The Golden Raspberries started off as an informal joke. Something for a publicist and his friends to do after the Oscars had ended. Over time, it has become and enduring and irreverent tradition. In theory, The Razzies poke fun at the worst movies of the year. But like any awards ceremony, the Razzies frequently make the wrong call. We’re going back and looking at the history of the Golden Raspberry Awards one year at a time.
The twenty-first annual Razzies nominated the movies of 2000. How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Cast Away were the highest-grossing movies that year. Gladiator won Best Picture while Steven Soderbergh took home Best Director for Traffic. Meanwhile, the Razzies were consumed in an intergalactic conflict with Earth as its battlefield.
Worst Screenplay
- Battlefield Earth by Corey Mandell and J.D. Shapiro, based on the novel by L. Ron Hubbard
- Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 by Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez, Dick Beebe and Joe Berlinger
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman
- Little Nicky by Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler and Steven Brill
- The Next Best Thing by Tom Ropelewski
Winner: Battlefield Earth
As is often the case, four of the five Worst Picture nominees are also nominated for Worst Screenplay and Worst Director. The odd nominee for Worst Screenplay was How the Grinch Stole Christmas which received only one other nomination. So why nominate The Grinch for Worst Screenplay? We’ll discuss that in more detail when we get to the Worst Sequel or Remake category. But it probably didn’t help that The Grinch was written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman who were cowriters on last year’s winner, Wild Wild West.
Last year, the Razzies nominated The Blair Witch Project in several categories. But they avoided nominating co-writers/co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. Myrick and Sánchez sat out of the sequel, but they are nominated for Worst Screenplay because the script was based on their original concept.
Little Nicky was Adam Sandler’s first box office flop. For a while there, it seemed like Sandler could sleepwalk on camera and his fratboy fans would turn up in droves. But Little Nicky, in which Sandler employs a goofy voice to play Satan’s son, proved just a bit too weird for his core audience. You can just imagine how excited the Razzies were to see Sandler fall flat on his face. They had already been targeting him for years.
The Razzies spent most of the previous two decades trying to convince Madonna that a movie career was a bad fit for her. But the Material Girl just wouldn’t take the hint. So when she starred in the lame comedy-drama-TV movie of the week, The Next Best Thing, the Razzies continued their longstanding disapproval. Odds are if this movie had starred just about anybody else who wasn’t already a Razzie target, it would have been off their radar. But as a Madonna movie, you can expect nominations in all the applicable categories.
Speaking of being nominated in all categories, I give you the winner of Worst Screenplay (and lots of other Razzies), Battlefield Earth!
Battlefield Earth was an adaptation of a sci-fi novel by the infamous L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard was the founder of the Church of Scientology. Before he died, Hubbard had plans to develop his novel into a movie. When the book was published, he sent an autographed copy to his organization’s most prominent supporter at the time, John Travolta. Travolta’s career was at a low point in the early-to-mid eighties, so he lacked the power to make Battlefield Earth happen. But after Pulp Fiction made Travolta relevant again, the actor decided to use his clout to realize Hubbard’s dream of a Battlefield Earth movie.
Screenwriter J.D. Shapiro claimed he got involved in the project to meet girls. Shapiro said he started hanging out at the Celebrity Center in LA after reading an article that indicated it was a good place to meet eligible women. The writer didn’t make a love connection, but he did begin toying with Scientology. He took a few classes, but the way he tells it he didn’t take them very seriously. In one story, Shapiro told the Scientologists that he had a vision of Hubbard. When they asked what the founder of their church had to say, Shapiro responded “Pull my finger.”
Despite Shapiro’s irreverent attitude, the Scientologists liked him enough to ask him to write the screenplay for Battlefield Earth. According to Shapiro, his original script was very different from the movie that got made:
My screenplay was darker, grittier and had a very compelling story with rich characters. What my screenplay didn’t have was slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs.
Mike Marcus, the president of MGM liked the script a lot and agreed to move forward. Travolta called Shapiro’s screenplay “The Schindler’s List of sci-fi.” He immediately signed on to star and produce the movie. The budget was set at $100 million dollars and A-list directors were approached including Quentin Tarantino. As far as Shapiro was concerned, things were looking good.
Then he started getting notes from the studio. This is a very common occurrence for a writer in Hollywood. Just about anyone involved in the movie can make suggestions in the form of notes. Shapiro used the notes he liked and discarded others. He polished up the script and resubmitted it for approval.
