10 Razzie Winners That Are Actually Worth Watching
The Razzies – or the Golden Raspberries if you want to call them by their official name – have been running for 45 years now. Whether you agree with the sentiment of calling out bad films or not, you can’t deny that the infamous awards body usually picks out genuine stinkers for the recognition nobody wants.
However, the Razzies have made some bad choices over the years. It even backtracked on a couple of them, with Shelley Duvall’s performance in The Shining being scrubbed out of the history books due to the context of her poor treatment on set. An apology was also issued to Ryan Kiera Armstrong after the young actress was criticised for her display in the recent Stephen King adaptation, Firestarter.
Beyond those U-turns, however, the Razzies have stuck to their guns on a handful of films that really don’t deserve the hate. Here are 10 winners (or losers, depending on how you look at it) that are still worth your time.
Once you get past the freakish visuals of the practical effects to bring the titular character to life on the big screen, Howard the Duck is actually a pretty entertaining film. It’s wild that this movie even exists, to be honest; Howard the Duck is a very strange, not particularly popular Marvel Comics creation among its pantheon of superheroes, and yet he got his own film more than 20 years before the MCU’s inception.
There’s a bizarre romantic subplot in the film that’s probably best not to ask too many questions about. In fact, the main plot doesn’t make much more sense, but this is one of those movies where it doesn’t really matter. Sure, Howard the Duck is full of flaws, which is why it won four Razzies (including Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay), but it is undeniably funny, and you simply have to admire the ambition of it all. You’ll have to pay £2.49 to rent it from YouTube, but I promise you it’s worth it to experience this unique, very crazy ride.
In the late ‘90s, Barry Sonnenfeld had credit in the bank thanks to his work on The Addams Family (and its sequel) and the truly brilliant Men in Black. However, all that credit counted for nothing when his next project was the incredibly messy Wild Wild West, which bagged him the Worst Director gong at the Razzies, as well as taking the top prize of Worst Picture. It’s probably a project everyone wishes they had turned down, actually, especially Will Smith, who reportedly rejected the role of Morpheus in The Matrix to jump into this much-maligned action-comedy Western.
The plot, which involves a madcap inventor wanting to start another American Civil War, is the kind of thing you just cannot believe got the green light. However, it’s for that very reason that you just have to see what it’s all about for morbid curiosity’s sake. If you appreciated what Steven Spielberg did with War of the Worlds, you might just find yourself having a good time with this peculiar picture. At the very least, you have to applaud the production design, which makes it worth a £3.49 rental fee on Apple TV.
Honestly, Catwoman deserves your attention purely for the fact that, when the film swept the Razzies, Halle Berry accepted her Worst Actress award in person and delivered a long and very funny speech. She even set the trophy on fire after the ceremony. Based on that alone, you absolutely have to see what all the fuss is about.
On a technical level, this film is atrocious. The CGI is bad. The acting is bad. The story is extremely bad. And yet, Catwoman really does land in that zone of being ‘so bad it’s good.’ From the now-iconic basketball sequence to Berry’s cheesy one-liners, there’s just so much to enjoy here if you want mindless entertainment. Fans of films like Daredevil and Green Lantern should definitely add this to their collection.
With Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” being the latest in this trend of spicy cinema, we figured it would be worthwhile redirecting your attention to the film that really kicked off the modern era for mildly erotic viewing, Fifty Shades of Grey. I say mildly erotic because, let’s be honest, the film was pretty soft all things considered. After the books had got so many readers hot under the collar, the big screen version was far too tame.
Still, the film enjoyed massive box office success, grossing just under $570m against a budget of just $40m. Critics hated it, and the Razzies voters handed Fifty Shades of Grey five awards, including Worst Picture and Worst Screen Combo, rubbing salt in the wound for then-newcomers Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. Still, if you’re left wanting more after “Wuthering Heights”, you could do far worse than sticking this on via your Prime Video subscription. It’s got a great soundtrack, the visuals are lavish, and in my opinion, the actors do a fine job with the material they were given.
When I was running through the history of the Razzies, I was honestly stunned to see Rocky IV – one of my favourite movies and arguably the greatest, most rousing sports movie of all time – among its Hall of Shame. Sylvester Stallone was named the Worst Director and the Worst Actor for this film, which is just wild to me. I’ve never thought Stallone does anything remarkable in those early Rocky movies, but he’s exactly what the character should be.
