Razzies: ‘Emoji Movie,’ Tom Cruise Named Among the Worst in 2017 Films
Tyler Perry and Mel Gibson were also “winners”
Rosemary Rossi | March 3, 2018 @ 12:28 PM
Last Updated: March 4, 2018 @ 9:40 AM
Those walking, talking piles of poop who proudly claimed “we’re No. 2!” in “The Emoji Movie” were named the winners (or should we say, the losers?) of the Worst Picture of 2017 in the 38th annual Golden Raspberry Awards, aka the Razzies.
“Leading this year’s list of movie-misfires is the emoticon-based, talking poop opus,” the Razzies said in a statement, adding that the panned film came in a year when “Hollywood’s recycled trash heap attained an all-time high” and saw a “toxic-level lack of originality.”
Voting Razzie members (1,009 film buffs, entertainment journalists and other strongly opinionated movie goers from 49 states and 25 foreign countries) cast their ballots online, selecting five final contenders in nine categories.
Worst actor of the year went to someone who’s been nominated lots of times but never won, “proving practice does make a perfect Razzie recipient,” the announcement said. The winner/loser: Tom Cruise for his role in “The Mummy.”
Leading “actress” went to Tyler Perry for his tenth appearance as Medea, this time in “BOO! 2: A Medea Halloween.” Supporting awards were “won” by Kim Basinger for “Fifty Shades Darker” and Mel Gibson for “Daddy Home 2,” a performance which the London Guardian called “a grinning death’s head of unfunniness.”
“Baywatch” WINNER “The Emoji Movie” “Fifty Shades Darker”
“The Mummy”
“Transformers: The Last Knight”
WORST ACTRESS
Katherine Heigl, “Unforgettable”
Dakota Johnson, “Fifty Shades Darker”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Mother!” WINNER: Tyler Perry, “BOO! 2: A Medea Halloween” Emma Watson, “The Circle”
WORST ACTOR
WINNER: Tom Cruise, “The Mummy” Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”
Jamie Dornan, “Fifty Shades Darker”
Zac Efron, “Baywatch”
Mark Wahlberg, “Daddy’s Home 2” and “Transformers: The Last Knight”
WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Javier Bardem, “Mother!” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”
Russell Crowe, “The Mummy”
Josh Duhamel, “Transformers: Last Knight” WINNER: Mel Gibson, “Daddy’s Home 2” Anthony Hopkins, “Collide” and “Transformers: The Last Knight”
WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER: Kim Basinger, “Fifty Shades Darker” Sofia Boutella, “The Mummy”
Laura Haddock, “Transformers: The Last Knight”
Goldie Hawn, “Snatched”
Susan Sarandon, “A Bad Moms Christmas
WORST SCREEN COMBO
Any Combination of Two Characters, Two Sex Toys or Two Sexual Positions, “Fifty Shades Darker”
Any Combination of Two Humans, Two Robots or Two Explosions, “Transformers: The Last Knight” WINNER: Any Two Obnoxious Emojis, “The Emoji Movie” Johnny Depp and His Worn Out Drunk Routine, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Careers Tell No Tales”
Tyler Perry and Either the Ratty Old Dress or Worn Out Wig, “BOO! 2: A Madea Halloween”
WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
“Baywatch”
“BOO 2: A Medea Halloween” WINNER: “Fifty Shades Darker” “The Mummy”
“Transformers: The Last Knight”
WORST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, “Mother!”
Michael Bay, “Transformers: The Last Knight”
James Foley, “Fifty Shades Darker”
Alex Kurtzman, “The Mummy” WINNER: Anthony (Tony) Leondis, “The Emoji Movie”
WORST SCREENPLAY
“Baywatch”
“The Emoji Movie”
“Fifty Shades Darker”
“The Mummy”
“Transformers: The Last Knight”
12 Worst Movies of 2017, From 'The Emoji Movie' to 'Baywatch' (Photos)
How great was 2017 for movies? Adam Sandler starred in a movie that made it to my Best List. How lousy was 2017 for movies? I had to cram a dozen titles into a 10 Worst roster.