Then I got another batch of notes. I thought it was a joke. They changed the entire tone. I knew these notes would kill the movie. The notes wanted me to lose key scenes, add ridiculous scenes, take out some of the key characters. I asked Mike where they came from. He said, “From us.” But when I pressed him, he said, “From John’s camp, but we agree with them.”
Shapiro balked at the latest batch of changes. When he refused to incorporate them into his script, he was fired. Later, Shapiro found out from a source close to Travolta that the changes were based on L. Ron Hubbard’s notes from when he was planning his own movie in the early eighties.
When Shapiro found out he would be sharing credit for the screenplay, he tried to use a pseudonym, Sir Nick Knack. But because of the amount of money he had been paid, he was not allowed to do so. He toyed with the idea of having his name removed entirely, but says his lawyer and his agent talked him out of it. Ten years later, when Battlefield Earth received a special Golden Raspberry Award, Shapiro showed up to collect it in person and issued a public apology for the movie’s suckage.
But we’ll get to that in a couple of months.
Worst Director
- Joe Berlinger for Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
- Steven Brill for Little Nicky
- Roger Christian for Battlefield Earth
- Brian De Palma for Mission to Mars
- John Schlesinger for The Next Best Thing
Winner: Roger Christian
Four of the five Worst Screenplay nominees were also nominated for Worst Director. But in this category, they swapped out The Grinch for Mission to Mars. Surprising? This is the only nomination for Mission to Mars which is usually a pretty good indicator that something is up. What’s up in this case is that the Razzies finally remembered that they had it in for Brian DePalma.
This is DePalma’s fifth nomination for Worst Director which officially ties him for the most nominations in the category. Only Michael Bay and Renny Harlin have as many Worst Director nominations as DePalma. Of the three, only Bay has ever actually won. De Palma was actually one of the first directors ever to be nominated for Worst Director way back in 1980 for Dressed to Kill. His subsequent nominations were for Scarface, Body Double, The Bonfire of the Vanities and of course Mission to Mars.
Of all of the Razzies many obsessions, their beef with De Palma is perhaps the most puzzling. De Palma was nominated five times, but only two of those movies were truly bad (Bonfire and Mission). Early on in his career, De Palma courted controversy with salacious subject matter and there was no question that he was aping Hitchcock. Personally, De Palma was never a favorite director of mine, but he was undeniably talented. He doesn’t belong in the same category as Michael Bay.
Joe Berlinger was a documentary director. So it makes a certain kind of sense that when Artisan was looking for someone to write and direct the sequel to the most successful found footage horror movie at that time, that they would turn to someone like him. But the director and the studio found themselves at cross purposes. Berlinger wanted to make a psychological thriller about violence and the media. But all Artisan wanted was a cheap Halloween release for the kids. In the end, the studio got their way and the result was Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.
Steven Brill started his show biz career as an actor. His first role was as a barfly in Sex, Lies and Videotape. After that, he played a priest in Adam Sandler’s first movie, Going Overboard. In the early nineties, Brill wrote the Mighty Ducks movies which were successful enough to earn Brill a shot at directing. His directorial debut was the comedy, Heavyweights about a bunch of kids at fat camp. Five years later, Brill’s second feature was Adam Sandler’s first flop, Little Nicky. Since then, he’s gone on to direct several more lousy comedies.
The Next Best Thing was the final film for Academy Award winning director, John Schlesinger. Seriously, how sad is that? The guy who directed Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday ended his career with a Madonna movie. In fairness, Schlesinger’s career had been in a long, slow downward spiral throughout the nineties. The director suffered a stroke in late 2000 and died three years later.
And the winner was… Roger Christian for Battlefield Earth! Raise your hand if you saw that coming. So, pretty much everyone. Christian started out as an art director on the original Star Wars in 1977. He won an Oscar for his work on that movie and was nominated again for Alien two years later. After directing a couple of short films, he made his feature debut as a director on The Sender in 1980 and worked as a second-unit director on Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace.
As I mentioned earlier, Travolta initially tried to recruit Quentin Tarantino to direct Battlefield Earth. Although QT passed on the project, he sat next to Christian at the movie’s premiere. According to Christian, Tarantino hugged him afterwards and issued the following words of warning/encouragement:
This is what I want to write. This is amazing stuff. You’re gonna be killed, all of you. But, I just loved this film. Wait ten, twelve years, it’ll all come ’round. Forget it now. You’re gonna go through hell.
