Countdown: Top 10 Most Razzie-Nominated (And -Winning) Films

If you've seen our most recent Lockdown Special, you'll have seen at the end that we mention the IMDB Bottom 100 films list; there's some dreadful stuff on there that we'll no doubt be exploring soon. 

So (you'll have to imagine my best Carrie Bradshaw impersonation) I couldn't help but wonder... what are some of the worst films ever made? Now, as you know, I'm an awards geek (sorrynotsorry) and a film is often judged by its Oscar wins (see Matt's comment about Once Upon A Time In America in the Lockdown Special). And, as regular readers/listeners/viewers will know, the yang to the Oscars yin is... The Golden Raspberry Awards, which also celebrates its 40th year this year. 

So I figured I'd do a bit of research and come up with a list of the 10 films with the most Razzie nominations (and wins). This includes any superlatives they may have been nominated for, or won (eg. Worst Film Of The Decade or Worst Of Our First 25 Years).

So, strap yourself in for a quick romp through some of cinema's biggest flops, disappointments, and bizarre ideas. Brace yourselves!

1. Showgirls (1995)

dir. Paul Verhoeven, starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon

15 nominations, 8 wins

This tawdry tale of a young woman who wants to become a dancer in Las Vegas is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, so it's no surprise that the Razzies decided to pile both the nominations and the awards on. At the 1996 awards, it won 7 awards, including Worst Picture; lead actress Elizabeth Berkley was singled out for two awards (Worst Actress and Worst New Star) whilst the rest of the cast escaped unscathed- despite Worst acting nominations for MacLachlan and Gershon, as well as Robert Davi, Alan Rachins and Lin Tucci. Verhoeven actually accepted his Razzie for Worst Director in person! (He was the first person to do so). It also won Worst Picture Of The Decade (for the 1990s) and was nominated for Worst Drama Of Our First 25 Years in 2005.

2. The Lonely Lady (1983)

dir. Peter Sasdy, starring Pia Zadora, Lloyd Bochner, and Bibi Besch

13 nominations, 6 wins

Another torrid tale of an idealistic young woman looking to achieve success and getting exploited along the way (although here, she's a screenwriter wanting to make it big in Hollywood) The Lonely Lady is an adaptation of a Harold Robbins novel and an unmitigated mess. Winning its 6 awards in 1984, including Worst Picture, actress Pia Zadora had already won a Worst Actress Razzie the previous year for Butterfly, so added to that with a second. It's telling that director Peter Sasdy never directed another film; his resume shows a lot of TV work after this blot. It was nominated for Worst Picture Of The Decade (for the 1980s) and was also nominated for Worst Drama Of Our First 25 Years in 2005.

3. Jack And Jill (2011)

dir. Dennis Dugan, starring Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, and Katie Holmes

12 nominations, 10 wins

The Razzies dishonour the worst of cinema, so imagine how bad a film has to be to get a clean sweep of every category. Well, Jack and Jill is that film. It's the first film in Razzies history to win every single category. It had multiple nominations in the Worst Supporting acting categories (Nick Swardson and Katie Holmes being nominated but their co-stars Al Pacino and David Spade taking the awards; yes, David Spade won Worst Supporting Actress; yes, it is that kind of a film; no, I don't get it either). Sandler was reportedly paid a cool $20m dollars to make this utter dreck, so I would imagine he's not particularly bothered. 

4. Gigli (2003)

dir. Martin Brest, starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and Al Pacino

11 nominations, 7 wins

What was originally a mob movie turned into a romantic comedy to capitalise on the real-world relationship between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Which might explain why there's a sex scene between the two of them, despite Lopez's character being a lesbian. So much to unpack in that statement, so little time... Another film that's universally accepted as one of the worst ever made, it won 6 Razzies in 2004- including the Big Five (Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay)- and added a seventh in 2005 as the Worst "Comedy" Of Our First 25 Years. Dropped from UK cinemas after only a week, due to the dreadful reviews it received, Gigli also provided the kiss of death for Brest's career; after films like Beverly Hills Cop, Scent Of A Woman, and Meet Joe Black, the negative experience of making this film meant Brest retired from directing once it was over. 

5. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012)

dir. Bill Condon, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner

11 nominations, 7 wins

The Razzies were always pretty unkind to the Twilight films; all but the first film got at least four nods. However, prior to this, despite all the nominations, the Twilight films had only won one Razzie before, when Jackson Rathbone was named Worst Supporting Actor for Eclipse. Time to make up for lost ground. Here, they pulled a Lord-Of-The-Rings-at-the-Oscars and awarded the final act of the saga the most awards. With seven awards, this soapy, poorly-acted, badly-written and utterly dismal film franchise finally bit the dust. Oh, no, I forgot... their vampires don't turn into dust. They sparkle in the sunlight. Sparkle. Vampires. Shouldn't. Sparkle. Along with Worst Picture and Director, sullen charisma vacuum Kristen Stewart took Worst Actress, with Taylor Lautner as Worst Supporting Actor. 

