Awards Season 2025: Razzies Winners

As is tradition on Oscars Eve, the (un)lucky recipients of this year's Razzies (the id to the Oscar's superego, if you like) have been announced. And there's perhaps no surprise which fairly universally derided superhero movie limps off with the top prize.

Here are this year's "winners"

Worst Picture: Madame Web

Worst Director: Francis Ford Coppola (Megalopolis)

Worst Actor: Jerry Seinfeld (Unfrosted)

Worst Actress: Dakota Johnson (Madame Web)

Worst Supporting Actor: Jon Voight (Megalopolis, Reagan, Shadow Land, and Strangers)

Worst Supporting Actress: Amy Schumer (Unfrosted) 

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel: Joker: Folie à Deux

Worst Screen Combo: Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga (Joker: Folie à Deux)

Worst Screenplay: Madame Web

Razzie Redeemer: Pamela Anderson (for her performance in The Last Showgirl)

Madame Web is the big winner of the night, with three awards; it's then a three-way tie for second with Unfrosted, Joker: Folie à Deux, and Megalopolis walking away with two apiece.

Despite multiple nominations, Borderlands, Reagan, The Crow, Argylle, and Kraven The Hunter walk away unscathed. 

No sooner did Madame Web make it onto the screens then it was being derided as one of the worst superhero films that's been made, but was even being touted as a potential Razzie winner even before it left the cinemas. Ouch. 

A little trivia for you now: Francis Ford Coppola becomes the fourth director to win both the Best Director Oscar and a Worst Director Razzie, following on from Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter/Heaven's Gate), Kevin Costner (Dances With Wolves/The Postman), and Tom Hooper (The King's Speech/Cats) [Coppola won the Best Director Oscar for The Godfather Part II]. There have been plenty of directors that have either been nominated for one and won the other (or nominated for both but won neither), but these four stand above. 

Coppola has rather gamely accepted the win, posting the following message on Instagram: "I am thrilled to accept the Razzie award... and for the distinctive honor of being nominated as the worst director, worst screenplay, and worst picture at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking! In this wreck of a world today, where ART is given scores as if it were professional wrestling, I chose to NOT follow the gutless rules laid down by an industry so terrified of risk that despite the enormous pool of young talent at its disposal, may not create pictures that will be relevant and alive 50 years from now. [...]  Let us remind ourselves us that box-office is only about money, and like war, stupidity and politics has no true place in our future."

Megalopolis has long been a passion project for Coppola; he'd been trying to get it made since the 1970s and even sold one of his wineries to fund the project. I have to admire his chutzpah; he didn't compromise, he made the film he wanted to make. No doubt he was hoping it might win awards... Maybe just not these ones. 

Congratulations (commiserations?) to the "winners". 

So, that just leaves the big one: the 97th Academy Awards. I'll be posting my predictions for who will win in six major categories tomorrow afternoon.

 

Awards Season 2025: Razzies Nominations

An unexpected little surprise awaited me this morning. The tricksy folks at the Razzies let these nominations slip out early (being announced late yesterday evening [Tuesday 21st January], rather than today) and- much like a fart at a dinner party- while the timing has caught me off guard, the stench of cinematic excrement is still very much present. 

Here is the full list of nominees:

WORST PICTURE

Borderlands

Joker: Folie à Deux

Madame Web

Megalopolis

Reagan

WORST ACTOR

Jack Black (Dear Santa)

Zachary Levi (Harold And The Purple Crayon)

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux)

Dennis Quaid (Reagan)

Jerry Seinfeld (Unfrosted)

WORST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett (Borderlands)

Lady Gaga (Joker: Folie à Deux)

Bryce Dallas Howard (Argylle)

Dakota Johnson (Madame Web)

Jennifer Lopez (Atlas)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jack Black (voice only) (Borderlands)

Kevin Hart (Borderlands)

Shia LaBeouf (Megalopolis)

Tahar Rahim (Madame Web)

Jon Voight (Megalopolis, Reagan, Shadow Land, and Strangers)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Ariana DeBose (Argylle and Kraven The Hunter)

Lesley-Anne Down (Reagan)

Emma Roberts (Madame Web)