Tarantino was right about the “going through hell” part. Not so much about Battlefield Earth coming back around in ten or twelve years. But then, that may have been meant as consolation. Work had already been done on a sequel to Battlefield Earth which would have covered the second half of Hubbard’s book, but after the first movie flopped the sequel was canceled.
Worst Remake or Sequel
- Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Universal)
- The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
- Get Carter (Warner Bros.)
- Mission: Impossible II (Paramount)
Winner: Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
This category is always a little squirrely. Remakes and sequels are pretty narrowly defined, but traditionally the Razzies have used a broader interpretation that includes adaptations as well. This year, they mostly stuck to the traditional definition of remakes or sequels. Three of the five nominees are clearly sequels and Get Carter is a remake. How the Grinch Stole Christmas is not so much a remake as it is an adaptation of Chuck Jones’ animated version of Dr. Seuss’ book. Does that make it a remake? It does if you’re a Razzie voter.
I mentioned in the Worst Screenplay category that we would come back to The Grinch. The movie was a hit with audiences but was mostly panned by critics. The fatal flaw was that the subject matter didn’t really support a feature-length movie. Chuck Jones’ 1966 animated version of the story ran less than thirty minutes. To get to that runtime, Jones had to add in additional material. But the movie had a runtime of nearly two hours – about four times as long as the Christmas classic. So it can’t help but feel like it has been stretched a bit thin.
To pad things out, the script included a backstory for the Grinch which is something the story absolutely didn’t need. The Grinch is the Grinch. There was never any need to explain how he became the Grinch or why he didn’t like Christmas. It’s just not necessary except to pad out a children’s book into a feature film.
Before we move on, I’m just going to throw this out there. Battlefield Earth was an adaptation just like The Grinch. How was it not nominated? For that matter, how did it not win?
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas is actually a prequel to the original Flinstones movie which was nominated in this category the first time it was presented in 1994. But that movie was clearly neither a sequel nor a remake. Viva Rock Vegas was directed by Brian Levant who directed the original, but every single role was recast. The first movie was a critically reviled hit. The belated prequel was universally ignored. I’m actually surprised the Razzies took notice of it.
Get Carter was a remake of a Michael Caine movie. Ordinarily, the Razzies probably wouldn’t have bothered with a Get Carter remake, but this one starred Sylvester Stallone. So obviously, it had to be nominated. Anyone want to bet we see Sly nominated for Worst Actor this year? Yeah, that seems likely.
Mission: Impossible 2 is admittedly not very good. It has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes ranking of any movie in the series. But it’s only ranked 6 points lower than the original movie. There’s no way it is one of the worst sequels of the year. Let’s take a look at some of the others that weren’t nominated:
- 102 Dalmatians
- Highlander: Endgame
- Next Friday
- Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
- Scream 3
- Urban Legends: Final Cut
Is it just me or is that a really light year for sequels?
The winner was Blair Witch 2 which was easily the worst sequel of the year. The Razzies didn’t like the original, so it’s no surprise they jumped all over the quickie sequel a year later. Artisan wanted to strike while the iron was hot, so they rushed a Blair Witch follow-up into theaters despite the lack of participation from the series creators. The studio’s intent had been to release a new Blair Witch every Halloween until the end of time. Instead, they ended up killing off their intended cash cow. Ooops.
Before we move on, let’s take a look at some remakes and adaptations which also could have been nominated:
- The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
- The Beach
- Bedazzled
- Bless the Child
- Charlie’s Angels
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Gone in 60 Seconds
- I Dreamed of Africa
- The Ladies Man
- Pay It Forward
- Shaft
- Where the Heart Is
Some of those are debatable. I included a lot of adaptations of books which is consistent with previous Razzie nominations. Live-action adaptations of cartoons and big screen Saturday Night Love sketches have been nominated in the past as well, so that is the basis for including Rocky and Bullwinkle and The Ladies Man. Dungeons and Dragons was based on a role-playing game, but it seems consistent with what we have seen from the Razzies in previous years and it was a hell of a lot worse than Mission: Impossible 2.
Worst Screen Couple
- Any two actors in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
- Richard Gere and Winona Ryder in Autumn in New York
- Madonna and either Rupert Everett or Benjamin Bratt in The Next Best Thing
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (as the real Adam Gibson) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (as the clone of Adam Gibson) in The 6th Day
- John Travolta and anyone sharing the screen with him in Battlefield Earth
Winner: John Travolta and anyone sharing the screen with him in Battlefield Earth
There is only one actual couple nominated in this category. That’s Richard Gere and Winona Ryder for the weepy drama, Autumn in New York. There’s a twenty-two year age gap between Ryder and Gere which is something we know the Razzies do not approve of. In 1998, they named “Gidgets ‘n’ geezers” as Worst Movie Trend. It’s a pretty rare thing for Gere to have chemistry with his female costars. So it’s not that surprising that he and Ryder fizzled on screen. Especially with Ryder playing a terminally ill Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
While Blair Witch 2 was bad enough to deserve any nominations it received, I hate it when the Razzies use a catch-all like “any two actors”. They did this because the movie didn’t really have any on-screen couples. So, don’t nominate it in that category!
They did something similar with The Next Best Thing and Battlefield Earth. Nominating Madonna and Rupert Everett makes sense. They play best friends who decide to have a child together despite the fact that Everett is openly gay. They’re not really supposed to have chemistry – at least not the romantic kind. But nominating Madonna with two of her costars is just wishy washy. Pick one.
For Battlefield Earth, they couldn’t even narrow the field to three. Instead, it was Travolta and anyone else. While I object to this in principle, in the case of Battlefield Earth I’ll make an exception. Travolta is shockingly bad as the villain, a 9-foot-tall alien with dreads. Everyone else just looks embarrassed to share the screen with him. I still wish they had picked a costar be it Barry Pepper or Forest Whitaker. I’d have gone with Whitaker myself.
Arnold Schwarzenegger got nominated alongside himself in a gag nomination for The 6th Day. This is the first time the Razzies have nominated an actor playing two roles in the Worst Couple category, but it won’t be the last.
What couples did the Razzies miss? How about:
- David Arquette and Scott Caan in Ready to Rumble
- Josh Hartnett and Leelee Sobieski in Here on Earth
- Chris Klein and Leelee Sobieski in Here on Earth
- Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott in Dude, Where’s My Car?
- Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert in Highlander: Endgame
- Rene Russo and Jason Alexander in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
- Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt in Pay It Forward
- John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow in Lucky Numbers
Worst Supporting Actress
- Patricia Arquette in Little Nicky as Valerie Veran
- Joan Collins in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas as Pearl Slaghoople
- Thandie Newton in Mission: Impossible II as Nyah Nordoff-Hall
- Kelly Preston in Battlefield Earth as Chirk
- Rene Russo in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle as Natasha Fatale
Winner: Kelly Preston
Battlefield Earth is a lousy movie. *spoilers* It’s going to win Worst Picture and deservedly so. It’s mind-boggling bad. So it’s hard to argue against any nominations Battlefield Earth received except for this one. Kelly Preston is barely in the movie. It’s basically a cameo appearance because she’s married to the movie’s producer and star. Is she terrible? Of course she is! Not only is she saddled with the same ridiculous hair and make-up as all the other aliens in the movie, Preston spends much of her limited screentime with a CGI tongue. But she’s not on camera long enough to be considered a true supporting player.
Patricia Arquette’s nomination is purely a result of a Little Nicky pile-on. I am moderately surprised that this is Arquette’s only Razzie nomination. She seems like someone the Razzies might have targeted at some point, but they never did.
A time-honored Razzie tradition is nominating well-known figures who are cashing a paycheck. While Joan Collins in Viva Rock Vegas ins’t exactly Lawrence Olivier in The Jazz Singer, she was arguably the most famous person in that movie. So her nomination is equal parts Flinstones pile-on and shaming a celebrity for slumming it.
I have a hard time thinking of any reason why Thandie Newton should be nominated for Worst Supporting Actress. As I mentioned before, MI2 wasn’t that bad. And Newton wasn’t bad in it. If you want to nominate someone, nominate John Woo or Dougray Scott.
Rene Russo can be a solid supporting player as she demonstrated through most of the 90’s. But The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle was an embarrassment to everyone involved. I don’t know how everyone else in the movie got off so easy. Seems like this movie should have garnered more nominations than it did.
