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The Razzies are at it again.
Four decades into the joke, its fair to ask, What do the Razzies want?
To poke fun at Hollywoods prestige productions on the eve of the industrys most self-congratulatory night?
To needle indie and genre efforts that enraptured reviewers?
To genuinely point at the baddest of bad cinema and say, Not this time, Affleck!
This years nominee pool runs the gamut from big-budget studio films to low-profile VOD releases.
We do in general have a go at stick to the big-budget, big-name people.
His pictures were pretty low-profile; I think they all went directly to streaming.
I think the old record was six by Gilbert Gottfried a long time ago.
But to be that prolific in exhibiting how little you care is rather impressive.
Other winners have in the pastembraced their Razzie wins.
- Do you expect to hear from Willis?J.W.
I will be curious to see.
Its like when somebodys body is thrown in the river and it comes to the surface later.
And if he has a reaction, Id be curious what it is.
Maureen Murphy: The other part of it is were not here to beat anybody up.
Its basically just calling them out.
I like to say we all make mistakes look at the Razzies.
And the other way we like to look at it is we bring humanity to celebrity.
The audience truly embraces it when somebody steps up and says, Yeah, I did a dog.
They get that they love it.
:We have to have a sense of humor about ourselves to justify doing what we do.
Still, do you worry about commingling big- and low-budget titles?
- Because if youre just going after the absolute worst, youd think the latter would dominate the nominations.M.M.
You mean like Taryn Manning inKaren?
Do you deliberately want to straddle that line?J.W.
The way it was written and performed, she stands out in that ensemble.
It means well; the message of the picture is a positive message.
- But its so clumsily handled that no matter how little you had to spend, it wasnt good.
It wasnt a Zeitgeist movie as far as audiences are concerned, but it was on lists.
A lot of lists.
And thats where we find a lot of stuff.
Is that how you narrow down your candidates via worst-of lists?M.M.
We have a forum with a lot of members who weigh in.
- And we see movies, but its not like we can see everything.
Also, IMDb users rate movies; Im assuming they are not critics, although who knows?
Some of them might be.
Take Bruce Williss eight movies one or two of them dont actually have a Rotten Tomatoes rating.
So there are going to be things that escape our notice.
Somebody sent us an email just last week about a foreign film, asking why it wasnt nominated.
It is impossible to catch them all.
We do our best.
- He was a completely contemporary character and performance in a movie set in the 14th century.
We dont like to do that.
We dont like to pick on somebody.
But we felt that his performance just really stood out.
In my mind, it just completely stood out.
- It was very Americana.
Also, the movie got mostly favorable reviews, but at the box office, it bombed.
It didnt make nearly what they spent on it.
So, again, the public seems to agree with us.
Also, a whole bunch of the coverage is saying hes in Worst Actor.
Excuse me read the press release.
Were calling him a supporting actor.
He has high billing, but he isnt in the movie for even 20 minutes, I think.
So hes clearly a supporting performance.
Is that fair, or is that just the way it works out?M.M.
But Nicolas Cage, I just saw a film calledPig,and I liked his performance in that.
We have a Razzie Redeemer Award; we dont like to pick on people.
We like to call them out and say, Hey, think about what youre doing.
Think about your choices.
- Thats what happens, and its just about calling it out.
Part of what the award is about is not You suck, and youve never done anything good.
That would apply to Amy Adams this year.
And this is what happens.
- We try our best.
The bulk of our dues-paying members are regular moviegoers.
I dont think there is another awards organization as well known as ours that represents the general public.
We also have film journalists who over the years have requested to be put on the voter list.
And we have professional screenwriters, directors, actors that kind of thing.
I think were the only one where all three of those groups input factors into our results.
We think were a rather democratic organization.
We dont forbid anybody.
This has to have some legitimacy to it.
The other thing about taking memberships over the internet is we have members all over the world.
- I think the only continent were not represented on is Africa.
You cant enforce that with any organization, including the Academy Awards.
You cant do that with any awards unless youre sitting in a room forcing them to watch something.
- There really is no assumption as far as thats concerned.
There has to be a certain amount of good faith here.
- How do you stay relevant in that sort of environment?M.M.
Its a brand name at this point, and its synonymous with the wordbad.
Its a berry 42 years in the making.
So its there its in the pop culture.
If somebody comes along with a golden pear or something, it gets lost.
Its there, naturally.
- Thats the cool thing about it.
Our longevity, in my mind, is a double-edged sword.
I think it attests to we are still relevant if we still get this amount of attention.
- But yes, to certain people looking at it, youre ancient youve been around forever.
you’re able to say that about the Oscars, too.
The Oscars are even more decrepit than we are.
Yeah, the demographics are between 18 to 25.
- Is there one that you hear about most frequently?M.M.
For me, its Shelley Duvall inThe Shining.
Knowing the backstory and the way that Stanley Kubrick kind of pulverized her, I would take that back.
And as I understand it, Kubrick was the one who decided what they cut out from the novel.
So I dont feel that badly about Stanley Kubrick.
M.M.:Exactly.
I think that guys overrated.
He did one good movie, and that was about it.
And were willing to say, Yeah, maybe that shouldnt have been nominated.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
