Razzies Now as Stale, Political, as Oscars

Who knew the annual Razzie nominations would become as stale as the high falutin’ Oscars?

Years ago, the arrival of the Razzies was a poke in Hollywood’s eye, a chance to remind everyone about the stinkers we suffered through over the last 12 months.

Now, the Razzie selections are as predictable as the accompanying Academy Award nominations. Oscar season means biopics, left-leaning documentaries and anything featuring Meryl Streep stand a grand chance of winning. With the Razzies, all things “Twilight” get singled out, as do products from crowd-pleasing comedian Adam Sandler and anything unabashedly conservative.

This year’s Razzies nominations include 11 nods to “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” a thoroughly mediocre but hardly awful sequel, plus eight nominations for Sandler’s “That’s My Boy.”

And, of course, the Razzie selection committee singled out “Atlas Shrugged: Part II” for worst direction and worst screenplay and the conservative-friendly “Red Dawn” for Worst Remake, Ripoff or Sequel.

The Razzies once nominated Sarah Palin for Worst Actress for appearing in “The Undefeated,” a clear indication that political bias factors into the equation. 

Lest you think our complaints are wholly ideological in nature consider how unfair it is to give Barbra Streisand a Worst Actress nomination for “Guilt Trip.” No matter how much you may dislike Streisand’s politics, she remains an ebullient screen presence and offers a perfectly acceptable turn in the recent road trip comedy.

Today’s Razzie nominations just feel lazy, as if the voters used templates from previous years without really digging up the worst of the worst.