Worst Supporting Actor
- Stephen Baldwin in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas as Barney Rubble
- Keanu Reeves in The Watcher as Griffin
- Barry Pepper in Battlefield Earth as Jonnie Goodboy Tyler
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (as the clone of Adam Gibson) in The 6th Day
- Forest Whitaker in Battlefield Earth as Ker
Winner: Barry Pepper
Poor Barry Pepper. His career was going so well. Two years ago, he was getting noticed in Saving Private Ryan. Then in 1999, he was in The Green Mile. But his big break comes and it’s playing the protagonist in one of the most infamous flops of all times. He spends most of the movie dressed in rags and being manhandled by a ridiculously coiffed Travolta. It’s enough to put any man animal off acting forever. Pepper kept at it. He continues working as a character actor, but any buzz about a career as a leading man quickly dried up after Battlefield Earth. Which is a shame because the movie wasn’t Pepper’s fault.
To my mind, Forest Whitaker was robbed. Say what you want about Barry Pepper, but he didn’t spend the entire movie cackling alongside Travolta.
Only two actors from Viva Rock Vegas were nominated for Razzies; Joan Collins and Stephen Baldwin. I think that had less to do with their performances and more to do with their prior credits. Whereas Collins was a reasonably big star cashing in on her fame, Baldwin was the other half of Bio-Dome. The Razzies had stung Pauly Shore into retirement, but Baldwin had yet to be nominated until now.
The gag nominations continue for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not only was he nominated for Worst Screen Couple, he’s also nominated in both Worst Actor categories. Clone movies are like catnip to the Razzies. If you are going to play your own clone, make sure it’s in a movie that is better than The 6th Day.
Worst Actress
- Kim Basinger in Bless the Child and I Dreamed of Africa as Maggie O’Connor and Kuki Gallmann (respectively)
- Melanie Griffith in Cecil B. Demented as Honey Whitlock
- Madonna in The Next Best Thing as Abbie Reynolds
- Bette Midler in Isn’t She Great as Jacqueline Susann
- Demi Moore in Passion of Mind as Martha Marie “Marty” Talridge
Winner: Madonna
For the last couple of articles, I have talked about how the Razzies were struggling to find new targets for Worst Actress as some of their old favorites were fading from the spotlight. But in the year 2000, they had one last hurrah for some of their targets from the previous decade. With the exception of Bette Midler, all the nominees were very familiar to Razzie voters.
Midler was nominated for Isn’t She Great which was a fictionalized account of best-selling author Jacqueline Susann. It costarred Nathan Lane and was directed by Andrew Bergman of Striptease fame/infamy. If none of that rings a bell, it’s probably because the movie had a limited release in only 750 theaters. Which really makes you wonder how on earth Midler got nominated. She had been nominated once before in 1990 for Stella, but it she wasn’t a frequent offender like the other nominees. Ordinarily a movie as small as Isn’t She Great would be left alone unless it starred someone like, well, Madonna.
This was Madonna’s fourth win for Worst Actress. Previously, she had been tied with Bo Derek for the actress with the most wins. The Next Best Thing was Madonna’s fifth Worst Actress nomination which means she won 4 out of 5 times she was nominated.
In terms of nominations, Madonna was still trailing Demi Moore and Melanie Griffith. This year marked the sixth and final Worst Actress nomination for both actresses. Moore received her first nomination in 1991 – the only year in which Madonna was nominated but didn’t win. After a couple more nominations, Moore had back-to-back wins in 1996 and 1997.
Griffith’s first nomination was in 1990 for The Bonfire of the Vanities. Her first and only win came two years later for the one-two punch of Shining Through and A Stranger Among Us. This is it for Melanie Griffith. We’ll be seeing Demi Moore again in other categories, but we bid adieu to the Working Girl.
Kim Basinger was also a frequent nominee, but not quite in the same league as the others. This was Basinger’s fifth nomination, but she has never won. Probably because she was frequently nominated alongside the other three formidable Razzie regulars. Basinger was first nominated in 1986 for 9 1/2 Weeks but lost to Madonna. In 1991, she was nominated alongside Madonna and Moore, but all three lost to Sean Young (who also won Worst Supporting Actress that year). In 1992, Basinger lost to Griffith.
Worst Actor
- Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach as Richard
- Adam Sandler in Little Nicky as Nicky
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (as the real Adam Gibson) in The 6th Day
- Sylvester Stallone in Get Carter as Jack Carter
- John Travolta in Battlefield Earth and Lucky Numbers as Terl and Russ Richards (respectively)
Winner: John Travolta
Of course John Travolta won Worst Actor for Battlefield Earth. Not only is his performance terrible, not only does he look positively absurd, but the whole steaming turd was his baby. After more than a decade of ups and downs (mostly downs), Travolta had one of the most impressive comebacks in movie history. He came off of Pulp Fiction wielding a tremendous amount of influence. The fact that Battlefield Earth got made at all is a testament to just how powerful Travolta had become.