Amy Schumer (Unfrosted)

FKA twigs (The Crow)

WORST DIRECTOR

S.J. Clarkson (Madame Web)

Francis Ford Coppola (Megalopolis)

Todd Phillips (Joker: Folie à Deux)

Eli Roth (Borderlands)

Jerry Seinfeld (Unfrosted)

WORST SCREEN COMBO

Any two obnoxious characters (but especially Jack Black) (Borderlands)

Any two unfunny "comedic actors" (Unfrosted)

The entire cast (Megalopolis)

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga (Joker: Folie à Deux)

Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller (Reagan)

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL

The Crow

Joker: Folie à Deux

Kraven The Hunter

Mufasa: The Lion King

Rebel Moon 2: The Scargiver

WORST SCREENPLAY

Joker: Folie à Deux

Kraven The Hunter

Madame Web

Megalopolis

Reagan

Joker: Folie à Deux leads the way with seven nods, with a four-way tie for second place between Borderlands (a film I'd forgotten had even been released, to be honest), Madame Web, Megalopolis, and Reagan all bagging six apiece. 

In case anyone is wondering, Unfrosted is a biographical comedy-drama about the origins of... the Pop-Tart. Well, if they can do a movie about the origins of Flaming Hot Cheetos (which they have; it's called Flamin' Hot and was directed by Eva Longoria), then why not have one about Pop-Tarts? Just don't get any silly ideas about food-based franchises, Hollywood...

I was asked if there were any surprises in the nominations, and I had to say yes. The big surprise for me was the relative lack of nominations for both Kraven The Hunter and The Crow (limping off with three and two respectively). I guess three is pretty good (bad?) going for Kraven The Hunter as it was only released in December, but I was expecting more for The Crow. It's a wholly soulless, derivative and unnecessary remake. I think Bill Skarsgård can count his lucky stars that there were five more worse performances than his. 

Quite a few expected film titles and performances included here. I was waiting to see how much Joker: Folie à Deux and Madame Web were going to have their metaphorical asses handed to them; their relative scores do not disappoint. 

However, as usual, the Razzies throws up a couple of film titles I've got no idea about: this year's clutch of unidentifiable dreck includes Atlas, Shadow Land, and Strangers, the latter two forming Jon Voight's four-headed nomination. Well, given his new "ambassadorial" role to Hollywood, he might be too busy over the next year or so to keep churning out these [what sound like] painfully by-the-numbers straight-to-TV/DVD duds. Everyone's a winner, baby. 

The winners of the coveted $4.97 spray-painted trophies will be announced in a video press release on Oscars eve (Saturday 1st March). 

And as I've already been a little premature and posted my Oscar predictions (no need to be ashamed, lads, it happens more frequently than you'd think), my next post will be tomorrow afternoon to recap the Oscar nominations. 

Awards Season 2024: Razzies Winners

Ah, Oscars Eve. A day for last-minute preparations, looking over acceptance speeches, sorting out outfits, and generally hoping your name follows the famous declaration "And the Oscar goes to..."

As is traditional, the Golden Raspberry Awards are also handed out on this day, to dishonour the worst in cinema of the previous year. And this year, as well as the undeniable stink of cinematic effluence, there's a definite whiff of both blood and honey as well... 

Here are this year's "winners"

Worst Picture: Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey 

Worst Director: Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey)

Worst Actor: Jon Voight (Mercy)

Worst Actress: Megan Fox (Johnny & Clyde)

Worst Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone (Expend4bles)

Worst Supporting Actress: Megan Fox (Expend4bles)

Worst Remake, Sequel Or Rip-Off: Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey

Worst Screen Combo: Pooh and Piglet as Blood-Thirsty Slasher/Killers (Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey)

Worst Screenplay: Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey

Razzie Redeemer: Fran Drescher

This year's Razzie Redeemer, Fran Drescher, was previously nominated for Worst Actress at the Razzies for the as-bad-as-it-sounds romantic comedy The Beautician And The Beast (1997). However, as the current president of SAG/AFTRA (the American actors' union), she has been rightly praised for her strong leadership throughout the 2023 actors' strike. 

Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey was the big winner, taking home five awards (and "winning" each category it was nominated in). Expend4bles takes home two Razzies, including another win for Sylvester Stallone. As the French say, "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".

Congratulations (commiserations?) to the "winners". 

So, that just leaves the big one: the 96th Academy Awards. I'll be posting my predictions for who will win in six major categories tomorrow afternoon. And, much like today, there'll be one particular movie that's going to come up a lot...

Revlew: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (UK Cert 12A)

Let's be fair, the Harry Potter movie franchise is an absolute juggernaut. Eight movies, all expertly written, directed and acted. So the production team are obviously hoping that lightning is going to strike twice with the first of five films in the Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them franchise. 

Written by J.K. Rowling, produced by David Heyman and directed by David Yates (who directed the last four Harry Potter films), Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them sees magizoologist Newt Scamander- author of the titular Hogwarts set text- in New York in 1926, having to hunt down a few of his errant creatures that escape whilst negotiating the hostility of a No-Maj (muggle/non-magical) society and the machinations of a very dangerous dark wizard: Gellert Grindlewald.  

Eddie Redmayne exudes a very lovely eccentric edge as Newt. If he wasn't already an Oscar-winning actor with a major franchise ahead of him, I'd suggest he submits this to the Doctor Who casting office in case they need to start looking for Peter Capaldi's replacement. There is a very Doctor-ish feel to Newt- slightly out of step with other humans, very focused on his own little world and with a dimensionally transcendental piece of apparatus (it's no exaggeration to say that Newt's suitcase is bigger on the inside).  

Katherine Waterston is similarly strong as demoted Auror Tina Goldstein who arrests Newt for being an unregistered wizard and then gets drawn in to his quest to reclaim his missing creatures. Threatening to steal the show, however, are Alison Sudol as Tina's mindreading and flirty sister Queenie and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, a No-Maj cannery worker and aspiring baker who gets his suitcase swapped with Newt's and also gets drawn into a world he never knew existed. 

The rest of the cast are pretty good too: Samantha Morton is chilling as the dead-eyed fanatic Mary Lou Barebone, leader of the Second Salemers who call for wizards and witches to be destroyed. Ezra Miller is similarly good as her adopted son Credence, a young man with more than a few secrets of his own. It's odd to see an actor with the profile and presence of Jon Voight in a film like this, but he only has a glorified cameo as a newspaper magnate so doesn't bother unduly. The only dud note is Colin Farrell, who I just can't take seriously, especially as he's supposed to be the Head of Magical Security at MACUSA (the Magical Congress of the United States of America).

Visually, as you can imagine, the film is just stunning. Everything from the steam liner that Newt disembarks from at the very beginning to the sweeping grandeur of the MACUSA headquarters and the world within Newt's suitcase is just sublime. A quick trip to a magical speakeasy also provides scale but it's also in the smaller scenes- Queenie magically making a strudel, for instance- where the production design and the visual effects shine. The magical beasts, too, are similarly wonderful.  

This is a 12A so it's not all cutesy- there's some quite dark stuff within there, not least a murderous force created by a magical being suppressing their magical ability. There's child abuse, lost loves, a rather unpleasant near-death experience for one of the main characters and a resolutely downbeat moment in the rain (which, I don't mind admitting, I teared up to). There are glimmers of hope towards the end but you don't half go through the wringer to get there. 

This might sound like a bit of an odd complaint to have about a film called Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them... but I really could have done with there being more beasts. There are some wonderful set-pieces involving Newt trying to catch a Niffler (a kind of avaricious platypus, attracted to shiny things) and also trying to catch an escaped erupment (a large and horny cross between a hippopotamus and a rhinoceros) in Central Park. But the film almost treats these as side-shows, instead focusing on the political situation with the No-Majs versus MACUSA and the ever-growing threat of Grindlewald. I don't know whether they felt it would just be a series of set-pieces strung together with a flimsy plot if it was just Newt turning up trying to find things- nothing more than a big-screen version of Pokemon Go, perhaps?- and perhaps it might not sustain five films. 

This slight niggle aside, I found Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them to be a very strong start to the franchise and I look forward to seeing more.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez