Science fiction and fantasy at the Razzies

I apologize for slacking, as I haven't followed through on the promise I made in Politics, science fiction, and fantasy at the Golden Globes to "get back to all of you tomorrow after the winners are announced."  I'm still not following through with that.  I'm going to use the excuse that I'll do so in the context of the announcement of the Oscar nominees in the morning, when nearly all the Golden Globe winners and most of the nominees for film should make the cut.  Instead, I'm going to celebrate the worst of big budget films, as the nominees for the Golden Raspberry Awards AKA the Razzies were announced yesterday.  I'll let the Razzies themselves announce the (un)lucky contenders in 34TH RAZZIE Nominations.

34th Razzie Nominations - Who's been summoned to "Own Their Bad!"

Hollyscoop summarizes the most nominated films in Razzies Slams Adam Sandler's Movie with Eight 'Worst' Noms.

We may as well rename the 'Razzies' the 'Adam Sandler Achievement Awards.' Once again, one of his flicks has topped the embarrassing award spoof on the Oscars.
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We may as well rename the 'Razzies' the 'Adam Sandler Achievement Awards.' Once again, one of his flicks has topped the embarrassing award spoof on the Oscars. Exactly the opposite of the Academy Awards, Razzies name the worst in film and Adam Sandler is no stranger. 'Grown Ups 2' leads this year's Razzie nominations. It is up for eight accolades at the 34th annual Golden Raspberry Awards. Adam wrote and produced the flick and it is up for Worst Picture, Worst Sequel, Worst Screenplay and Worst Ensemble Cast. Sandler is also nominated for Worst Actor, while co-stars Taylor Lautner and Salma Hayek will compete for Worst Supporting Actor and Actress respectively. Aww, was it that bad??! The first one was pretty good! Meanwhile, Sci-fi movie 'After Earth', which starred Will Smith and his son Jaden, is up for six awards this year, as is Tyler Perry's 'A Madea Christmas' and 'Movie 43'. Two surprising films up for worst picture- 'Lone Ranger' and 'Runner Runner,' both with big A-listers as stars.

That's a good list except for one film.  I looked at both the Razzies website and the Wikipedia page for this year's nominees and didn't see "Runner Runner" listed as a nominee.  Derp on Hollyscoop for that.

That written, the list of nominees, which can be seen both at the Razzies site and relevant Wikipedia page, supports the main reason why the Smithee Awards don't recognize comedies; there is nothing unfunnier than a bad comedy, and the field is full of bad comedies.

As for the subject line of this entry, a hard science-fiction movie, "After Earth," a steampunk fantasy, "The Lone Ranger," and a cartoon fantasy, "Smurfs 2, fill out the science fiction and fantasy nominees.  As Hollyscoop mentioned, "After Earth," which I wrote about in "After Earth" in this installment of Crazy Eddie at the movies garnered six nominations, including Worst Movie, Worst Lead Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Screen Combo, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay in what the Razzies call "Planet Nepotism."  As Hollyscoop also reported, "The Lone Ranger" earned five nods, Worst Movie, Worst Lead Actor, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Sequel, Prequel, Remake, or Rip-off.  The sole nomination for "Smurfs 2" is Worst Sequel, Prequel, Remake, or Rip-off.

To be honest, I haven't seen any of these movies.  I'm sure I'll eventually convince my wife to watch "After Earth" and "The Lone Ranger" when we don't have to pay extra for them, but the latter has such a bad odor about it that my wife, a big Johnny Depp fan, couldn't get excited enough to watch him as Tonto to bother paying for on-demand showing.  That's bad.  Once we do that, I'll get back to my readers about them.

NBC and Carrie Underwood mess with America's entertainment

As I've stated multiple times over the years, the one thing that will get Americans to act is messing with their entertainment.  The following article, which was the fifth most read story on Reuters' site last Thursday night when I included it in Overnight News Digest: R.I.P. Nelson Mandela, supports my contention.

U.S. television, Twitter, alive with new version of 'Sound of Music'
By Jill Serjeant
NEW YORK Thu Dec 5, 2013 11:45pm EST

Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. television was alive with "The Sound of Music" on Thursday as country singer Carrie Underwood and "True Blood" actor Stephen Moyer starred in a live version of the classic musical about an aspiring nun who falls in love with an Austrian captain.

Filmed on vast movie sets and with lavish costumes but without an audience, the NBC television broadcast harked back to the traditions of the 1950s and 1960s when live musicals were often shown on American television.

Thursday's three-hour show was based on the 1959 stage version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show rather than the Oscar-winning 1965 musical starring Julie Andrews.

After heavy promotion for weeks, the live broadcast was the No. 2 topic on Twitter on Thursday, behind the death of South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.But not everyone found the new version one of their favorite things, with many viewers taking to social media to snipe over the quality of Underwood's acting and bemoan a lack of atmosphere and chemistry between some of the key characters.

Yes, while I was posting A great song for a great man and others their tributes to a great world leader, almost as many people were tweeting about a musical.  I disappointed, but not surprised.  NBC was messing with people's memories of their entertainment, which was enought to get them riled up.

Reuters also gave some examples of both sides of the online debate.

"Don't get me wrong. I love me some Carrie Underwood but I am not digging this version," tweeted TV viewer Heather Whitford.

"Nothing will beat an original, but doing this live on TV is amazing!" countered Lonz on the micro-blogging website.

I agree with Lonz.  This reminded me of the television from my childhood in the 1960s, when this sort of thing was common.  I have to applaud NBC for attempting such a retro concent in the 21st Century.

Buzz60 shows even more scathing (and stupid) reactions in Twitter Sounds Off on 'The Sound of Music Live!'

The production of NBC's 'The Sound of Music Live!' starring Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer reportedly cost $9 million. But if the reaction on Twitter is any indication, this new version of the classic starring Julie Andrews won't be making anyone's 'favorite things' list. Kristina Behr (@KristinaBehr) has the scoop.

As I wrote, some of these reactions were stupid.  To begin with it was 1930s Austria, not 1940s Germany and a Southern accent shouldn't be any more unbelievable than Julie's English accent, but that's nitpicking.

Follow over the jump for more from Hollyscoop and two clips from NBC, one from the show itself and another from SNL.