Very few other actors could have flexed enough muscle to will a turkey like Battlefield Earth into existence. Only Travolta had both the clout and the will to do so. The fact that Travolta squandered his Hollywood currency on such an ill-advised vanity project would be enough justification for his Razzie win, but it didn’t stop there.
Let’s not forget that Travolta also starred in Lucky Numbers that year. Even if Travolta hadn’t invested in a cinematic ode to L. Ron Hubbard, his starring role in Nora Ephron’s lottery-themed comedy was enough to land Travolta a nomination. Lucky Numbers was instantly forgotten, but it could have easily been nominated in multiple categories if anyone had remembered it long enough to do so.
Adding insult to injury, Travolta was completely unapologetic for unleashing Battlefield Earth on unsuspecting audiences. For years after the movie crashed and burned, Travolta was out there advocating for a sequel. Despite the critical drubbing the movie received and the multiple Razzie wins, Travolta managed to delude himself into thinking that there was still a demand for a follow-up. I guess if you can make yourself believe in Xenu, it’s not too hard to convince yourself that your passion project was more successful than it would appear to be.
Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t feel like he belongs here. The Beach wasn’t a great movie, but it was an attempt by the actor to distance himself from his teen heartthrob image. While that effort didn’t work right away, we now have the benefit of hindsight to know that DiCaprio would keep at it long enough to eventually be taken seriously. But back then, he was still seen as a light-weight pretty boy. The Razzies were all too eager to see him fall on his face. To date, this is his only Worst Actor nomination.
Sylvester Stallone received his lucky thirteenth Worst Actor nomination for Get Carter. No one else has been nominated that many times in any single category. Stallone’s first nomination came way back in 1984 when he won for Rhinestone. Since then, he added three more wins for a total of four. His last win was back in 1992 for Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot which goes to show that Stallone’s career was cooling off. In a way, Razzie attention can be a good thing. They don’t tend to nominate actors they deem irrelevant.
While this isn’t Stallone’s last Worst Actor nomination, it will be his last one for a long time. But don’t worry. We’ll be seeing him again soon in the Worst Supporting Actor category.
For much of the eighties and nineties, the Razzies were willing to give Arnold Schwarzenegger a pass while sticking it to his rival. But as Arnold’s movie career was running out of gas, he was garnering more and more Razzie attention. If he hadn’t abandoned showbiz for politics, Schwarzenegger probably would have racked up some Razzie wins by now.
As Stallone’s days as a leading man were ending, his heir apparent was revealed to be not an action star but a comedian. Little Nicky was Adam Sandler’s fourth nomination since 1996. I’m not sure anyone can ever hope to top Stallone in terms of nominations, but if anyone stands a chance of doing so, it’s Sandler. We’ll be talking about him a lot in the future, so I will move on.
Worst Picture
- Battlefield Earth (Warner Bros.)
- Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (Artisan)
- The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (Universal)
- Little Nicky (New Line Cinema)
- The Next Best Thing (Paramount)
Winner: Battlefield Earth
Rarely has a movie misjudged itself as badly as Battlefield Earth. You can tell that everyone involved was confident that audiences would be fully invested in their sci-fi saga. I guess that’s what happens when a movie star is propped up by a literal cult. From Travolta’s point of view, Battlefield Earth was ordained from on high. The text had been handed down to him like the tablets to Moses. This was more than a movie. It was nothing short of divine providence.
You know that the powers that be within Scientology were expecting Battlefield Earth to be a powerful if subtle recruitment tool. Instead, it became a national punchline. I suspect deprogrammers use Battlefield Earth DVDs to get people out of the “church”. You think L. Ron Hubbard uncovered the secrets to the universe? Then how do you explain this piece of crap? That’s gotta shake even Tom Cruise’s faith in LRH.
The other four movies are bad, but not as memorably so. Blair Witch 2 completely misunderstood the appeal of its predecessor. Viva Rock Vegas was a prequel to a movie nobody liked in the first place with a cast of B-listers. Little Nicky was the first major misstep of Adam Sandler’s inexplicable movie career. And The Next Best Thing was just another Madonna movie.
Of the bunch, I’d probably drop Viva Rock Vegas. Not because it isn’t bad. But because I don’t think it was on anyone’s radar. Here are some other movies that could have been nominated in its place:
- Autumn in New York
- Big Momma’s House
- Coyote Ugly
- Dude, Where’s My Car?