10. "War Machine"
This would-be satire presumably had something to say about the hot mess that is the War on Terror, but between Brad Pitt's never-not-pulling-a-face performance and the screenplay's heavy-handed and excessively narrated attempts at political insight, the results were an unfunny mess that wasted a stellar cast.
Netflix
9. "Home Again"
Reese Witherspoon was the queen of the small screen this year with "Big Little Lies," but her cinematic outing in the directorial debut of Hallie Meyers-Shyer (whose only apparent qualification for the gig was being the offspring of two filmmakers) left her stranded in a cutesy and deadly dull tale of a newly separated mom falling for a brash young would-be director.
Open Road Films
8. "CHIPS" and "Baywatch"
The "Jump Street" movies made mining comedy out of a terrible old cop show look so easy that we got stuck with these two miserable failures that lacked laughs and a point of view. The funniest thing about "Baywatch" was when the producers tried to blame Rotten Tomatoes for the film's embarrassing opening-weekend numbers.
Warner Bros./Paramount
7. "The Last Face"
The road to hell has rarely been paved with such good intentions; director Sean Penn cast Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem as super-photogenic doctors falling in love and saving lives in African war zones, but the dialogue was so vapid and over-ripe that audiences giggled uncomfortably when they weren't averting their eyes from grotesque battle footage.
Saban Films
6. "Friend Request"
A teen witch torments a popular young college girl via social media in the kind of movie where we're supposed to be struck by the tragedy of the heroine's Facebook friend spiraling downward to zero. Your attention will go on a similar trajectory. It's the kind of horror movie where the comic relief isn't funny, but almost everything else is.
Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
5. "Transformers: The Last Knight"
The makers of "King Arthur" should have sent a muffin basket to the "Last Knight" crew for making this latest giant-robot saga the year's dumbest movie partially set at Camelot. Otherwise, the only reason for this film to exist is so that we can finally hear Sir Anthony Hopkins summon his decades of theatrical training to pronounce the word "Megatron."
Paramount
4. "The Space Between Us" and "The Only Living Boy in New York"
If only 2016's dreadful "Collateral Beauty" had come out a few weeks later, screenwriter Allan Loeb could have scored a trifecta of mawkish dramas about sensitive boy-men who learn to love (and audiences who are shocked, shocked to learn in Act 3 that Character A and Character B have been secretly related all along).
STX Entertainment/Roadside Attractions
3. "The Emoji Movie"
There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea of taking those faces in your phone and building a movie around them, but you'd actually have to make them into characters and give them a plot that mattered if you didn't want to wind up with this dreary and inane kiddie adventure that's less interesting than 90 minutes of watching someone else play Candy Crush Saga.
Sony Pictures Animation
2. "The Assignment"
Action legend Walter Hill turns gender-confirmation surgery into the stuff of leering exploitation in this seamy tale of a hitman given a woman's body against his will. Even if the treatment of trans issues weren't so repellent, this cheapie was poorly shot and clumsily edited, with actors like Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver doing their very worst.
Saban Films
1. "The Book of Henry"
Believe the hype: Colin Trevorrow's one-for-me follow-up to "Jurassic World" was the kind of embarrassment that made bad-movie lovers run to the theater. Henry dies midway through the movie -- trust me, it's not a spoiler, it's a selling point -- but still leaves really explicit instructions for his flighty mom to murder their abusive neighbor, the police commissioner. If James Franco wants to make a "Disaster Artist" sequel, he might start here.
Focus Features
Now be sure to check out Alonso Duralde's picks for the best movies of the year.
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TheWrap’s Best & Worst 2017: Boy geniuses, giant robots and poop emojis all had a role in the year’s lousiest films
How great was 2017 for movies? Adam Sandler starred in a movie that made it to my Best List. How lousy was 2017 for movies? I had to cram a dozen titles into a 10 Worst roster.