6. Mommie Dearest (1981)

dir. Frank Perry, starring Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, and Steve Forrest

11 nominations, 6 wins

Faye Dunaway was convinced that this biopic of the late actress Joan Crawford and the tumultuous relationship she had with her adopted children (especially her daughter Christina, who penned the salacious tell-all book the film is based on) would get her another Oscar. Instead, it got her a Razzie. To this day, Dunaway is known to stop interviews if anyone dares mention the film, even though the film is now considered something of a camp cult classic (and was even marketed as such by Paramount once they found out that people were attending out of a morbid curiosity). Along with Dunaway's Worst Actress win, and Worst Picture, it also won two Worst Supporting acting awards for Steve Forrest (as Greg Savitt) and Diana Scarwid (as the older Christine) and Worst Screenplay. It also won Worst Picture of the Decade (1980s) and was nominated for Worst "Drama" Of Our First 25 Years. 

7. Batman & Robin (1997)

dir. Joel Schumacher, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, and Chris O'Donnell

11 nominations, 1 win

We've spoken a lot about how much of a guilty pleasure this film is for us, so very little bears repeating, except for this: you know a film is bad when the director apologises for it (which Joel Schumacher did on a couple of occasions). It's certainly not as bad as it's painted; there's some fun to be had if you look for it. Despite 11 nominations (it was nominated for the most Razzies that year)- for everything from Worst Picture to Worst Screen Couple, Worst Original Song and Worst Reckless Disregard For Human Life And Public Property- the film winded up only winning one Razzie: Alicia Silverstone was named Worst Supporting Actress (beating her co-star Uma Thurman). They should be thankful they were nominated in the same year as The Postman...

8. Battlefield Earth (2000)

dir. Roger Christian, starring John Travolta, Barry Pepper, and Forest Whitaker

10 nominations, 9 wins

Based on a work by L. Ron Hubbard, Battlefield Earth was something of a passion project for John Travolta (no surprise there, given the whole Scientology thing...) but something went desperately wrong with the film and it's ended up as this sprawling incoherent, visually muddling mess. Plans for a sequel got quietly shelved. It won in every category it was nominated in at the 2001 awards (with a second Worst Supporting Actor nod for Forest Whitaker), although wasn't nominated in every category. Forest Whitaker has expressed his regret for taking part, and Barry Pepper had said he would have shown up to accept his Worst Supporting Actor Razzie in person had he known about it! Screenwriter J.D. Shapiro actually did show up in person and accepted the Worst Movie Of The Decade (2000s) award, and it won Worst Drama of Our First 25 Years, beating out Mommie Dearest, Showgirls, and The Lonely Lady for the dubious honour. 

9. Bolero (1984)

dir. John Derek, starring Bo Derek, George Kennedy, and Andrea Occhipinti

10 nominations, 6 wins

There's a fine line to be walked when it comes to "erotic" movies. You can go too far and end up with a crass exploitative mess verging on actual pornography, or end up not going far enough in which case it's about as sensual as a bucket of cold custard. Bolero veers wildly between the two extremes. Bo Derek stars as a young woman whose sexual awakening leads to a journey around the world to find her ideal lover. Already, things are starting to clench (and not in a good way). But here's where the line gets massively crossed: actress Olivia d'Abo was fourteen (yes, fourteen) and appears in nude scenes throughout the film. Released unrated in the US (wonder why?), d'Abo was one of the six "winners" (getting the Worst New Star award) with the film also winning Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Musical Score (which included music by celebrated composer Elmer Bernstein). What a sorry state of affairs. 

10. An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997)

dir. Arthur Hiller (as Alan Smithee), starring Ryan O'Neal, Coolio, and Eric Idle

10 nominations, 5 wins

A quick lesson. "Alan Smithee" was the official Director's Guild pseudonym used on a film when its director disowns it and doesn't want their name on it. After director Arthur Hiller (who'd previously directed Love Story, The Man In The Glass Booth, and Silver Streak) used the credit for this shambles, the DGA deregistered the name, making this the last Alan Smithee film. Produced and written by Joe Eszterhas (who wrote Showgirls)- and who produced his own cut of the film which was preferred by the production company, over Hiller's (which prompted him to disown the film)- it's a bloated mess, aiming for "satire" and failing miserably. Eszterhas received three Razzies alone for this film- Worst Supporting Actor, Worst New Star, and Worst Screenplay- with Worst Picture and Worst Original Song completing the list of wins. Eric Idle (who plays filmmaker Alan Smithee who wants to disown his film... yeah...) said he was disappointed not to get a Razzie nomination for his performance. 

Other films that just fell outside the Top 10 but have still got a shedload of nominations and (in some cases, wins) are: 

• Freddy Got Fingered (2001) - 10 nominations, 5 wins
• Butterfly (1982) - 10 nominations, 2 wins
• I Know Who Killed Me (2007) - 9 nominations, 7 wins
• Cats (2019) - 9 nominations, 6 wins
• Rocky IV (1985) - 9 nominations, 5 wins
• Wild Wild West (1999) - 9 nominations, 5 wins
• Swept Away (2002) - 9 nominations, 5 wins
• The Last Airbender (2010) -  9 nominations, 5 wins

What an absolute shower of cinematic atrocities we have here. So much wasted potential. So much wasted money. So much wasted celluloid. But... one thing I hope that you take away from reading this litany of crapulence is this: if films this dire, this dreadful, this irredeemably shit can be made, there's hope for us all. 

Tez

Awards Season 2020: Razzies Winners

So, we can finally say that Awards Season 2020 is over, as the Razzie Awards have announced their picks for the worst films and performances of 2019. 

Originally, the ceremony- celebrating 40 years of the Razzies- was due to be broadcast last Saturday (14th March); however, due to the coronavirus pandemic, plans were somewhat changed and a video was released instead (with usual Razzie tongue-in-cheek humour, this was referred to as the "Lock-Down Edition"). 

Here are all the "winners":


Worst Picture: Cats

Worst Director: Tom Hooper (Cats)

Worst Actor: John Travolta (The Fanatic and Trading Paint)

Worst Actress: Hilary Duff (The Haunting of Sharon Tate)

Worst Supporting Actor: James Corden (Cats)

Worst Supporting Actress: Rebel Wilson (Cats)

Worst Remake, Sequel Or Rip-Off: Rambo: Last Blood

Worst Screen Combo: Any Two Half-Feline/Half-Human Hairballs (Cats)

Worst Screenplay: Cats

Worst Reckless Disregard For Human Life And Public Property: Rambo: Last Blood

Razzie Redeemer: Eddie Murphy (for his performance in Dolemite Is My Name)


So, to nobody's surprise, Cats takes the lion's share of the awards (sorry, couldn't resist) snaffling 6 awards from its 8 nominations [although to be fair, it had two nominations in both Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Screen Combo, so a clean sweep was never going to be possible]. Rambo: Last Blood limps away with 2. 

Thankfully, this year's experiment of a truncated awards season will NOT be repeated for 2021, with the Oscars going back to the end of February next year. So, just eight months to go until this circus starts up again...

Awards Season 2020: Razzies Nominations

Providing some much-needed levity in what can often be an awards season that takes itself entirely too seriously, this year's Golden Raspberry Awards nominations have been announced this morning. The Razzie voters have considered "a bumper crop of cinematic crud" (yep, even the Razzies thought 2019 was a bad year for film) and come up with their list dishonouring the worst in film. 

It will, I suppose, come as little surprise to most that a certain CGI-heavy feline-inspired musical features heavily. 

Here are the full nominations for the 40th Annual Razzie Awards 

WORST PICTURE

Cats

The Fanatic

The Haunting Of Sharon Tate

A Madea Family Funeral

Rambo: Last Blood

WORST ACTRESS

Hilary Duff (The Haunting Of Sharon Tate)

Anne Hathaway (The Hustle and Serenity)

Francesca Hayward (Cats)

Tyler Perry (as Madea) (A Madea Family Funeral)

Rebel Wilson (The Hustle)

WORST ACTOR

James Franco (Zeroville)

David Harbour (Hellboy)

Matthew McConaughey (Serenity)

Sylvester Stallone (Rambo: Last Blood)

John Travolta (The Fanatic and Trading Paint)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

James Corden (Cats)

Tyler Perry (as Joe) (A Madea Family Funeral)

Tyler Perry (as Uncle Heathrow) (A Madea Family Funeral)

Seth Rogen (Zeroville)

Bruce Willis (Glass)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain (Dark Phoenix)

Cassi Davis (A Madea Family Funeral)

Judi Dench (Cats)

Fenessa Pineda (Rambo: First Blood)

Rebel Wilson (Cats)

WORST SCREEN COMBO

Any Two Half-Feline/Half-Human Hairballs (Cats)

Jason Derulo & His CGI-Neutered Bulge (Cats)

Tyler Perry & Tyler Perry (or Tyler Perry) (A Madea Family Funeral)

Sylvester Stallone & His Impotent Rage (Rambo: Last Blood)

John Travolta & Any Screenplay He Accepts

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

Dark Phoenix

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters

Hellboy

A Madea Family Funeral

Rambo: Last Blood

WORST DIRECTOR

Fred Durst (The Fanatic)

James Franco (Zeroville)

Adrian Grunberg (Rambo: Last Blood)

Tom Hooper (Cats)

Neil Marshall (Hellboy)

WORST SCREENPLAY

Cats

The Haunting Of Sharon Tate

Hellboy

A Madea Family Funeral

Rambo: Last Blood

WORST RECKLESS DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE AND PUBLIC PROPERTY