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Here on Earth
- Hollow Man
- The Ladies Man
- Lucky Numbers
- Pay It Forward
- Ready to Rumble
- Reindeer Games
- Where the Heart Is
Most of those movies went completely unnominated and that isn’t right. There are some real dogs in that bunch. How to the Razzies pass up Pay It Forward or Reindeer Games just to name a couple?
Battlefield Earth came from Franchise Pictures, with this being their most notable movie. They only had one true hit with The Whole Nine Yards, but the rest of their filmography is one clunker after another like Drive (with Stallone), 3000 Miles to Graceland and Ballistics: Ecks VS. Server. And of course they were done in with the lawsuits due to over-inflating their budgets, They took on Battlefield Earth as the business practice was to produce star vehicles cheaper than the typical studios. Imagine if Battlefield Earth had a bigger budget
You just name dropped two of next year’s five Worst Picture nominees.
You could say they had a “Franchise” on their hands, eh?
Cinemadonna: The Next Best Thing (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=padqYfpwlIs
If this is the next best thing, I’d certainly hate to see the worst thing.
In some ways it was appropriate that Battlefield Earth was released in 2000. 2000 was the start of a decade that would represent a step=down from the quality filmmaking of the previous three decades.
As for the other nominees they’ve all been pretty much forgotten. Battlefield Earth has earned it’s spot in cinematic infamy.
Bad Movie Beatdown – Mission: Impossible II (2000)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x34agdi
The long-awaited return of Film Brain, and his mission to destroy this Tom Cruise sequel!
In hindsight, John Woo was perhaps the wrong director for the job. I mean, John Woo’s whole style is his over-indulgent “heroic bloodshed” gun opera sensibilities. That doesn’t exactly mesh too well with a the franchise that’s otherwise known for tactical espionage and fancy gadgets.
Even by Razzie standards nominating Myrick and Sánchez was exceptionally mean spirited. I have to admit there are times when these awards seem less snarky fun and more actually vindictive.
The 6th Day was not a great film or even a good one but I thought had some fun ideas.
I share your puzzlement as to the Razzies’ targeting of Brian DePalma. Every director has had flops, and there’s no denying his talent. Even the much-maligned Bonfire has some pretty interesting director-led elements to it. But I get that the director will shoulder 95% of the blame for projects that fall short. Even more puzzling is the oft-cited tendency to fixate on certain actresses. Again, Griffith, Madonna and Demi have all had flops, but they’ve also not always been the “worst” in the areas nominated. Sounds like they are now about to ease up on 2 of the 3, anyway.… Read more »
The Worst Couple Category is going to go through some mutations in the coming years. I’m not sure the changes make it any more interesting, but there’s an attempt to make it less gimmicky. Or at least more narrowly defined.
Once the 90’s ended, the Razzies started hunting for regular Worst Actress nominees. But they never really found substitutes for Griffith, Moore, Madonna, Basinger or Young. In the male lead category, Adam Sandler will become a fixture. But Worst Actress is a bit of a revolving door. At least compared to the 80’s and 90’s.
We are now in the 2000s era for the Razzies! For the next ten weeks or so, expect regulars like the aforementioned Adam Sandler, John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds to come back, as well as newbies like Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie, Eddie Murphy, Carmen Electra, Rob Schneider, Hilary Duff, Jessica Alba, Marlon Wayans, Paris Hilton and Jenny McCarthy making three or more appearances throughout this run.
From day one I have deliberately avoided Battlefield Earth like the plague. It always looked ridiculously terrible to me and I figured it was best if I avoid it. But lately i’ve been debating as to whether I should watch it, exactly because it’s so monumentally bad. I suspect I might get a really good laugh out of it. I get a chuckle just out of looking at those wacky costumes and dreadlocks that Travolta and company are wearing (what were they thinking?), so I can only imagine I might howl in laughter at the rest of the movie. Lebeau,… Read more »
If you enjoy “so bad it’s good movies” Battlefield Earth is a must watch righf up there with Showgirls. It can also make for a brutal drinking game.
I was stuck watching BFE at a latenight screening. It was just me and a coworker. I could not believe what I was seeing. I didn’t expect it to be good, but I never dreamed it could be so awful.
That’s the downside to seeing movies before they are released. You get some pleasant surprises but you also get to walk into the minefield and have stinkbombs blow up in your face.
