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Among a sea of cynical critics and audiences ready to lament every major release, it’s the Golden Raspberry Awards that seem most willing to call Hollywood out for its less shiny moments. Since its inception in 1981, the Razzies have been a worthy foil to what many consider the more self-congratulatory Academy, seemingly getting an irreverent kick out of (dis)honoring the worst that film has to offer.
While the Razzies have bestowed some deserved wins throughout the years (see, Jack and Jill), the awards show is similar to the Oscars in that its history is peppered with a fair share of missteps. Although the Razzies newest Redeemer Award goes some way in rectifying the show’s past discrepancies, it does little to account for the misgivings already doled out during the Razzies 40-year history. Now, with the award show’s latest batch of nominees announced last month and enough hindsight to warrant revisitation, these Raspberry recipients underscore when the Razzies got it wrong.
Stanley Kubrick Nominated For Worst Director, ‘The Shining’ (1980)
Occurring during the award show’s inaugural year, The Razzies were still in their infancy when they bestowed Stanley Kubrick with a Worst Director nomination for his work on The Shining. It was a move, in hindsight, that should have doomed the Razzies’ credibility from the outset, especially considering The Shining’s later success amongst critics and audiences and its consistent top-tier placing on Kubrick’s best film lists.
The film, at the time, was criticized for drifting too liberally from its source material by Stephen King (at one point by the author himself), but The Shining stood in its own right as a visually stunning and well-acted thriller, helmed by one of the most esteemed directors in the business. Seemingly acknowledging their mistake, Razzie founder Maureen Murphy admitted just this year that both The Shining and Shelley Duvall’s nomination for Worst Actress is her biggest regrets.
Jim Carrey, Nominated For Worst New Star (1995)
In the early 90s, the now-prolific Jim Carrey was a relative unknown. That was, until the consecutive 1994 releases of The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective that catapulted him into the comedic mainstream, to the point where the Razzies deemed his successive off-kilter humor worthy of a Worst New Star nod.
While Carrey’s particular brand of comedy is not for all tastes, the three films for which he was nominated are now rightfully considered to be classics, with two of them successful enough to spawn their own sequels with Carrey's involvement in When Nature Calls and Dumber and Dumber To (with another in the works). At the time, Carrey’s trio of comedies earned him a place as Hollywood’s highest-paid leading man, and in retrospect, launched what was arguably one of the biggest breakout years for an actor in history. The Razzies later discontinued their Worst New Star award in 1999, but Carrey’s misplaced nomination remains unrevoked.
Jennifer Lawrence, Nominated For Worst Actress in 'mother!' (2018)
As divisive as mother! might have been, critics generally agree that while convoluted, Darren Aronofsky’s film was an ambitious psycho-thriller, if a little pretentious.
While the critiques were ultimately well-placed (the exclamative title was a particular irk), it’s hard to argue that any of the film’s problems were a result of Jennifer Lawrence, who was nominated for Worst Actress in mother! despite a widely-praised performance. Perhaps it’s the Razzies’ commitment to humbling overambitious filmmakers that warranted mother!’s nomination, but it seems their target should've been more firmly placed on the film's director if anything.
'The Blair Witch Project,' Nominated For Worst Picture (2000)
While objectively not the crown jewel of horror, The Blair Witch Project is far from the genre’s worst film. Avoiding cheap thrills and excessive gore, the movie found its scares in the then-innovative format of found footage, launching an entire sub-genre that paved the way for the likes of Paranormal Activity.
While it’s now regarded as a ground-breaker in diversifying horror’s well-trodden tropes, the impact of The Blair Witch Project was lost on the Razzies, who nominated it for Worst Picture alongside much more worthy recipients like Wild Wild West.
'The Meg,' Nominated For Worst Picture (2018)
In one of the cases where the Razzies mistook accidental awfulness with movies that intentionally embrace their own silliness, The Meg was nominated for Worst Rip-Off despite never aspiring to be anything other than thoughtless fun.
While it’s certainly no Jaws (the film it supposedly plagiarized), The Meg remains a harmlessly entertaining creature feature that pokes fun at its own premise and winks at audiences along the way. On top of being a major box office hit, The Meg was successful enough to warrant a sequel, which is slated for release next year.
Sylvester Stallone Won Worst Actor of the Century
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In a title that no actor wishes to bear, Sylvester Stallone could be considered somewhat of a Razzie darling. Throughout his decades-long career, Stallone has been nominated over 30 times for his work on various films (mainly sequels for Rambo and Rocky), a top-point scoring that warranted his nomination and win for Worst Actor of the Century.
While no Laurence Olivier or Orson Welles, Stallone is widely recognized for his ability to draw audiences and, in one case, score an Oscar nod for his first outing as Balboa in the well-received Rocky. Taking rightful corrective measures given the actor’s legacy and ubiquity, the Razzies retroactively awarded Stallone the Redeemer prize for his Oscar-nominated performance in 2015’s Creed.
Jared Leto Nominated For Worst Supporting Actor, 'Suicide Squad' (2017)
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Suicide Squad is far from the best superhero film and sits at the bottom of a mostly maligned DC canon. While the film was panned upon its release by both critics and audiences alike, its lackluster performance had little to do with an under-utilized Jared Leto, who was nothing if not game in his portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime.
Going toe-to-toe with a Joker alumnus that includes Oscar-winners Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger is no small feat, so it stands to reason that despite being a front-runner, Leto "lost" his Razzie award to fellow DC actor Jesse Eisenberg.
Eddie Murphy, Won For Worst Actor of the Decade (2010)
Eddie Murphy’s 2010 resumé is dotted with a total of nine Razzie nominations and three wins, largely thanks to his starring roles in much-reviled films like Norbit and Meet Dave. However deserving these specific films might be, they stand as mere hiccups within Murphy’s otherwise-agreeable list of credits, with the Razzies overlooking earlier successes like Shrek and Beverly Hills Cop.
Like Stallone a decade before him, Murphy somewhat recouped his losses in the form of a Razzie Redeemer Award for his acclaimed work in 2019’s Dolemite Is My Name, but given the hiatus the actor took in the wake of his Razzie win, the damage to one of Hollywood’s most seasoned comedic forces had already been done.
Danny DeVito, Nominated For Worst Supporting Actor, 'Batman Returns' (1992)
The discourse around Tim Burton’s take on the caped vigilante is largely a matter of balancing audience expectations with Burton’s own creative vision. In comparison to other Batman directors, Burton’s take on Batman's world in Batman Returns was almost excessively camp, with Danny DeVito's exaggerated portrayal of The Penguin merely matching the flamboyance of the film itself.
When considered alongside his director’s signature playfulness, DeVito’s performance fits perfectly within the Burton-Batman universe, and it has since been praised as one of the more enjoyable renditions of the Bruce Wayne foe: that makes his nomination all the more surprising.
Bruce the Shark Won A Worst Career Achievement Award, 'Jaws' (1987)
While CGI has advanced extensively since its release in 1975, Jaws was once considered a technical marvel. At the time, special effects on movie sets were in their infancy, with many technicians deeming director Steven Spielberg’s plans to build a 25-foot animatronic shark an impossibility.
That Spielberg pulled off such a gambit during a relatively low-tech era in show business is no small feat, which makes Bruce the shark’s nomination for Worst Career Achievement Award all the more undeserving. When considering the legacy that Jaws and its titular creature have left, a Razzie nomination is the equivalent of Hollywood sacrilege.