Dragged Across Concrete

The Haunting Of Sharon Tate

Hellboy

Joker

Rambo: Last Blood

RAZZIE REDEEMER

Eddie Murphy (Dolemite Is My Name)

Keanu Reeves (John Wick 3 and Toy Story 4)

Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems)

Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers)

Will Smith (Aladdin)

Cats ("the widely derided feline flop"), A Madea Family Funeral (Tyler Perry's 12th- and apparently last- Madea film; guess the Razzies voters didn't want to miss their chance to let him know what they really think) and Rambo: Last Blood ("Stallone's assaulting to the senses/insulting to the intelligence blood-drenched sequel") lead the pack with eight nods apiece. 

There are a couple of films- particularly Hellboy and Dark Phoenix- who can probably thank the unmitigated disasters that are Cats and A Madea Family Funeral from keeping them out of more categories. 

A new category has been added this year to point out films that show a reckless disregard for human life and public property (so, in future years, expect to see any big-budget blockbuster that razes a city to the ground with nary a thought). It's utterly petty, I know, but man I really REALLY hope Joker wins. [Whilst there are several previous Oscar nominees and winners included in this mishagoss, Joker is the only Oscar-nominated film this year to also get a Razzie nod]

Considering the accelerated timetable for this year's Oscars, the Razzies have said "to hell with it" and are announcing things in their own sweet time. As it stands, there's no date given for the 40th Razzies ceremony but it's going to be televised!We'll definitely be covering it though.

This is the first of several awards posts for the weekend, as tonight (Saturday 8th February) is the Film Independent Spirit Awards and tomorrow is the big one- the 92nd Academy Awards. We're almost there...

Awards Season 2019: Razzies Nominations

And so, as is traditional now on the eve of the Oscar nominations, we come to one of the more lighthearted and less serious awards: the Golden Raspberrys (Razzies), dishonouring the worst in film in 2018. 

Here are the full nominations for the 39th Annual Razzie Awards 

WORST PICTURE

Gotti

The Happytime Murders

Holmes & Watson  

Robin Hood

Winchester 

WORST ACTRESS

Jennifer Garner (Peppermint)

Amber Heard (London Fields)

Melissa McCarthy (The Happytime Murders and Life of the Party)

Helen Mirren (Winchester)

Amanda Seyfried (The Clapper)  

WORST ACTOR

Johnny Depp (Voice Only) (Sherlock Gnomes)

Will Ferrell (Holmes & Watson)

John Travolta (Gotti)

Donald J. Trump (As Himself) (Death of a Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9)    

Bruce Willis (Death Wish)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jamie Foxx (Robin Hood)

Ludacris (Voice Only) (Show Dogs)

Joel McHale (The Happytime Murders)

John C. Reilly (Holmes & Watson)

Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) 

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kellyanne Conway (As Herself) (Fahrenheit 11/9)

Marcia Gay Harden (Fifty Shades Freed)

Kelly Preston (Gotti)

Jaz Sinclair (Slender Man)

Melania Trump (As Herself) (Fahrenheit 11/9)

WORST SCREEN COMBO

Any Two Actors or Puppets (Especially in Those Creepy Sex Scenes) (The Happytime Murders)

Johnny Depp & His Fast-Fading Film Career (Sherlock Gnomes)

Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly (Holmes & Watson)

Kelly Preston & John Travolta (Gotti)  

Donald J. Trump & His Self Perpetuating Pettiness (Death of a Nation & Fahrenheit 11/9)

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

Death of a Nation 

Death Wish

Holmes & Watson

The Meg 

Robin Hood  

WORST DIRECTOR

Etan Cohen (Holmes & Watson)

Kevin Connolly (Gotti)

James Foley (Fifty Shades Freed)

Brian Henson (The Happytime Murders)

The Spierig Brothers (Winchester)  

WORST SCREENPLAY

Death of a Nation

Fifty Shades Freed

Gotti

The Happytime Murders

Winchester

So it's a four-way tie between Gotti, Holmes & Watson, The Happytime Murders, and Death Of A Nation for most nominations (each with 6) 

Nothing for Venom. Nada. Zip. This surprises me. Joint-top nominations for The Happytime Murders? That does not surprise me. As for the other categories, everything seems pretty standard as the Razzies go. Slating for the Fifty Shades... films? Check. Raging contempt for Johnny Depp? Check.

In case anyone's wondering, Death Of A Nation is a 'docudrama' which- and I kid you not- compares the dramatic fracturing of the US over the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and the presidency of Donald Trump. A film which has the tagline: 'Can we save America a second time?' It's written and directed by 'documentarian' and convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza whose last film- Hillary's America: The Secret History Of The Democratic Party- did a massive hatchet job on Democrats in general and Clinton in particular and got similarly panned at the 2017 Razzies. Unsurprisingly, and with a depressing inevitability, D'Souza received a full pardon by Trump in 2018.  I look this shit up so you don't have to. You're welcome, random people of the Internet. 

