!
