Entertainment
With the Oscars on the horizon, the film world's abuzz over who will win the coveted mark of industry approval. Meanwhile, an entire ocean of films remain unacknowledged, even those that managed a towering feat of inverse proportions — being dubbed the worst of the worst by one particular body. The Golden Raspberry Awards, a.k.a. the Razzies, have been around since 1980, per Time, honoring those films that would never be honored by the Academy, but deserved to be acknowledged for their bad takes, cheesiness, or all-around amateurishness. Want to remind yourself what it takes to climb to the top of that pile? These 28 Razzie-nominated movies are streaming on Netflix right now.
Considering the amount of money and people behind most Hollywood films, it's kind of impressive when a truly terrible one makes it through. Sure, there are plenty of middling or uninspired works, but to be uniquely bad takes a special something, and that's what the Razzies aspire to honor. Held the day before the actual Oscars each year, they're now on their 39th ceremony.
Sometimes they've been incorrectly swayed by popular opinion, like when they nominated Elaine May's delightful but over-budget buddy comedy Ishtar for Worst Director, Screenplay, and Picture, or put the virtuoso takedown of American success stories, Showgirls, up for 13 awards. In fact, Showgirls director Paul Verhoeven made Razzies history as the first award-winner to actually show up and accept in person.
But most of the time their picks are spot on. Here are the Razzie winners and nominees you can stream on the service right now.
1
'The Emoji Movie'
Winner - Worst Screenplay, Winner - Worst Screen Combo (Any Emoji)
An utterly soulless film trying to capitalize on already corporate and empty social media platforms, this follows the . trite formula of a guy who just doesn't fit in getting ousted by his society only to find value for just being himself.
2
'Godzilla' (1998)
Winner - Worst Remake or Sequel, Winner - Worst Supporting Actress: Maria Pitillo
With the gross macho-swagger tagline "Size Does Matter", this completely unnecessary remake got everything wrong about the world's most famous atomic lizard. Case in point: Godzilla (famously, impossibly) destroyed NYC's then-ugliest MetLife building, while the government blew up the CHRYSLER BUILDING. Who's the real monster here?
3
'The World Is Not Enough'
Winner, Worst Supporting Actress: Denise Richards
Richards plays Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist whose name is a setup for the film's dumbest orgasm joke.
4
'Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull'
Winner: Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel
While it's fun seeing Indy of all people accused of being a Commie, everything else about this attempted update feels forced (especially the aliens).
5
'Carpool' (1996)
Winner, Worst Actor: Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold plays a lovable bank robber who takes a van full of children and a harried businessman hostage in this film that's about as fun as a 6-hour actual carpool.
6
'The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas
Nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actor (Stephen Baldwin), Worst Supporting Actress (Joan Collins), and Worst Remake or Sequel.
The sequel to a movie no one asked for in the first place! Taking its cue from the Flintstone cartoon's era, the movie takes a swinging '50s road trip vacation to not-Las Vegas.
7
'Jaws 3D'
Nominated for Worst Picture
Films shot with emphasis on an extra dimension that's then removed always have fun tells: someone pointing for an unusually long time, people constantly running RIGHT AT the camera... They add a little levity to this otherwise meh JAWS sequel.
8
Pearl Harbor
Nominated for Worst Picture
This bombastic hagiography shows just how badly the Jerry Bruckheimer formula (explosions, Wives, Country, more explosions, etc.) looks layered over actual history.
9
'Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo'
Nominated for Worst Picture
More "zany" antics involving making fun of the idea of people being attracted to Rob Schneider, plus all the European stereotypes you can cram onscreen!
11
'Doom'
Nominee, Worst Actor: Dwayne Johnson
It was so simple. Space Marines go to Mars and find a portal Hell. But no, they had to try and science it up. Even with two planets there's not enough scenery for Johnson to chomp as a commander gone mad in a space rescue mission gone wrong.
12
'The Benchwarmers'
Nominee, Worst Actor: Rob Schneider
Adam Sandler crony Schneider makes this list almost as frequently as his benefactor, but no favors are done with his barrel-scraping comedies consistently picking the lowest-hanging fruit. It's three adult nerds vs. numerous mean little league bullies in a contest for field rights in this one.
