Stallone’s ‘Expend4bles’ earns seven Razzie nominations
KUALA LUMPUR: The fourth instalment of Sylvester Stallone’s film series, Expend4bles, also known as The Expendables 4, is leading the Golden Raspberry Awards this year with seven nominations.
The Razzies, which has been described as the ugly cousin to the Oscars, are given out each year to performers and movies deemed the ‘worst’ of the year.
Directed by Scott Waugh, Expend4bles stars an ensemble cast including Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture reprising their roles from previous films with Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson and Megan Fox.
Stallone is nominated for worst supporting actor with Fox up for worst supporting actress.
Voted for by more than 1,000 Golden Raspberry Foundation members based in the United States and abroad, there are nine Razzie categories including worst director, worst screenplay and worst prequel/remake/ripoff/sequel, reported BBC.
Expend4bles has been nominated for all of those categories.
Released in China on Sep 2023 followed by the US a week later, the film received largely negative reviews from critics, with criticism for its plot, action sequences, Stallone’s limited screen time, Waugh’s direction, absence of most of the original cast and visual effects.
It grossed US$51 million (RM241 million) worldwide against a budget of US$100 million (RM473 million). Fox is the only actor to be nominated for two different films, worst actress for Johnny & Clyde and worst supporting actress for Expend4bles.
She was also nominated for worst actress in 2022. However, she has not been nominated as many times as Stallone, who has received his 16th nomination for worst actor.
Other Razzie nominees include The Exorcist: Believer and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, with five nominations each.
The Winnie the Pooh slasher film took advantage of the copyright for AA Milne’s classic tale expiring and reimagined the characters of the Hundred Acre Wood as vicious serial killers.
It has been nominated for worst picture, worst screenplay and worst rip-off, while Pooh and Piglet are nominated as worst on-screen couple. The Exorcist: Believer is not the only exorcismthemed film with nominations.
Oscar winner Russell Crowe is in the worst actor category for his portrayal of Father Gabriele Amorth, a priest who performed more than 100,000 exorcisms, in The Pope’s Exorcist.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is also nominated for worst sequel. The ‘winners’ of the 44th annual Razzies will be announced March 9, the night before the Oscars.