Is this film predictable? Hell yes. Is it filled with incredibly obvious anti-Russian propaganda? Absolutely. Are Dolph Lundgren and Brigitte Nielsen pretty terrible as the Soviet villains? Laughably so. But that’s the whole point! It’s always been that way with the Rocky franchise, and it wouldn’t be right to do anything else. Everything else aside, the two key fights in this film – between Drago and Apollo Creed and then Rocky and Drago – are so brutal and exciting that I cannot fathom why anyone would fail to have a good time here. This heinous crime against cinema may have occurred 40 years ago, but I’m never going to stop being angry.
The Star Trek franchise is so vast that it’s hard not to have its fair share of misfires, with projects on the big and small screen varying wildly in quality. While I acknowledge that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is far from perfect, it does at least take a huge swing, and I admire the balls of star and director William Shatner to even attempt it. It may have earned him three Razzies (Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Director), but who cares?
The story, in a nutshell, sees the Enterprise crew dealing with Spock’s half-brother, who hijacks their starship and ventures across the galaxy in search of God. And if that sounds odd on paper, it’s so much weirder in execution than words could ever do justice to. The performance from Laurence Luckinbill as Sybock, the antagonist, is a singular experience you have to see to believe, while the dodgy CGI and erratic storyline complement each other perfectly. If you’re a Trekkie in the early days of your journey with the movies, please keep going and get to The Final Frontier. It’s on Paramount Plus now, along with pretty much everything else Trek-related.
I’m not much of a fan of Adam Sandler’s early work in the ‘90s, but Big Daddy has always been one that I’ve had a bit of a soft spot for. It’s equal parts funny and sweet, which is never a bad blend, and Sandler goes pretty light on his usual schtick of overly loud, gross humour here. It also helps that the Sprouse twins (they both play the young boy, Julian, whom Sandler’s character adopts) have excellent, playful chemistry with the big man.
Sandler was crowned the Razzie’s Worst Actor of the year for his role in this comedy, which really does feel harsh. I mean, compared to The Waterboy, this deserves an Oscar if you ask me. It’s not at the levels of Punch Drunk Love or Click, but Big Daddy really does give Sandler the chance to show he can imbue his characters with a heart and go beyond the two-dimensional fools he normally plays. Catch it on Now TV Cinema if you fancy a really light, breezy 93-minute flick to get you giggling.
Incredibly, an Adam Sandler film is not the silliest, trashiest comedy on this list. Sex Tape stars Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel as a couple desperately trying to recapture the magic in their marriage, who – as you may have guessed – have their very special home video leaked to the world. It’s not a groundbreaking, side-splitting comedy that’ll change your life, but it’s more than worthy of being your film of choice for a casual watch over a weekend. If you’re into the likes of Bad Teacher and Role Models, this’ll be right up your street.
Diaz was given the undesirable title of Worst Actress for her role in this film. Much like Sandler’s win 15 years prior, this feels really unfair. I mean, did anyone really expect her to flex her chops and turn in a performance of the highest order in a raunchy comedy? She understood the assignment and fulfilled exactly what was needed for the tone of the film.
How DARE the Razzies besmirch the great name of ABBA and screen icon Pierce Brosnan in one fell swoop like this!? No, he couldn’t sing, like, at all, but I’ll be damned if he didn’t try his best. It’s one thing to give a bad performance because you phoned it in, but you can totally see how much Brosnan is having fun and matching the required vibe for Mamma Mia!, and he should be celebrated for that, not given a Golden Raspberry.
I’d Mamma Mia! is a guilty pleasure of mine, although I don’t actually feel guilty at all. I love the music of ABBA, which obviously helps, but even if you just enjoy a good, cheesy, musical love story, you’ll find this utterly infectious. Amanda Seyfried is a delight to watch, while Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, and Colin Firth comprise a truly charming trio. I’ve watched this film alone, with my fiancée, and with my teenage daughter, and I genuinely enjoy it more each time.
Maybe it’s just nostalgia for my childhood talking here, but the 1998 version of Godzilla from Roland Emmerich slaps. It’s a very Hollywood take on the classic Japanese story, which admittedly strips away the more intriguing parts of the kaiju’s lore and legacy, but beyond that, it’s a fun summer blockbuster movie that doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is. Granted, if I watched this for the first time as an adult now, I’d probably cast it aside, but I’d argue it has far more value than the recent Monsterverse flicks that have been churned out.
Poor Maria Pitillo picked up the award for Worst Supporting Actress for her role in this disaster movie, and sadly, didn’t have much of a career after that. It’s a shame, too, given she had done some interesting work up to that point in films like Natural Born Killers and Chaplin. In fairness to the Razzies, Pitillo was one of the main offenders when it comes to the shoddy acting in Godzilla, but for me, at least, that’s all part of the charm of a popcorn flick like this – a movie about a massive killer lizard isn’t supposed to have outstanding performances, believe it or not.