The Razzies winners will be announced on Saturday February 23rd 2019 (ie. the day before the Oscars). 


Right, after all of this malarkey, it just leaves the big one: the 91st Academy Awards, whose nominations will be announced tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd January). I am still weighing up my predictions for the main six categories- several categories are wide open-  but I will post them later today (once I've actually made a decision). 

Carrie

Carrie (1976)

Putting films into categories is a dangerous business. First you have genres, then you have sub-genres, then you have those films that are a concoction of various genres and sub-genres. By some margin, horror has more sub-genres than any other type of film out there, from the sublime (zombies, slashers, haunted houses), to the God awful (torture porn). One of these sub-genres (arguably the best of the bunch) is psychological horror: very few jolts and blood, instead the scares come from intense, hard to take your eyes off performances and an unnerving atmosphere, films such as Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. One of the all-time greats of psychological horror is Brian De Palma’s Carrie. The film launched the careers of both its director and the book’s author, Stephen King. De Palma’s films had so far failed to connect with both audiences and the majority of critics, while Carrie, King’s first novel, had gained critical acclaim, but wasn’t exactly flying off the shelves.

Whenever a list is drawn up of the greatest horror films, Carrie is always in there somewhere. Plenty of films have scene-after-scene of gore and leap-out-your-seat jolts, but De Palma’s first stab at mainstream cinema proves you don’t always need these tricks to frighten your audience. Instead, De Palma prefers to get under your skin, shocking you with scenes that go in one direction, then do a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn and dart off somewhere else.

The cinematography in Carrie is up there with some of the finest in cinema, let alone a low budget horror film, director of photography Mario Tosi and art director Jack Fisk creating one set piece after another during the film’s ninety-minutes. Opening with a crane shot of a volleyball game, the camera focuses in on Carrie, stood away from the others. Off-screen we hear the girls taunting her, “Hit it to Carrie, she’ll miss it!” Unsurprisingly, Carrie drops the ball, the girls walking past, spitting insults at her. The scene that follows is deliberately shot to look like a porn film, filmed in slow motion as naked girls wander the steam-filled changing room. This is only the second scene and already we have full frontal nudity. De Palma is intentionally breaking, at that time, film’s rigid conventions. Back in 1976, you can imagine cinema audiences watching this scene, uncomfortable, thinking, “Here’s a director who will do anything!”

The camera zooms in on Sissy Spacek in the shower. What De Palma is doing here is misleading the audience; you think this scene is about sensuality, but what follows is the complete opposite. In the previous volleyball scene we saw how much the other girls hate Carrie, now they act out that hatred. The soft music and slow motion immediately stops as Carrie has her first period. Having never been taught about puberty, she is terrified, crying out for help, though instead of sympathy from the girls, they throw tampons at her, yelling “Plug it up!” These first few minutes set up the rest of the film: whatever you are expecting from a horror film, or a film in general, forget it. De Palma is leading you on a merry dance and you’re going to hold his hand every step of the way.

Carrie’s home is homage to gothic art, a contrast to the quaint, picture perfect town where the film is set. The house is dim, claustrophobic, filled with crosses and arches; there’s even a painting of The Last Supper hanging on the wall above the dinner table. Everything that makes Carrie who she is, a frightened, timid young woman, is plain to see. She is trapped, suffocated by her mother’s fevered obsession with religion. The house is a narrative device, aiding the viewer in sympathising with Carrie, wanting her to get out, to escape.

When we get to the prom scene, De Palma does not rush things. For those who have never seen the film before, you know something bad is about to happen, De Palma deliberately taking his time, building up the tension. The scene begins with a crane shot of the prom. You get to see the band, the decorations, people dancing and laughing and having fun. This is the night that high school students look forward to, care so much about, and soon it will be destroyed.

For much of the prom scene, things are perfect for Carrie. She has come out of her shell, smiling and enjoying herself. When Carrie dances with her date, Tommy (William Katt), the camera is low down, spinning around them. In any other film this would be gut-queasingly sickly, but the audience knows this is leading up to something, then, in one lengthy, continuous shot, we find out what that something is.

Norma (P.J. Soles, who would go on to star in another landmark horror film, John Carpenter’s Halloween) collects the votes for the prom king and queen, swaps them, and gives the thumbs up to Chris (Nancy Allen) and Billy (John Travolta) who are crouched underneath the stage, holding onto a rope. We then follow the rope up towards the ceiling where a bucket of pig’s blood hangs, the camera zooming in on Carrie and Tommy’s table, where the shot began.

