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Is the Razzies the most kindhearted ceremony on the planet? Sure isn’t, but it wouldn’t exist without movies like Mac and Me and Madame Web. Don’t make movies like Mac and Me and Madame Web, and you won’t get the Razzies. Since the first ceremony in 1981, dishonoring the worst of 1980, the Razzies have been a consistent presence in the industry. And much to their credit, they’re not incapable of admitting when they’re wrong. For instance, there’s the Razzie Redeemer Award, which has gone to individuals like Ben Affleck (after the one-two punch of Argo and Gone Girl) and Eddie Murphy (after Dolemite Is My Name). They even apologized to and retracted their nominations of Firestarter‘s Ryan Kiera Armstrong and, after learning of his aphasia diagnosis, Bruce Willis.
But the following movies, all of which were nominated for Worst Picture, have never received an apology. And, considering film taste is subjective, it’s likely they never will. But they’re all good enough to beg the question whether they deserved their backhanded nominations in the first place.
1) Friday the 13th
paramount pictures
Given how lambasted by critics the Friday the 13th franchise has been over the decades, it’s surprising only one of them has even received a Razzie Worst Picture nomination. Equally surprising is the fact that it’s not Jason X, it’s not even Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, instead it’s the original.
Many may view Friday the 13th as hollow, but was it one of the “worst” movies of 1980? Worst implies it fails in all of its goals. But Friday the 13th is scary, at the very least creepy. And, even with all its flaws (if looking at it through a cinephile lens), it’s a film carried by a tone that envelops the audience, has a now iconic score, and ends with a jump scare that’s about five times better than the jump scare it’s emulating (the one in Carrie).
2) Rambo: First Blood Part II
tri-star pictures
The Razzies really didn’t care for Sylvester Stallone, even when his career was at its peak (though he did go on to get a Razzie Redeemer Award when Creed came out). Sure, the 5th Golden Raspberry Awards’ nomination of Rhinestone was deserved, but the following ceremony’s nomination of both Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV. Both of those are major favorites of the actor’s filmography for many fans.
And, like Cobra the following year, they didn’t quite deserve to be called some of the “worst” movies of the year. This is especially true of the first Rambo sequel. When it comes to ultra-violent action adventures, they really don’t get more iconic than First Blood Part II. Rambo III, however, deserved the nom, and received one. But Rambo III didn’t “win” Worst Picture, First Blood Part II did.
3) Road House
united artists
Road House didn’t “win” Worst Picture at the 10th Golden Raspberry Awards, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier did, but it shouldn’t have been nominated at all. Road House is one of the most charming and fun movies of the ’80s.
Sure, it’s not high art, but it’s also not trying to be. It’s the simple tale of a nomadic bouncer (or cooler, as it were) who shuffles from gig to gig until he finally takes one that may cost him his life. It’s one of the late Patrick Swayze’s best star vehicles. Not to mention, his chemistry with Sam Elliott alone is enough to keep it from being seen as one of the worst movies of the year. Toss in a pretty great smarmy villain performance by Ben Gazzara and Road House is a winner, not a loser. Also vastly underrated is the 2024 remake, which thankfully managed to avoid being nominated for the 45th ceremony.
4) Cliffhanger
tristar pictures
Again, the Razzies have always been quick to pick on Stallone, even when the movie he’s staring in is either not terrible or outright good. To the latter point, the “good” side of the coin, there’s Renny Harlin’s Cliffhanger.
Between Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV at the sixth ceremony and Cliffhanger at the 14th, four Stallone movies were nominated for Worst Picture. These included Cobra (grim and violent, but not awful), Rambo III (a mega-budget pile of forgettable nonsense), Lock Up (very average, but an admirable semi-departure for the actor), and Rocky V (well-deserved hate). Also of note is the fact that, while he was nominated for Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, that film, the nadir of his career, was not (somehow). All of those movies are worse than Cliffhanger, which is a well-assembled actioner with some impressive cinematography and perhaps the best opening scene of Stallone’s filmography.
5) Cliffhanger
Waterworld
universal pictures
Like the next entry on this list, Waterworld had such a tough production that you’d think it would be utterly incoherent. But, all told, it ended up being a fairly impressive ’90s mega-budget adventure. It’s not quite as solid as Kevin Costner and director Kevin Reynolds’ previous film together, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but it’s close.
Waterworld isn’t even Costner’s worst movie of the ’90s. That distinctive dishoner would go to either the overlong slog that is Wyatt Earp or The Postman, which “won” the Razzie at the 18th ceremony. It almost just seems as though it became easy to hate on Waterworld back in 1995 and ’96, like people were deliberately looking past its ambition, stunning visuals, and unhinged villain performance by Dennis Hopper to focus on its admittedly quite present negative attributes. And, in the end, no movie that inspired a stunt show at Universal Studios Hollywood that is still around even 30 years later can be all bad.
