'Cats' and 'Madea' lead Golden Raspberry Awards
February 8, 2020
The nominations for the 40th annual Golden Raspberry Awards were announced on Saturday. Better known as the Razzies, the parody award celebrates the worst in cinema over the past year and coincide with their more illustrious cousin, the Academy Awards, which are scheduled for Sunday.
"Voting members of The Golden Raspberry Awards have sifted through a bumper crop of cinematic crud and made their selections for 2019's Worst Achievements in film," the organization said on its website.
Leading the nominations were the much-derided A Madea Family Funeral, major-studio flop Cats, and the horror film The Haunting of Sharon Tate, the latter of which review website Rotten Tomatoes describes as "dishonoring the events" it portrays and "offensively exploitative" towards the innocent victims of the notorious Manson family killings.
Much has been made of the disaster that was Cats, which was directed by Academy Award-winner Tom Hooper, had a massive budget, and for which the studio planned a massive Oscar campaign that it quietly withdrew from in December. Audiences were turned off by the strange and poorly-executed CGI, uneven tone, and the disappointing turns by many celebrated actors and singers.
In the acting categories, other Academy favorites like Jessica Chastain and Judi Dench were nominated. Chastain for the X-men film Dark Phoenix, of which one reviewer said that the only good part of the film was that the credits were correctly spelled, and Dench for Cats.
Perennial Razzie nominee John Travolta was also called out for acting twice, in the critically-panned The Fanatic and the racing drama Trading Paint, which has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $0 in the North American box office.
A Madea Family Funeral was nominated for seven awards, famously having been shot in only seven days as creator Tyler Perry becomes increasingly well-known for the swiftness with which he puts films together without regard to quality.
The Razzies also announced their nominees for the "Redeemer" award, honoring actors who have previously been in poor quality films but had redeemed themselves in 2019. This included Eddie Murphy, Keanu Reeves, and Jennifer Lopez. Many film critics had expected Lopez to receive a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for her acclaimed performance in the crime drama Hustlers.
Here is a list of the major categories:
Worst Picture
Cats
The Fanatic
The Haunting of Sharon Tate
A Madea Family Funeral
Rambo: Last Blood
Worst Actor
James Franco / Zeroville
David Harbour / Hellboy
Matthew McConaughey / Serenity
Sylvester Stallone / Rambo: Last Blood
John Travolta / The Fanatic & Trading Paint
Worst Actress
Hilary Duff / The Haunting of Sharon Tate
Anne Hathaway / The Hustle & Serenity
Francesca Hayward / Cats
Tyler Perry (As Medea) A Madea Family Funeral
Rebel Wilson / The Hustle
Worst Supporting Actress
Jessica Chastain / Dark Phoenix
Cassi Davis / A Madea Family Funeral
Judi Dench / Cats
Fenessa Pineda / Rambo: First Blood
Rebel Wilson / Cats
Worst Supporting Actor
James Corden / Cats
Tyler Perry / A Madea Family Funeral (as "Joe”)
Tyler Perry / A Madea Family Funeral (as "Uncle Heathrow")
Seth Rogan / Zeroville
Bruce Willis / Glass
Worst Director
Fred Durst / The Fanatic
James Franco / Zeroville
Adrian Grunberg / Rambo: Last Blood
Tom Hooper / Cats
Neil Marshall / Hellboy
Razzie Redeemer Award
Eddie Murphy / Dolemite Is My Name
Keanu Reeves / John Wick 3 & Toy Story 4
Adam Sandler / Uncut Gems
Jennifer Lopez / Hustlers
Will Smith / Aladdin