When LeBron James stepped into Michael Jordan’s giant shoes for “Space Jam 2: A New Legacy,” a Razzie probably isn’t the movie award he had in mind.
But the sporting great was “rewarded” for his acting turn in Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes/basketball sequel with the one prize no performer wants.
The annual tongue-in-cheek Razzies, or Golden Raspberry Awards, “honor” the worst in film, and are handed out the day before the Oscars, serving to mock the following night’s self-congratulatory Tinseltown back-slapping.
In fact, James and the film — slammed by awards organizers as “a 115 minute commercial for all things WarnerMedia” — took three Razzies in total.
“Basketball phenom LeBron James was the MVP in both Worst Actor and Worst Screen Couple (along with all those cartoon co-stars and product plugs) while the film itself was chosen Worst Remake/Rip-Off or Sequel,” they said in a press release.
The film with the most Razzies overall was Netflix’s screen version of Broadway mega-flop “Diana: The Musical,” panned by the Guardian as “the year’s most hysterically awful hate-watch.”
It took five prizes, including worst picture and worst actress for star Jeanna de Waal. The Broadway show itself lasted just 33 performances.
Jared Leto, whose flamboyant performance with campy Italian accent and heavy prosthetics in “House of Gucci” was nominated for several “actual” Hollywood prizes, was named worst supporting actor.
Organizers this year felt obliged to create an entire new category labelled “Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie” to accommodate all of the former “Die Hard” star’s questionable output last year.
In the mainly ultra-low-budget action flicks released on streaming, Willis took roles including a washed-up sheriff, an ex-cop, a retired military general and a former CIA spy.
Unsurprisingly, the Razzie went to… Bruce Willis, for critically panned sci-fi “Cosmic Sin.”