'Diana the Musical' leads 2022 Razzies with nine nominations

I told my readers that I would make up for yesterday's post not being the first Sunday entertainment feature of February by covering the Razzie nominations today. They're out on schedule. Watch 42nd Razzie Nominations.

While space was jammed in 2021 with the likes of Bezos, Elon and telescopes exploring escape routes, we simple Earthlings, who did not “Look Up” remained glued to the Razzie crap streaming, beaming and steaming from our various screens and devices.

LOL, loved using a "Don't Look Up" parody as the theme, although it briefly made me worried that it would be among the nominees. Nope and a good thing, too.

The press release continues.

Here’s a look at what we saw … the excruciating musicals, thrill-free thriller rip-offs, a nearly 2 hour product placement flick, and more Bruce Willis than any starving viewer could stomach. In other words, 2021 did not fail the Razzies!

As the ugly cousin to the Oscars, the Razzies duly follow in the footsteps of their more prestigious and dull counterpart’s rules and regulations. So, with the Academy guidelines allowing non-traditional releases to compete, guess what – so did we!

This year’s Worst Picture nominees include: The NetFLIX version of Broadway’s biggest bomb of the year, Diana the Musical (the stage version of which didn’t even last 40 performances); That multi-bajillion-dollar straight-to-streaming time travel turkey Infinite: The hopelessly on-the-nose/can’t-we-all-just-get-along melodrama Karen (whose title character makes Cruella seem like a nice neighbor); That 115 minute Time/Warner corporate sales reel posing as a family film, Space Jam: A New Legacy; And a lifeless, pointless “re-imagining” of a seminal Hitchcock classic, The Woman in the Window.

Acting nominees include an otherwise great actress, Amy Adams (with nods for both Woman in the Window and Dear Evan Hansen); LeBron James, who most likely dunked his chances for basking in the cinema limelight by starring in Space Jam 2; And a Razzie Regular whose appearance in no less than EIGHT titles in 2021 bagged him a category all to himself (Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie).
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NOMINATIONS per PICTURE

Diana the Musical (9 Nominations, including Worst Picture, Actor & Actress)
Karen (5 Nominations, including Picture, Actress, Screenplay & Director)
The Woman in the Window (5 Nominations, including Picture, Actress & Remake/Rip-Off)
Space Jam: A New Legacy (4 Nominations, including Picture, Actor & Screen Couple)
Infinite (3 Nominations, including Worst Picture, Actor & Supporting Actress)
The Misfits (3 Nominations, including Supporting Actor, Director & Screenplay)

I pay attention to the Razzies because they usually recognize the worst big-budget genre films and sniff out bad political films. They didn't disappoint me this year, as "Diana the Musical," which is about the British Royal Family, so politics and government by default, earned the most nominations. While thrillers are not speculative fiction, they are genre shows that are adjacent to speculative fiction, so "Karen," "The Woman in the Window," "The Misfits," and "Vanquish" all qualify. Thrillers can also involve law enforcement, so government plays a role, and can examine political issues, so "Karen," which is about racism and harassment, qualifies. Actual speculative fiction made the list, too, as "Space Jam: A New Legacy," "Infinite," and "Tom & Jerry the Movie" all earned nominations.

I have noticed that the people behind the Razzies do not have the best math skills and attention to detail, so they make mistakes when counting nominations. This year was no exception, as "Dear Evan Hansen" earned four nominations for Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Screen Couple, and Worst Director but didn't make the "nominations per picture" list. Oops. Just the same, it shows that "Diana the Musical" wasn't the only bad musical tragedy in film last year. Bonus, it takes place in a public high school, so a government facility serves as the setting. Two bad musicals about government!

Before I go, I'm noting that two "Orange Is the New Black" alumna earned nominations for Worst Actress, Taryn Manning, who played Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett, for "Karen" and Ruby Rose, who played Stella Carlin for a season on the prison dramedy, for "Vanquish." Manning might be unfairly singled out because she's quite capable of playing an unlikable character well, but Rose might be another matter. She looks great, but I haven't heard good things about her acting.

I might have more about the Razzies later. In the meantime, stay tuned for the first post about the Oscar nominees tomorrow.