Who Got Snubbed by the Razzies?
Call it award-worthy trolling: one day before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially releases their list of Oscar contenders, the 37th annual Razzie nominees were announced earlier this morning, celebrating the best of the worst that Hollywood had to offer in 2016.
Zoolander No. 2 led the field with nine nominations and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was close behind with eight, making them the La La Land and Moonlight of this year’s Golden Raspberries. But every award show has snubs, even the Razzies. And even though there were so many terrible movies this year that the committee was forced to expand the categories from five nominees to six, there’s still a few they missed. Here are our picks for who should be thanking the Academy (and their agent) they got overlooked.
Worst Picture
Suicide Squad
It was a loaded field for the Razzies’ top “honour” in 2016 – there were brutal blockbusters in Batman v Superman and Independence Day: Resurgence, cringe-worthy comedies like Dirty Grandpa and Zoolander No. 2 – but let’s get real: Batman v Superman wasn’t even the worst DC movie of the year. Suicide Squad not landing a nomination here is a snub right up there with The Shining not receiving a single Oscar nod.
Worst Actor
Will Smith, Collateral Beauty
It’s tough to get too worked up over a list that’s basically just an excuse to generate easy Internet snark, but I’ve got beef with seeing Ben Affleck up for Worst Actor. Bat-fleck was easily one of the best parts about Batman v Superman, not the worst. And it’s too easy to take shots at bad acting in shitty paycheck movies. I’d rather see this spot go to someone who aimed high and missed. And no one missed more spectacularly than Smith in the Oscar-bait-y clunker Collateral Beauty.
Worst Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: Apocalypse
Somewhere along the way, some studio executive decided that Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique – not James McAvoy’s Professor X or Michael Fassbender’s Magneto – was going to be the new face of the rebooted X-Men franchise. Only problem is, it doesn’t look like anyone ever ran that by Lawrence first. Could be, she’s just tired of doing summer blockbusters (and/or working 16-hour days covered in blue makeup from head to toe). But by Apocalypse, it felt like she clearly didn’t want to be a part of the team anymore. And it showed.
Worst Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Eight nominations for BvS and not a single one for Adams? Maybe the Razzies just didn’t want to pile on any more than they already had. Or maybe they just really liked that bathtub scene. But seeing Lois Lone get demoted to just another formulaic “superhero WAG” was painful to watch.
Worst Supporting Actor
Oscar Isaac, X-Men: Apocalypse
That’s right. Oscar Isaac, AKA the Internet’s new boyfriend. And listen, we love the guy as much as everyone else, but playing a giant purple bad guy doing the Eddie Redmayne Jupiter Ascending voice? This is the type of role the Razzies were invented for.
Worst Director
David Ayer, Suicide Squad
Yes, Suicide Squad made crazy amounts of money, and we should probably just let sleeping fanboys lie at this point… But when a director takes to Twitter months after his movie was released to claim he wished he “had a time machine” to go back and fix all of its’ problems, that’s not a good movie. Just saying.
Worst Screenplay
Collateral Beauty
Another tough category here. But a movie about a bereaved father whose coworkers gaslight him into thinking he’s being visited by Love, Death and Time incarnate doesn’t even deserve an honourable mention? I’m getting worked up again just thinking about it.
Worst Screen Combo
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, Passengers
Good chemistry can be enough to save even the worst movie. But Passengers somehow managed to take two of the most charismatic actors Hollywood has to offer and smashed them together into a sci-fi romance with approximately zero romance. A veritable black hole of on-screen chemistry. I’m not even mad. That’s amazing.
Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel
London Has Fallen
Take your pick, really. Now You See Me 2, Bad Santa 2, the new Blair Witch. Or Allegiant, which was so brutal, the dystopian YA franchise went from “the next Hunger Games” status to getting burnt off like the final episodes of a soon-to-be-cancelled sitcom. But in a year packed with unnecessary sequels, London Has Fallen wasn’t just bad, it was offensively bad. And that’s got to count for something.
