While many of us continue to wait for tomorrow morning’s announcement of the Oscar nominations, the Golden Raspberry Awards have been kind enough to remind us of the worst Hollywood has had to offer as well and there was certainly no shortage of candidates this year. Naturally, we have Transformers 4 leading the pack with the much reviled Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas and The Legend of Hercules not being far behind. Full list of nominees listed below.
In an interesting twist the Razzies have also introduced a new category this year called the Razzie Redeemer Award. The category has been introduced to recognize previous nominees/winners who have either managed to turn their careers around or give an uncharacteristically good performance. Included in this year’s list are Ben Affleck for managing to recover from the embarrassment of Gigli and Kristen Stewart for her performance in Camp X-Ray
Worst Picture
Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Left Behind
The Legend Of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers 4: Age of Extinction
Worst Director
Michael Bay, Transformers 4: Age Of Extinction
Darren Doane, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Renny Harlin, The Legend of Hercules
Jonathan Liebesman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Seth MacFarlane, A Million Ways To Die In The West
Worst Actor
Kirk Cameron, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Nicolas Cage, Left Behind
Kellan Lutz, The Legend Of Hercules
Seth MacFarlane, A Million Ways To Die In The West
Adam Sandler, Blended
Worst Actress
Drew Barrymore, Blended
Cameron Diaz, The Other Woman and Sex Tape
Melissa McCarthy, Tammy
Charlize Theron, A Million Ways To Die In The West
Gaia Weiss, The Legend Of Hercules
Worst Supporting Actor
Mel Gibson, Expendables 3
Kelsey Grammer, Expendables 3, Legends Of Oz, Think Like A Man Too and Transformers 4
Shaquille O’Neal, Blended
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Expendables 3
Kiefer Sutherland, Pompeii
Worst Supporting Actress
Cameron Diaz, Annie
Megan Fox, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nicola Peltz, Transformers 4: Age of Extinction
Susan Sarandon, Tammy
Brigitte Ridenour, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel
Annie
Atlas Shrugged 3: Who Is John Galt?
The Legend Of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers 4: Age Of Extinction
Worst Screen Combo
Any Two Robots, Actors (or Robotic Actors), Transformers 4: Age Of Extinction
Kirk Cameron & His Ego, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Cameron Diaz & Jason Segel, Sex Tape
Kellan Lutz & Either His Abs, His Pecs or His Glutes, The Legend Of Hercules
Seth McFarlane & Charlize Theron, A Million Ways To Die In The West
Worst Screenplay
Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, Written by Darren Doane and Cheston Hervey
Left Behind, Screenplay by Paul LaLonde and John Patus; Based on the Novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Sex Tape, Screenplay by Kate Angelo and Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller
Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, Written by Ehren Kruger; Based on Hasbro’s Transformers Action Figures
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Written by Evan Daugherty and Andre Nemec & Josh Applebaum; Based on Characters Created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman
Razzie Redeemer Award
Ben Affleck, From Razzie “Winner” for Gigli to Oscar darling for Argo and Gone Girl
Jennifer Aniston, From 4-time Razzie nominee to SAG award nominee for Cake
Mike Myers, From Razzie “Winner” for Love Guru to Docu Director of Supermensch
Keanu Reeves, From 6-time Razzie nominee to the critically acclaimed John Wick
Kristen Stewart, From 6-time Razzie “Winner” for Twilight to the art house hit Camp X-Ray
Transformers 4: Age of Extinction- Transformers fans hoped that with Shia Lebeouf out of the picture, the series might finally become something watchable. Instead, Michael Bay somehow managed to make things worse and as a result Age of Extinction has generated the worst reviews in the history of the franchise (yes, that includes Revenge of the Fallen). Of course, that hasn’t stopped it from making over a billion dollars at the box office.
Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas- Generally, the Razzies like to honor failed blockbusters or badly reviewed summer movies but with Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas they understandably made an exception. Not only does it currently hold a 0% Tomatometer, but it has recently topped Birdemic as IMDB’s worst rated movie of all time. One critic has gone far enough to call it The Room of Christmas movies but minus the enjoyment.
Left Behind- Christian themed films and not to mention Nicolas Cage don’t really a great track record as far as critical acclaim is concerned but even by those standards, Left Behind has proven to be especially bad. Of all the films on this list, this has the least reason to exist (even Saving Christmas can be written off as a misguided passion project for Kirk Cameron) and was frankly doomed to fail from day one.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- While not directed by Michael Bay, his fingerprints are nevertheless all over it. Pointless explosions, incomprehensible action scenes, boring characters, crappy writing, and the objectification of Megan Fox make this feel very much like a project from Bay.
The Legend of Hercules- It’s quite the accomplishment to make a film directed by Brett Ratner look good by comparison but lo and behold, The Legend of Hercules pulled it off. Led by the charisma black hole of Twilight alum Kellan Lutz and directed by schlock master Renny Harlin, it’s no wonder this turkey currently holds an abysmal 3% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Blended- Another year, another Adam Sandler movie with multiple nominations. Blended hasn’t inspired the same level of hatred as Grown Ups or Jack and Jill, but that’s not exactly an endorsement to this year’s offering either. If there’s any consolation to be made by this movie’s existence, it’s lackluster box office return shows that audiences might finally be tiring of Sandler’s lazy comedies.
A Million Ways to Die in the West- After the success of Ted, it was perfectly understandable for Universal to sign off on Seth McFarlane’s ill conceived western. Instead of the biting satire people optimistically expected, they got a self-indulgent, laugh-free mess. It might not be entirely fair to blame McFarlane for this but when a guy is the lead actor in a movie that he also produced, directed and wrote, it makes it hard to place the blame on anybody else.
