Today marked the announcement of this year's Golden Raspberry Awards, more commonly referenced by everyone as The Razzies. For many, this award has been a cavalcade of bullies picking on low hanging fruit, specifically that of Adam Sandler. Many cannot stand them, and their recent votes for films like Fifty Shades of Grey definitely feel like they're attacking obvious targets. However, there's one thing that I have to mention before I go too much further, I used to be a member. Admittedly, I was younger and more naive, but that doesn't excuse that I was at one point on the voting staff and could make my vote matter. All it really took was watching films and determining which were the worst. I don't have a great story, but I am familiar with the behind the scenes. I did meet the head John Wilson on a few occasions at various get togethers where he would hand out tacky door prizes (it was fitting, so I didn't mind). To say the least, I both get why The Razzies aren't as beloved as they used to be, and sort of don't understand the reputation they garnered.
The first year that I could recall being a member was in 2008. I was 19 and not quite the reputable film buff that I am barely today. I was the young kid who was introduced to the program through my aunt, who was a member at the time. It was an interesting novelty that made sense. It was a parody of great awards and members got to have a special party at the head's house. The first year that I went was not as a paid member, but as a guest to my aunt, where we sat in folding chairs and watched The Oscar before the festivities kicked in. The ceremony consisted of watching clips and then a main attraction: a movie related to whatever the nominees were going to be. I saw In the Name of the King, Shark Night, and G.I. Joe during those events. To say the least, they are fun. It's basically a group getting together to make fun of movies.
I know that to many, the turning point came a lot sooner, but I was still that young kid with a tolerance for watching bad movies. However, there was something about 2011 that seemed immediately jarring to me. For starters, that was the year that the ceremony was relocated from the Hollywood Hills to Santa Monica and held not on the night before the Oscars, but way off on April 1. By that point, momentum had deflated and even the presence of Rotten Tomatoes head Matt Atchity wasn't enough to make it appealing. 2011 was the year of the clean sweep for Jack and Jill. It was a year where the opening song (a staple in the productions) was a parody of "Mr. Sandman," called "Mr. Sandler" with appropriately lowbrow humor to accompany it.
The thing to remember is that there's something fun initially about The Razzies. It was some event that Wilson held in his living room, and it somehow became an annual event before it became what it was. Suddenly, his award was a moniker for terrible film. I still remember going to the ceremony the year that The Last Airbender and Sex and the City 2 won big, and Russell Peters came out and roasted the movie. It's a strangely satisfying event to be in when you have some investment as a member. You feel sort of special, even if you know the award is a sham. To paraphrase The Simpsons, you could say "Well at least we know that our award is a sham." Still, there was something fun about being a voting member.
There was a big difference between those two years. One was held in a fancy-ish theater, and the other was just in Downtown Santa Monica in what felt like a small auditorium. It could just be that their booking didn't work out. However, it was the snapping point, mostly because The Razzies sacrificed their tradition to hold the awards on April Fools Day. Yes, it is a quirky gimmick, but it was one of many reasons that the 2011 ceremony felt like it was trying too hard. Beyond that Jack and Jill sweep, it was basically self-aware that Adam Sandler was going down hard (mind you, this is the year of Rotten Tomatoes' goose egg champion Buck Larson). They made constant jokes about his awfulness, making the relatively short ceremony feel oddly slower than it was. With clips from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 attached, it was also predicting where things would go.
At the time, I still had that sense of community when I walked out. However, the next week began to change my mind. Suddenly the diversity was gone and I saw the award how most people do. It was an excuse to bash the popular duds of the day. I know that this award is voted upon by the public, but it still feels like either audiences don't see the films that they vote for, or there's unfair bias. There was also a year where Sandra Bullock famously announced that she would accept the award in person if she won. Guess what? She won for All About Steve. Did she deserve it? Just as much as the other nominees. However, there was clearly a bias there to get Hollywood royalty to show up to the party (alas, that was one of the only years as a member that I missed the ceremony).
I have had conflicted views ever since 2012 about The Razzies, and frankly haven't been involved in any way. The issue wasn't that I felt ostracized from the community, but that the community wasn't doing anything interesting. It was jabbing, but it stopped doing it to exciting titles. So as I see Fifty Shades of Grey on their list (a film that is halfway decent), I notice that they're gearing up to attack E.L. James' adaptations for the next few years. Where's the sporadic randomness and playfulness that made them seem appealing in 2008 when The Love Guru won? I honestly don't know.
Yet for some reason, I still receive e-mails from The Razzies despite not having paid my dues in four years. In some ways, it reminds me of the way I used to be and how I can't dare myself to watch bad movies with intent. Maybe it's just not who I am. I don't know. I do occasionally wonder if randomly attending their get togethers would rekindle the community feeling. But then I remember that their winners have been disappointing attention grabbers from the past few years, and that doesn't seem like something I want to be involved with. There's no denying that I was part of The Razzies in some capacity for four years, but it's just not the same. Either I changed or they didn't, and I don't know who to blame more.
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