Battlefield Earth in a round about way was John Travolta’s high water mark. He pretty much bet all his chips on America’s interest in Scientology and he lost. If you look at the dwindling box office results of his movies since the year 2000, it’s quite evident that audiences were no longer willing to pay to watch movies where John Travolta played a cool/badass spy/killer/mobster/etc.
Congratulations to all of the well-deserved winners! They truly did deserve them. It would have been great if Travolta had shown up in person to get his multiple awards.
I wrote a longer comment before, but it didn’t take, so I’ll just say this: “Battlefield Earth” is a deserving winner, I think “Mission Impossible 2” (and Thandie Newton) does what it’s supposed to do, “The next Best Thing” is another strike against Madonna’s film career, and I agree with jeffthewildman on the quality of 2000’s cinema versus other decades.
I thought she was fine in the film, but since the film wasn’t great and she was one of The Razzies targets, she got nominated.
Nostalgia Critic: The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcdQkjtciuM
I DREAMED OF A BETTER MOVIE http://www.cinescene.com/reviews/idreamed.html With this, her first starring role since winning the Oscar for L.A. Confidential, Basinger had too much to prove. She has admitted in interviews that she was afraid to take on the part. This fear, either because she was under-confident or because she couldn’t connect, is visible throughout. She seems awkward, especially in her attempts to suppress her trademark Southern accent, carefully pronouncing her words, lowering her voice an octave or two and dropping all hints of the giggly, half-naked Basinger of her pre-Oscar days. Director Hugh Hudson deserves much of the blame… Read more »
I think that after “I Dreamed of Africa”, Kim Basinger lost a lot of clout as ‘classy’/’serious’ actress. It was also that movie and “Bless the Child” that pretty much cemented the notion that her days as a top-lining star in big budgeted movies had passed. Kim mind you, was never really a true-blue box office draw. Many of the hits that she had like “Batman” or “LA Confidential” were either due to other factors. The films that she did in which she was the main draw (with maybe the exception being “Blind Date”, but even that was a base… Read more »
BLESS THE CHILD http://www.filmquipsonline.com/blessthechild.html Rated R – Running Time: 1:47 – Released 8/11/00 You know, you give someone an Academy Award, and suddenly she thinks she can act. Kim Basinger, who got the 1997 supporting actress nod for L.A. Confidential and followed up with her gut-wrenchingly inept performance in I Dreamed Of Africa, is on hand to make us all cringe again, but this time the concept is on an even par with her inability. A lame retread of last years God-vs.-Devil film End Of Days, which was not a particularly good movie in and of itself, Bless The Child… Read more »
I DREAMED OF AFRICA http://www.filmquipsonline.com/idreamedofafrica.html Rated PG-13 – Running Time: 1:54 – Released 5/5/00 I can’t help but think of I Dreamed Of Africa as a low-rent remake of Out Of Africa, which, itself, was not a terribly noteworthy film, but which at least had a leading actress who could handle the part. While Meryl Streep and beautiful scenery were the two saving graces of that film, this one just has the scenery. I understand that it’s a true story (in fact, it’s based on the book by the main character, Kuki Gallmann), and the story is adventurous and epic… Read more »
Laughable ‘Bless the Child’ commandeers Catholic dogma for half-witted Second Coming chiller http://splicedwire.com/00reviews/blesschild.html Re-enforcing their stuck-in-B-list status, Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits star this week in a laughably gothic second-coming chiller, “Bless the Child,” which once again commandeers Catholic dogma as a jumping-off point for a half-witted, high-gloss horror movie. Like “Stigmata” and “End of Days” before it, “Bless the Child” invents its own “previously undiscovered” Biblical mythology to propel its story about a battle for the soul of an abandoned 6-year-old girl (Holliston Coleman) named Cody, who — it is implied — is the reincarnation of Christ. Kim Basinger… Read more »
Looking back, I can’t be too surprised that Kim Basinger’s career faltered again after she won her Oscar. I heard the other day, that Kim’s performance in “LA Confidential” was among the shortest in terms of screen-time (in Kim Basinger’s case, about 15 minutes total) for one that would earn an actress a Best Supporting Oscar. That’s a lot different than being the actual star/anchor/focal point/main attraction in her first couple of post-Oscar movies. “LA Confidential” seems to have been a case in which, the writing and directing was the real “star”. While Kim in that particular movie was perfectly… Read more »