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The Golden Raspberry Awards (better known as Razzies) are normally good fun, taking the worst films and recognising them for the abominations that they really are. The problem this year is that they have not been critical at all, taking what they consider unpopular and nominating it regardless of quite how terrible or disgusting it is, and so the likes of the repugnant Vampires Suck receives four nominations whilst giving Twilight: Eclipse nine nominations with apparently no real reflection upon the films' qualities. Both are included in the worst picture category alongside the dull Bounty Hunter (four nominations), the boring but unintentionally funny The Last Airbender (nine nominations) and the vile, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and classist tract Sex and the City 2 (seven nominations).
The biggest problem this year is Twilight: Eclipse. Despite earning nine nominations and hardly being by any definition great cinema, it remains perfectly watchable. It’s a film that does exactly what it says on the tin, providing a supernatural romance that enthralls its fans and actually happens to be the best film of the series. Director David Slade (slandered with a nomination for worst director) manages to make a sufficiently engaging and stylish outing for the franchise, which is the most successful of the Twilight films both critically and commercially. Although hardly a great piece of work, receiving nominations for so many Razzies is unfair considering that the dreadful Vampires Suck has only been nominated for four. Indeed, the fact they are even considered comparable says something about the awards this year.
Nobody will be surprised that The Last Airbender features heavily among the nominees. It’s a blockbuster that is dull and boring, with an idiotic script that feels like it was not only written for children but by children. Thankfully, it’s unintentionally quite funny, and that makes the experience just about bearable. The other big nominee, Sex and the City 2, has no such redeeming qualities and it’s hard not to feel that with a mere seven nominations the film gets off lightly. Not only mind-numbingly dull, it is also so foul that it makes thoughts of other abominably awful sequels like Transformers 2 or the excruciatingly painful Space Chimps 2 seem like happy memories, for at least they did not make me violently sick with disgust.
The other big Razzies story this year is the creation of a brand new category for Worst Eye Gouging Misuse of 3D. Here we can be pleased, as the reinvention of the cinematic third dimension has given it the power to inflict literal pain upon the human retina. It also features nominees that make sense, including Clash of the Titans, Saw 3D and The Last Airbender.
Outside of this, there are still some clear errors such as Jessica Alba’s Worst Supporting Actress nomination for The Killer Inside Me (an interesting film, in which she was actually rather good). Generally this year is one of mistakes, for while Sex and the City 2 may thoroughly deserve all its nominations, many of the nods (particularly that given to Hard Candy director David Slade) are not only unfairly damaging to careers but quite frankly ridiculous.
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