The destruction that follows – the Carrie throughout the film has been child-like in her innocence and vulnerability, but that Carrie vanishes, replaced with a childlike rage – has been discussed in numerous features and reviews. What I will mention is something that surprises me every time I watch Carrie: despite the massacre on screen, we still care about Spacek. Carrie does not enjoy what she is doing; she is not revelling in her actions. She is in a blind rage, lashing out at everyone, including gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), her only friend at high school. In any other film, Miss Collins would have survived, but here she has to die so we understand that Carrie has lost all control, the anger she feels towards her peers, normally kept buried, has been unleashed.

Carrie’s ending is one of the horror genre’s most infamous scenes. Normally when I buy a DVD, the person at the till smiles and takes my money. When I bought Carrie, I remember the woman who served me had this grin on her face when she said, “The ending creeps me out every time!” When the scene begins it is slowed down, shot in soft focus, making you question what you are seeing. For me, two things make the ending so horrible to watch: Sissy Spacek’s blood-smeared arm slowly – Carrie’s arm doesn’t grab her, she takes her time, as if she is crawling out of the grave – appearing from the ground, clutching hold of Sue (Amy Irving), accompanied by Pino Donaggio’s score. Carrie’s theme is played once more as Sue walks towards the rubble where Carrie’s house once stood, yet when the arm appears the music swiftly changes, replaced with an eerie xylophone, resembling something from a nursery rhyme, and what sounds like an army of stabbing violins, the instruments playing the same short notes over and over while Sue screams. You don’t see it coming the first time you watch Carrie and on repeat viewings you wish it wasn’t coming, that there was an alternate, happier ending.

It’s not just De Palma’s direction that holds your attention, Carrie’s two main leads were both Oscar-nominated, Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek both giving haunting performances as mother and daughter. Piper Laurie had retired from acting for fifteen years, but agreed to take on the role of Margaret White once she read Laurence D. Cohen’s screenplay. Carrie is unsettling to watch for many reasons, but this is largely due to Laurie’s performance. Wide-eyed, occasionally snarling as she delivers her dialogue, Margaret White is more like a machine than a mother as she spews out her fanatical beliefs. Laurie is given plenty of one-liners, leaving the viewer in no doubt that Margaret White never wanted a daughter. She calls Carrie’s breasts her “dirty pillows,” and when her daughter gets back from high school she mutters, “The devil has come home.” It is difficult to watch as Margaret White drags Carrie kicking and screaming into the closet, locking her inside. In Stephen King’s novel, Carrie kills her mother by stopping her heart, which works fine on the page, but would have been a tough job to recreate onscreen. Instead De Palma chooses a far more violent, satirical method of killing her off. Hands impaled to the door frame, Margaret White becomes a human pin cushion as Carrie commands all kinds of knives and kitchen utensils to soar through the air, stabbing her mother. As the knives plunge into her, Margaret moans loudly, the sounds overtly sexual, before she finally dies, her body resembling the model replica in the closet of Saint Sebastian, where Carrie spent hours locked inside, praying. In case the viewer was in any doubt, Carrie had been trapped by her mother’s religious beliefs, suffocated, and in this scene Carrie at long last sets herself free.

When De Palma was casting for the role of Carrie, Sissy Spacek was not his first choice. Age twenty-six, De Palma was looking for a younger actress to play the lead. When Spacek found out about this, it made her more determined, getting her into the mind-set of the victimised, constantly put down Carrie. During her second audition, Spacek smeared Vaseline in her hair, refused to wear any make up, and cut up one of her dresses in order to look the part. Both De Palma and George Lucas, who was looking for actors for Star Wars, were blown away. Carrie is a demanding role; on the one hand she is a victim – frightened, fidgety, her voice scarcely a whisper – yet there is an anger which threatens to come to the surface (in one scene, using her powers, she knocks a child off his bike when he yells at her). Spacek gets the balance absolutely right; Carrie is not a monster, she is still a child, trapped in a teenage body, a social outcast who is tortured daily, both by her mother and her high school classmates. You feel for Carrie and are always on her side, despite the violence that is carried out during the film’s climax.

High school horror films are now a sub-genre in their own right, Carrie is that influential. Considering De Palma’s first commercial success is not strictly horror, so many films in this genre have been inspired by or simply stolen ideas from it. Stephen King has had the misfortune of seeing dozens of his books translate poorly to the big screen, but De Palma’s Carrie is one of those rare adaptations that manages to do its source material justice, while occasionally bettering it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Carrie (2013)

It’s fair to say that I’m not all that keen on Hollywood’s obsession with horror remakes. While there is the odd one that you could get away with having in your DVD collection (Marcus Nispel’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Matt Reeves’ Let Me In, and Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead) there are plenty out there that are shameless, shot-for-shot rehashes (John Moore’s version of The Omen is still top of my hit list). It’s not a case of if The Exorcist gets a remake, it’s when.

Normally the announcement of a reworking of Brian De Palma’s Carrie would have sent me into a rage, but when I heard the talent that was on board, I was intrigued. Kimberly Peirce, director of Boys Don’t Cry, would be running proceedings, while Chloe Grace Moretz would be playing the title role.

