"Airbender' and 'Eclipse' Lead Razzies' Nods

JAN 24, 2011 - According to the Razzies' website, 2010 was a year when those obnoxious 'surcharges' for 3-D glasses boosted movie studios’ bottom lines, while actual attendance dropped once again. It was a year when most of what Hollywood released was either a remake, a “reboot” a “re-imagining”...or an outright rip-off. In other words, it was a banner year for only one of Tinsel Town’s best-known award shows...the one that dis-honours the Worst Achievements in Film.

Voting members of The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation have sifted through the cinematic rubble of last year and selected nominees for The 31st Annual Razzies Awards, with “winners” set to be announced in ceremonies at Hollywood’s Barnsdall Gallery Theatre on Saturday, Feb 26 – the traditional Night Before the Oscars.

Leading the pack among this year’s contenders are the third installment of an enormously successful franchise and one of 2010’s biggest critical disasters, with 9 nods each. Razzie Repeat Offender M. Night Shyamalan “re-imagined” the faux-anime TV series The Last Airbender into a jumbled, jump-cut mess of a movie that fans of the TV show hated even more than critics did (if that’s even possible!).

In addition to Worst Director and Worst Picture, the film is up for Worst Remake, Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Couple/Ensemble (the entire cast) and a brand-new Razzie category for 2010, Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3-D. Neck-and-neck with Airbender (while taking a decidedly bigger bite it at the box office) is last year’s 4th biggest money-maker, Twilight Saga: Eclipse, also with 9 shots at taking home spray-painted gold.

All three of the principal characters of Eclipse are individually nominated for their acting, and the entire cast is also up for Worst Screen Ensemble. Rounding out the Worst Picture list are the aptly titled Twilight “parody” Vampires Suck, the bling-obsessed chick flick Sex & The City 2 and the decidedly un-romantic rom-com/revenge fantasy The Bounty Hunter.

Other notable nominees include a trio of long established divas, Cher, Liza Minnelli and Barbra Streisand all vying to be named Worst Supporting Actress. Miley Cyrus is nominated for Worst Actress, and Jack Black, Gerard Butler and Ashton Kutcher up against Twilight’s Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson for Worst Actor.