Edwin J. Viera
A day before filmgoers everywhere celebrated the best of the best, the committee behind the Golden Raspberry Awards, commonly called The Razzies, announced what has been selected as the worst of the worst in film for 2019. Many of the films that were nominated are suited for the categories with some being questionable decisions at best.
The nominees for Worst Picture are Cats, The Fanatic, The Haunting of Sharon Tate, A Madea Family Funeral and Rambo: Last Blood. For the last few years, the picks for the worst of the year have seemed very obvious. 2017’s worst film of the year, The Emoji Movie earned the award after being a nuclear box-office bomb. Ever since Tyler Perry’s Madea films began branching away from more dramatic plotlines in favor of the “comedy” he’s been offering, Perry has been a nominee on this list. However, some of these films are great contenders for being terrible, so it really is anyone’s game this year.
One of the funnier categories, Worst On-Screen Combo, has some competition but will more than likely go to one of the two nominations Cats picked up. The first is “Any two half-feline/half-human hairballs” and the second is for “Jason Derulo and his CGI-neutered “bulge”. Other nominees are Sylvester Stallone and his impotent rage in Rambo: Last Blood, Tyler Perry and Tyler Perry (or Tyler Perry) in A Madea Family Funeral, and John Travolta and any screenplay he accepts. Travolta has only had one memorable role since the beginning of his career backslide, which some say began with his role in the sci-fi snafu Battlefield Earth.
The movie Cats, which leads the pack for most nominations at this year’s Razzie Awards was a bomb for anyone who touched it. Legendary actress Dame Judi Dench a nomination for Worst Supporting Actress for her role as Old Dueteronomy in Cats. Other nominations Cats has include Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor for James Corden’s role as Bustopher Jones.
2019 was not a good year for rising star Rebel Wilson who snagged two nominations in this year’s Razzie Awards. Wilson earned one nomination for Worst Actress as Penny Rust in the heist comedy The Hustle. The second nomination is for Worst Supporting Actress as Jennyanydots in Cats.
Along with Wilson, other nominees for Worst Actress include Hilary Duff for her role in The Haunting of Sharon Tate as the titular actress, Francesca Hayward for her role as Victoria in the stinker Cats, Tyler Perry for his role as tough as nails Mabel “Madea” Simmons in A Madea Family Funeral and Anne Hathaway for both The Hustle and Serenity as Josephine Chesterfield and Karen Zariakas, respectively.
Sharing the stage with Wilson and Dench for nominations for Worst Supporting Actress are Jessica Chastain for her role as Vuk in Dark Phoenix, Cassi Davis for her role in A Madea Family Funeral as Betty Ann “Aunt Bam” Murphy, and Fenessa Pineda who played Gizelle in Rambo: Last Blood.
Leading the charge for Worst Actor is James Franco for his role in Zeroville as Vikar. Following him is David Harbour in Hellboy as Hellboy/Anung Un Rama, Matthew McConaughey for his role in Serenity playing Baker Dill, Sylvester Stallone for Rambo: Last Blood in his role as the once iconic John J. Rambo and John Travolta for both The Fanatic and Trading Paint, in which is played Moose and Sam Munroe, respectively.
Though it is possible for James Corden to pick up a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor due to his role in Cats, the odds are more in favor of Tyler Perry, who is nominated twice in this category. Perry is nominated for his role as Joe and Uncle Heathrow for the movie A Madea Family Funeral. Other nominees include Seth Rogen for his role in Zeroville as Viking Man and action star Bruce Willis for his role in the M. Night Shyamalan film Glass in which he portrayed David Dunn/The Overseer.
For the category of Worst Director the nominees are Fred Durst for his work on The Fanatic, James Franco for Zeroville, Adrian Grünberg for Rambo: Last Blood, Tom Hooper for the disaster of Cats and Neil Marshall for his work on Hellboy. Another set of Razzie Awards being dolled out this year include Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. The films nominated are Dark Phoenix, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Hellboy, A Madea Family Funeral and Rambo: Last Blood.
The last three films of this list were primarily made by Lionsgate. The award for Worst Screenplay could go to either Cats, which would seem fair to many. However, since many of the other films nominated which include The Haunting of Sharon Tate, Hellboy, A Madea Family Funeral, and Rambo: Last Blood are just as bad, this award is fair game. Other Razzie Awards include Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property with the nominees being The Haunting of Sharon Tate, Hellboy, Joker, Rambo: Last Blood and Dragged Across Concrete. Considering the fact that Joker has been an awards darling, including the Joaquin Phoenix’s win for Best Actor at the Acadamy Awards, it seems unlikely it would win this award.
However, there is one award that looks at a career turnaround for those who have received one or more Razzie Awards, the Razzie Redemer Award. Nominees for this special honor include Jennifer Lopez for her role in Hustlers. She’s looking at redemption for numerous films and the two Razzies she won for her part in the 2004 disaster Gigli. Eddie Murphy is nominated for his lead role in the film Dolemite Is My Name. His redemption has been earned from films like Norbit, A Thousand Words, Meet Dave, Imagine That, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I Spy, and Showtime.
Other redeemers are Keanu Reeves for his roles in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Toy Story 4, Adam Sandler for his role in Uncut Gems and Will Smith for his role as Genie in Aladdin. Considering how their performances went completely unrecognized by the Academy this year, Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Murphy, and Adam Sandler are the three who most deserves this award since they are seeing a resurgence in their careers.
Even though Cats has the most nominations, nine, the true worst film to have a nomination is Trading Paint, which has a zero percent Rotten Tomatoes score and only made $18,566 at the box office. For now, a date for the Razzies has yet to be announced but there is some hope that one of the winners will come to collect their award.