13
'The Flintstones'
Winner - Worst Screenplay
This live-action reboot of the beloved cartoon was Elizabeth Taylor's final film apperance, something it should've earned a special Razzie for.
14
'Die Another Day'
Winner, Worst Supporting Actress: Madonna, Nominated for Worst Song
Madonna's brief cameo as fencing instructor Verity in this Pierce Brosnan Bond outing isn't that bad, nor is her Bond theme, "Die Another Day." Heck, according to Rolling Stone she doesn't even crack the Top 10 of bad. And let's not forget this is a movie featuring invisible cars.
15
'Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales'
Nominee, Worst Actor: Johnny Depp
No one will blame you for not recalling the details of the FIFTH Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Depp hams it up again as Jack Sparrow, but at this point the shtick's worn very thin.
16
'Bogus'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Whoopie Goldberg
Whoopie plays a harried assistant who's stuck adopting her boss's kid (Haley Joel Osment in full Cute Mode) when he's orphaned. Then he starts seeing the spirit of a French magician (Gerard Depardieu)... then she sees him too? Sure.
17
'The Switch'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Jennifer Aniston
A formulaic rom-com that features 'friendzoning' as a central plot point? At least this one has a single woman seeking out a face-to-face sperm donor without too much shame, even if her best friend wildly violates her boundaries by switching in his own sperm.
18
'BASEketball'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Yasmine Bleeth
I love Zucker Bros comedies (Airplane! etc.), but bringing 70s sexim into the late 90s isn't the best look, and Bleeth does the best she can as bosomy head of the Dream Come True Childhood Foundation.
19
'A Cinderella Story'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Hillary Duff
There's actually nothing wrong about this girly modern take on Cinderella, starring HilDuff — it's just that teen girls are anathema to the majority-middle-aged male voters of awards shows, unless they're specifically sexualized for them, and this ain't that.
20
'Monster-In-Law'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Jennifer Lopez
Admittedly Lopez was up against Jane Fonda, but no one comes out clean in this compilation of stereotypes and female insecurity.
21
'Did You Hear About The Morgans?'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Sarah Jessica Parker
Witness Protection as couples counseling does not a good film make.
22
'I Don't Know How She Does It'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Sarah Jessica Parker
All this movie's problems could be solved if ANY of the men in any of the women's lives did even some of the mental labor required of them in the trailer.
23
'The Clapper'
Nominee, Worst Actress: Amanda Seyfried
Seyfried is the romantic object in this film about a paid informercial audience member who gets outed by a late-night talkshow host.
24
'From Dusk Till Dawn'
Nominee, Worst Supporting Actor: Quentin Tarantino
In a slightly queasy but overall entertaining film about tattooed bandit brothers accidentally stumbling onto a strip club that's a front for vampires, Quentin Tarantino plays a greasier, sleazier version of himself.
25
'Left Behind'
Nominated for Worst Picture
The Rapture movie that's also a hero-pilot movie...but not heroic enough in the eyes of God. Prepare for numerous shoehorned theosophical "debates" and Nick Cage's classic overacting.
26
'The Cobbler'
Nominee, Worst Actor: Adam Sandler
Hoo boy. Ok - Sandler is an unassuming shoe repairman, who, when his trusty machine breaks, goes to the basement and breaks out his deserting dad's old machine. Turns out if he uses it and puts on clients' shoes, he turns into them and can jump in their lives, the moral quandries of which are never really explored.
27
'Bullet To The Head'
Nominee, Worst Actor: Sylvester Stallone
His legit character name is Johnny Bobo, and there's a lot of back-and-forth killing in this confusing mess of an assassination revenge movie.
28
'Happy Gilmore'
Nominee, Worst Actor: Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler never won a Razzie for his many, many, many portrayals of immature man-children who somehow wildly succeed without changing too much. This is the golf-playing variant.
Lean in to the awfulness, and be sure to catch this year's Razzie winners — there's even a public-voted Redeemer award if you want to have your say.
