HeadBerry@razzies.com

EDITORIAL:

Is 2002's Worst Picture ‘PINOCCHIO’ By a Nose??

  Sometimes it takes a while for our Worst New Star Contenders to achieve The Full Flower of Their Awfulness: In the case of Roberto Benigni, 1993 Worst New Star nominee for his English language debut in SON OF THE PINK PANTHER, it took ten years.

  In that decade, Italy’s Answer to Jerry Lewis actually won an Academy Award as Best Actor for the emotionally overwhelming (and critically over-rated) LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. He also saw that film go on to gross nearly $200 million worldwide. As a result, La Bozo d’Talia found himself in that rare place only hit-makers find themselves: He was given the chance to make His Dream Project, with The Biggest Budget in Italian Film History.

  And what did The Man Who Mounted the Seats at the 1999 Academy Awards make with the $45 million?? The film Benigni was originally to have done under the direction of Italy’s Master Movie Maker Federico Fellini: An Italian version of that most famous of Italian folk tales, PINOCCHIO. But Fellini bought the olive farm before the project was realized, and Benigni went ahead without him. And Fellini, even with CASANOVA, never got the kind of reviews the hideously dubbed American release of Benigni’s PINOCCHIO has gotten. “A movie so bad,” declared The New York Times, “that it instantly enters the pantheon of wreckage that includes BATTLEFIELD EARTH and SHOW-GIRLS!” “Wooden-headed, self-serving and lifeless!” chimed The L.A. Times. “There’s something off-putting about a 50-year-old man cavorting around in a clown suit impersonating a capricious brat,” avowed VARIETY. And People On-Line even went so far as to open their piece with: “RAZZIE Board, are you listening? Just when it seemed as though SWEPT AWAY and PLUTO NASH had a lock on next Spring’s Golden Raspberry Awards, along comes the Christmas turkey PINOCCHIO.”

  So is the film as bad as 100%(!) of the critics culled on RottenTomatoes.com say it is? If it hasn’t been pulled already by your local Theatre Manager as a Public Service, you can still see for yourself. Or you can just take OUR word for it -- Benigni’s PINOCCHIO deserves to be our first ever foreign-made Worst Picture nominee...

The Worst Kind of

GOSSIP!

LINA LETS MADONNA HAVE IT! However nasty American reviews of SWEPT AWAY may have been, perhaps the most hurtful comment of all came from the director of the 1974 original version, Lina Wertmuller. Quoted in The Washington Post, La Lina declared: "Why? Why? I don't understand why the picture is so awful. Why did Madonna and her husband let it out? It's very crazy. They saw the picture. So why open like that? This is terrible!"

“MOTHER OF GOD, IS THIS THE END OF LITTLE ROCKY?”  It hadda happen sooner or later: Awl-Time RAZZIE Cham-Peen Sylvester Stallone has finally made a movie So Awful It Went Direct-to-Video. Your local Blockbuster should have at least ONE rental copy of the just released D-TOX. Formerly titled ICU, EYE SEE YOU and IM AUGE DER ANGST in Germany (one of the few places it was theatrically released) it was directed by Jim Gillespie, whose previous claim-to-fame was I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, and co-stars 1981 Worst Actor nominee Kris Kristofferson. Just so you don’t go gettin’ too sorry for Duh Sly Guy, it’s also one of those three films he made for Universal...For $20 million apiece!

“MOTHER OF GOD, IS THIS THE END OF LITTLE RAZZIE??” Our one-year development deal with Nash Entertainment, to try and finally get The RAZZIES broadcast, expired last November. During that year, we had what seemed like good pitch meetings with Comedy Central and AMC, and a Very Weird Meeting at E! TV (they totally didn’t get it -- And kept asking where Joan Rivers would be put on the Red Carpet for Stars’ Arrivals!). But it turns out the TV industry is just as afraid of us as the movie industry is -- Not one network followed up without expressing fear of “pissing off” their Major Movie Studio sponsors.

Hey, we told you we’re Persona Non-RAZZa in Hollywood! Bottom Line: We’re now seeking another backer...

NOTE TO OUR INTERNET VISITORS