There are times when it feels as though the movies being nominated as the best in the business might get ‘accidentally’ shuffled in with those being nominated for the Razzies, the most dishonorable award that any actor or movie could possibly receive. One might think that the miserable box office numbers and the continual jeers of the fans would be enough, but they’d be wrong. This is Hollywood and the Academy Awards after all, and if there are overpaid actors getting congratulated on working for a living then you know there’s going to be a part of the show that could easily be labeled “Needs Improvement”. As Matt Morrison of Screenrant tells it this practice has been ongoing for the past four decades, and in that time there have been some truly bad movies that have been given the business in a very profound way since the Razzies are all about who did the worst and who was the biggest embarrassment. In a way it’s the stars making fun of themselves in a deprecating manner that doesn’t mean much since they still get paid and they still get the attention that so many people feel that they don’t deserve. Still, given how the critics and the Academy judges operate one can only think that a few other movies should have been added to the 2020 Razzies list.
With that being said it’s pretty easy to see why some of the movies that made the list did so since Cats is a no-brainer. It was creepy, it was a less than desirable presentation, and it’s a wonder that anyone that stepped on set still has a career to go back to. Someone online even mentioned a ‘litter box’ scene and it caused a shudder that I still feel at this moment since the human/cat hybrids that were created for this movie are downright wrong in so many ways. From the time it was mentioned to the moment it was released very few people thought that Cats was going to be a good idea, and lo and behold it resembled something that might have come out of the litter box. That might sound mean and even a bit cruel, but so was the movie when you really think about it. The Fanatic, starring John Travolta as an obsessed fan, might have truck too close to home for some people, but it was pretty bad without any reservations. It’s odd too since Travolta is still capable of being great, so it’s kind of odd to see him in something such as this that had little to no chance of being anything worthwhile.
Hellboy was another movie that was nominated for a few Razzies, which isn’t hard to believe since a lot of people are still stuck on Ron Perlman as the red-skinned, stone-fisted demon, but really the movie wasn’t that bad. It could have used a lot more content and more back story to it, but the action wasn’t too bad and the acting wasn’t all that horrible. It’s true, David Harbour likely wasn’t the best pick, as his dialogue was kind of campy and not altogether effective, but Ian McShane was great. As for Rambo 5, huh boy. If people were expecting this to be a blockbuster that would blow them all away, the only way such a thing would have happened would have been if they were on set while the bombs were going off. In all seriousness, expecting a Rambo movie to be anything other than an action-packed bloodfest where the impossible becomes absolutely possible is just par for the course. It’s like asking a superhero movie to be grounded in reality, it’s just not going to happen. But for diehard Rambo fans it was something that worked since it gave the iconic action hero a final run, something to finish off with, and he did it in the same style that we’ve become accustomed to. It might have been pure Rambo, meaning blood, guts, and carnage and disregard for human life, but it was what was expected. Fred Topel of the CheatSheet has more to add to this subject.
The Razzies were started at a joke, but were eventually embraced as a means of highlighting the truly awful movies that came out year after year and appeared to have no redeeming qualities. Ironically some of the movies that have gone on to win an Oscar should have by all rights been in consideration for a Razzie instead, but as the Academy judges are those that determine the winners it’s all a matter personal bias that, no matter what is said, determines what’s ‘good enough’ and what’s considered to be horrible. Ilana Slavit of the Daily Emerald has more on this. Don’t get me wrong, Cats, Rambo 5, Hellboy, and The Fanatic weren’t award-winning movies. But all in all, the Academy is, for the most part, a gathered group of experts that aren’t as objective as they’d like to think.
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