[RELATED: Waterworld Has a Terrific Comic Book Sequel You Never Read]
6) The Island of Dr. Moreau
new line cinema
Like some other movies on this list, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) doesn’t fit within the traditional mold of what makes a “good” film. But it’s worth defending because, for one, it could have been a lot worse. As far as disastrous film productions go, this one takes the cake.
Furthermore, it’s some of the film’s flaws that make it so enjoyable. Every decision Marlon Brando made in his portrayal of the title character is hysterical, from the white face paint to the utterly random scene where he has a water jug on his bald head. It’s understandable why the film was trounced, but there are some elements of it that are objectively good, not so-bad-they’re-good. For instance, the makeup used to bring Dr. Moreau’s creations to life looks good to this day. And, when it comes to anchoring performances in the midst of chaos, David Thewlis’ is pretty great.
7) Anaconda
sony pictures releasing
There are two ways of looking at Anaconda. You can watch it as a self-aware monster movie that is trying to be silly, or you can watch it as a monster movie that’s trying to be scary and doesn’t really pull it off. The fact the upcoming reimagining with Paul Rudd and Jack Black is knowingly meta leads one to believe they’re fully aware that the 1997 film falls in the former category. But the thing is, even if it’s the latter, it’s easy to overlook continuity errors and that backwards running waterfall because it’s so tightly paced and entertaining. Anaconda may not be the most intelligent movie in the world, but it knows how to be a monster movie. It knows that you show the beast to a gradually increasing degree.
Even for its detractors, there are a few individual scenes that are more than enough to earn it the title of underappreciated. The opening with Danny Trejo is great, the part where Owen Wilson’s Gary Dixon saves his girlfriend only to be devoured is tense, the waterfall devouring of Jumanji‘s Jonathan Hyde is about as trailer-worthy as a scene can get, and the first time we see the full snake off the stern of the boat is A-plus creature feature stuff. Not to mention, whatever Jon Voight was trying to do, he both succeeded admirably and failed miserably because it’s impossible to take your eyes off him.
8) Godzilla
tristar pictures
The Worst Picture “winner” at the ceremony in 1999 was An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn. And that was quite deserved. Also nominated was The Avengers. Not the MCU Avengers, but the one where Sean Connery dresses in a big bunny costume. That would have deserved it too.
But, as silly as they were and remain, neither Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla nor Armageddon really deserved the vitriol inherent in receiving a Worst Picture nomination. Godzilla, in particular, has aged well as a ’90s timepiece. It’s not the Big-G we’re accustomed to, and like The Phantom Menace, it was a film that disappointed fans big time, but it’s a fun rollercoaster ride of a movie. At the very least, if there was an Oscar for best marketing campaign, Godzilla would have been a shoe-in.
9) Big Daddy
sony pictures releasing
At the 20th Razzie Awards, five films were nominated for Worst Picture, which is the norm. What isn’t the norm is that three of the five didn’t quite deserve it. The “winner” was Wild Wild West, which was certainly deserved. Also in the deserved column was The Haunting, a tonally jumbled and unscary mess where the best moment is Owen Wilson getting dragged on a carpet until he’s beheaded by a stone lion head (between this, Armageddon, and Anaconda his characters had some terrible luck in the ’90s).
But The Blair Witch Project and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace? Even if Phantom Menace was hugely disappointing at the time, “Worst” of the year is a stretch. And as for The Blair Witch Project, it’s an outright mystery why that would receive the dishonor. The same goes for Big Daddy. Back in the day Big Daddy won over quite a few people who couldn’t stand Billy Madison or The Waterboy. It was still Sandler playing a manchild, sure, but it was also a sweet movie with a few really touching moments.
10) Transformers: Dark of the Moon
paramount pictures
To be fair to the Razzies, the Michael Bay Transformers movies do deserve the negative critical reception they received. Furthermore, the Razzies didn’t hate on them from the beginning, as the 2007 original was not nominated for Worst Picture (nor were the Bay-free and all-around solid Bumblebee and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts).
But films two through five were well represented at the Razzies, Transformers: The Last Knight even broke the record for most nominations without a “win.” And, without a doubt, The Last Knight, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Transformers: Age of Extinction all very much deserved to be seen as some of the worst films of their respective years of release. But that’s not the case for the third film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which has a few truly standout set pieces and toned down the blatant racism seen in Revenge of the Fallen.
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