Boys Don’t Cry is an underrated classic. Despite the critical acclaim it received, it did not get the commercial success it deserved, and when I mention the film to friends, it’s very rare that I don’t get a blank stare. Boys Don’t Cry is not about cinematography; Peirce concentrates on her cast, Hilary Swank giving arguably her finest performance.

Chloe Grace Moretz is quickly becoming Hollywood’s most sought after leading lady; she can do a better job of holding a viewer’s attention than actors twice her age. Up until Carrie, Moretz had played roles that were tough as hell (Hit Girl in the Kick Ass films), unsettling (Abby in Let Me In) or courageous (Isabelle in Hugo). With her next film, I was interested to see if Moretz could manage playing the victimised, cripplingly shy Carrie White.

Peirce’s version of Carrie does have some good ideas; unfortunately there are not enough of them to stop you from thinking that maybe she should have left well alone. When I sat down at the cinema about to watch Carrie for the twenty-first century, I was not expecting the craftsmanship of De Palma’s original. The visuals in Peirce’s previous films have been functional, everything in place with just the right amount of lighting. What holds your attention is the acting going on in front of the camera, and Carrie does not try and change things.

In De Palma’s film, Carrie’s home was a character in its own right: it was gothic, dimly lit, and you felt Carrie’s fear every time she walked through the front door. Moretz’s house has plenty of windows, all of the curtains open. What you do notice is how bare it looks; there are no family photos, every room is modest and plain. There is a noticeable lack of colour, everything looks faded. The prom scene in the original is like something from a dream or a fairy-tale, everything in shot just that little bit too perfect, heightening the anticipation for when Carrie’s happiness comes to an end. With this latest version of Carrie, the prom resembles end of year celebrations across America: cheap decorations, the latest pop music played through the speakers, photos of classmates shown on a big screen. School bullying is an issue that regularly makes the front pages and Peirce points the finger at the teenage members of her audience, saying to them, “Recognise this?”

The problem with the remake of Carrie is that the impact it is trying to create, especially around the issues of bullying, is lessened by the film’s final act, when Moretz has her revenge. In De Palma’s film, he did not have the budget to recreate Carrie’s rampage through the town that is depicted in King’s book, while Peirce spends a significant amount of time throwing numerous CGI effects at the screen, set pieces that could easily have come from a Michael Bay film. Cars are smashed, a petrol station explodes, and the ground opens up. The chaos that ensues is far more impressive than in De Palma’s film, but it all feels too much. The story of Carrie isn’t about seeing a car lifted high into the air and hurled at a petrol station, it’s about the sympathy you feel towards its main character. This is the biggest problem with the remake’s final act; Carrie is smiling as those around her are dying. Moretz does a brilliant evil grin, flashing a smile as her classmates are set alight, trampled on and crushed by debris. The point of King’s book, and De Palma’s film, is that Carrie has a power she can barely control, that threatens to be let loose. The teenagers at Carrie’s high school are ignorant of this, pushing her until she finally snaps. This is why the gym teacher dies in De Palma’s original; Carrie is enraged, she no longer knows what she is doing. Moretz’s Carrie chooses to let her teacher, Miss Desjardin (Judy Greer), live, she is in complete control, seemingly enjoying her killing spree. Throughout the first film you are constantly on Carrie’s side, you pity her; the same cannot be said for the remake, which undermines what Peirce has been doing throughout, updating Carrie’s themes for today’s audience.

It’s a shame, as there are some excellent performances in the Carrie remake. Moretz does a great job playing Carrie, delivering far less dialogue than Spacek. Instead, Moretz gives a more physical performance, frequently hunched up, eyes darting around her. Moretz’s pleading expression when she is being tormented makes it hard not to feel sorry for her. Also, the glares she gives early on as, for a moment, her anger gets the better of her, are startling. While Spacek will always be remembered as Carrie, Moretz gives it a damn good try.

Julianne Moore, a hugely underrated actress, is impressive as ever in her portrayal of Margaret White. Wisely avoiding any resemblance to Piper Laurie’s performance, Moore even manages to make you feel some sympathy towards Margaret. In De Palma’s film, Margaret White makes it very clear that she did not want a daughter; at no point does she show Carrie any love or kindness, instead punishing her and putting her down every chance she gets. While Laurie is terrifying as Carrie’s mother, Moore is more believable. Moore’s Margaret White also did not want to be a mother, but she sees being a parent as a test from God, and while at no point does she say her child’s name, instead referring to Carrie as “Little girl,” you get the sense that she loves her daughter and wants to protect her. Piper Laurie only hints at Margaret White self-harming, whereas Julianne Moore is repeatedly seen hitting her head, scratch marks on her arms and legs and, during one genuinely unpleasant scene, we watch Moore as she stabs her thigh with a hair clip. Moore’s Margaret White has been the victim of abuse, turning to God for comfort; she does not want Carrie to suffer and make the same mistakes that she did at her age, only Margaret goes about things the wrong way. Piper Laurie in Brian De Palma’s original film may have more of an impact on viewers, but Julianne Moore alone stops the Carrie remake from falling into the “Just another cynical remake” category.

