Razzies, GAG Awards Honor ‘Norbit’

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 23, 2008

For movie buffs, this time of year is like the playoffs in professional sports. It’s the time when we look back at all the films from the past year and reflect on the best of the best. Perhaps this is what gets us through the dark time of January and February, when most theatrical releases are about as palatable as a poop-flavored lollipop, as Patches O’Houlihan might say.

Still, even if you’re not a film critic or voting member of a film society that gets to choose the winners during award season, you’re at least an armchair critic. And nothing is more fun for critics than to bypass the best of the best and take a look at the worst of the worst.

This week, to coincide with the Oscar nominations due on January 22, the nominees of the Golden Raspberry Awards (aka the “Razzies”) were announced.

Leading the fray is Lindsay Lohan’s disaster I Know Who Killed Me with nine nominations. But biting at Ms. Lohan’s heels are I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and the Eddie Murphy gender-bender Norbit, both receiving eight noms. Other Worst Picture noms include Daddy Day Camp and Bratz.

Along with the FSR-sponsored GAG Awards, the Razzies is a virtual who’s who of crappy cinema for the year. It doesn’t matter if the film made money, rather that it sucked balls and deserves to be ridiculed.

And like the Oscars, it seems to be an honor for a movie to be remembered even if it had an early release. Case in point, the only film up for Worst Picture released prior to the summer was Norbit. It takes a special kind of movie for the voting public to remember a movie practically a year from its release date.

Other fun things to note in this year’s Razzies slate is the fact that Eddie Murphy is nominated for three acting awards for Norbit – Worst Actor for the title character, Worst Supporting Actor for Mr. Wong and Worst Supporting Actress for Rasputia. Also in the acting camp, Lindsay Lohan was honored with two nods for Worst Actress, both for her duel role in I Know Who Killed Me.

Finally, my favorite movie eye candy Jessica Alba is up for three versions of Worst Screen Couple: with Ioan Gruffudd in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Dane Cook in Good Luck Chuck, and with Hayden Christiansen in Awake. The Razzies seem to have ignored that soon-to-be-released bootleg sex tape she made with me… but that will probably be in next year’s awards.

For a complete list of nominees, visit The Razzies home page or our friends at Cinematical who have the list without the annoying pop-up ads.

Or, if you want a gander at the FSR-sponsored GAG Awards (whose winners were announced on Tuesday morning), check out the official press release, which includes plenty of love for Norbit as well. Just click the image below:

Read more articles by Kevin Carr