Even Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) and Tommy Ross (Ansel Elgort) are given more to do this time round, both characters having been bullied in the past and, knowing what this feels like, come to Carrie’s aid. None of this was ever mentioned in De Palma’s film.

Peirce’s remake does have one other setback. During Boys Don’t Cry’s two hours, Peirce takes her time to make sense of her characters, exploring the themes surrounding Brandon Teena’s true story. With Carrie, Peirce charges towards Moretz’s blood-spattered vengeance. While the film is fast paced, and some screen time is spent exploring its characters, this is fleeting compared to Peirce’s previous films. You get hints of how complex and conflicted Carrie’s characters are, but then you quickly move onto the next scene. Considering how character-driven King’s novel is, how it is filled with subtext, making Peirce the ideal director for a 2013 version, for some reason she squanders this.

Like this year’s other horror re-tread, Evil Dead, Carrie is one of the better remakes out there, but, unlike Fede Alvarez’s film, it does not feel like there are many new ideas here. Moretz and Moore both give great performances, but are either let down by what is asked of them in the screenplay, or are not given enough time to really stand out. Peirce’s Carrie is not a total failure and is certainly worth a watch, even by devoted De Palma fans. It just feels like more could have been done here and that, ultimately, it’s a waste.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Matt 

Rhys' Retro Collection #2: Broken Arrow and Cobra

BROKEN ARROW (1996)

Broken Arrow was written by Graham Yost (who wrote Speed) and directed by the then can-do-no-wrong John Woo. It’s 1996 and at that time John Travolta is in full come back mode. This film is a massive ‘I'm cool, I'm back’ statement from Travolta.

The film centres on the deliberate crash of a stealth bomber to steal nuclear weapons. Travolta plays the villainous traitor bomber pilot, while Christian Slater plays the hero pilot who is trying to stop him. Slater gives a very good go at playing the young hero – but I’m afraid to say I can see why Slater didn’t do much after this. He just doesn’t have what it takes to be a leading man. I would have liked to see someone else take on Travolta and make me believe they’re a worthy match.

The film has the flair and style of a John Woo movie – stunning visual cues and themes are as ever used here – the director likes to set up characters with visual cues (i.e. introducing characters with music cues and slick visuals to demonstrate who they are; Travolta slow motion walks into frame while looking menacing – that sort of thing).  Which now I’m afraid to say is very dated – but the film came out in 1996, which is sixteen years ago! What is more worrying for me is the film is almost twenty years old and reminds me I’m mortal! Anyway, enough of me realising how old a tech VHS is, the film…

The plot is set in almost real time – you’re thrown from action scene to action scene chasing down Travolta before he can set off a nuke – very familiar stuff for action fans. Which in some ways makes it a little- dare I say- boring? When I watched this when I was younger I loved this film, but now it’s just a little dull and way too predictable! Don't get me wrong, I’m a Woo fan and the Travolta and Woo re-team a year later with Face/Off is superb and has stood the test of time! But this film just feels lacklustre now. I was disappointed with it and I’m afraid it hasn’t made it onto the re-buy on DVD list!

Rating: 2 out of 5

COBRA (1986)

Now this is an example of my guilty pleasures in movies – a 1980’s action movie starring Sylvester Stallone! When this film came out, it was a film based on the original script for Beverly Hills Cop. While Stallone was attached to star in that film, he worked on the script – when the studio decided his Beverly Hills Cop was not what they wanted, Stallone left the project – but took his screenplay with him, which then became Cobra! This is a prime example of a film in my old collection that I should hate, be ashamed of and downright say ‘by today’s standards etc etc’. However, I won’t.

Why? Because it’s dated, it’s badly plotted, badly acted and badly directed by George P. Cosmatos (who, a year previously, directed Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part 2 to great success). So why does this film still make me smile? Because if you’re expecting anything else from a 80s action movie, you’re a moron! This does what it sets out to do: low on plot, high on action. Bad guy doing bad things, good guy takes him out! And there is nothing wrong with that.

Stallone plays the lead title role, a cop who specialises in chaos and taking on the jobs other cops don't want! (Love it – just cliché heaven). The film has everything you expect: an over the top villain, played hammily brillantly by Brian Thompson; a damsel in distress (played by the then Mrs. Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen), bad pun one-liners; a montage, and more deaths than there rightly should be. The film is awful – however quite simply it’s 'that bad, it’s good!' You can't help but smile while watching 80s Stallone. This film is worth a re-watch, but I feel I won’t rush to replace it on DVD even though I enjoyed it again.

Rating: 3 out 5

Rhys