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The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst
A paperback guide to 100 of the funniest bad movies ever made, this book covers a wide range of hopeless Hollywood product, and also including rare Razzie ceremony photos and a complete history of everything ever nominated for Tinsel Town's Tackiest Trophy.
380 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 20, 2017
It all started as a party game in 1980 at the apartment of a clever young man named John Wilson......pick the worst film, actor, etc. of the year and present them with a Razzie award (Golden Raspberry Award).......a "stick-it-to the Oscars" game which has since become an annual ceremony and media event, held the night before the Academy Awards, honoring the best of the worst. And the awards are not just limited to unknown B films or low budget schlock. The Razzies take on the big boys, films that have made lots of money and have lots of fans; films that nobody wants to admit are pretty much losers otherwise. (Think The Poseidon Adventure, Road House, or The Bodyguard)
This book does not cover all the awards; instead the author selects a cross-section of big=budget and poverty row films for evisceration. No film, actor, or director is immune and the results are hysterical. The reviews are absolute masterpieces of film criticism and I laughed out loud several times. This is a must read for the fan of bad film.
This book does not cover all the awards; instead the author selects a cross-section of big=budget and poverty row films for evisceration. No film, actor, or director is immune and the results are hysterical. The reviews are absolute masterpieces of film criticism and I laughed out loud several times. This is a must read for the fan of bad film.
December 23, 2025
This is a great source book for bad movies that are obscure or are well known to the older bad movie crowd. That said, the plot descriptions of each are more insulting than humorous. If a bad movie is so bad I like it, I love the movie; there was not enough of that here. To be fair, Wilson does have some he loves (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls), just not as much as I would like. The prose can be grating. I wish the "dippy dialogue" section was more extensive.
However, enough complaining. I have already seen some "great" ones in here, such as The Lonely Lady, and I can't wait to see Rhinestone.
However, enough complaining. I have already seen some "great" ones in here, such as The Lonely Lady, and I can't wait to see Rhinestone.
June 10, 2008
Great fun - I loved reading about the movies I have actually seen.
July 8, 2024
I love bad movies. Sure, good movies are enjoyable and life changing and all that, but it's way more fun to talk about stuff that sucks. So of course I'm a fan of the Razzies even if I don't always like their decisions. And as a kid I owned and loved this book, so I figured it was about time to revisit as an adult. Published to celebrate 25 years of the Razzies, this volume covers the top 100 of Hollywood's worst flicks per founder John Wilson.
There's some movies that have been nominated for or even won Razzies, but the book isn't just focused on those. After all, the Razzies only began in 1980 and Hollywood has been making "films" for decades before then. Just because The Ten Commandments, Airport 75, or Zardoz came out years and years ago doesn't make them safe from being razzed on. Admittedly, this book is really mostly just the author recapping the plots of each movie with some snarky commentary on the acting and the quality or rather lack thereof of plot points. It's not exactly sophisticated film critique, in other words. But often just explaining what happens is enough to make it clear why a film sucks and get the reader interested in checking out some particular piece of Hollywood dreck. There are also quotes pulled from other reviews, particularly stupid bits of dialogue or songwork, and as an artifact of when this was published, info on what chapter on the DVD to skip to for the best worst parts.
The book is divided thematically, covering everything from bad monster movies to more normal disaster flicks to allegedly sexy stories that really aren't. It's a nice cross section of different bad genres, and I appreciate that the author is never dismissing any particular genre out of hand. There's a section on musicals and it's not all musicals suck, it's these particular musicals are bad at being musicals and thus suck. It also feels nice that so many different kinds of movies are included - Hollywood is equally bad at everything, it seems.
The book is kinda a fun time capsule in a way, given that it's clearly meant to be a sort of bad counterpart to the movie guide. This probably came out at the tail end of the time when it made sense to buy a big book just to tell you what movies are and aren't worth renting, and even the fact that this book spends sixty or so pages just listing out 25 years of Razzie results points to it as coming from a time when the internet wasn't as all pervasive as it is now. After all, nowadays there's a whole Wikipedia article for that, and trying to tell you where to find the films would become an impossibility with the constant shifting of what's on which streaming service.
I haven't seen more than a handful of the films covered here, and I do feel like these days the collection is in some ways outdated. Not that it's a bad selection, but simply that there's twenty further years of movie making and of people discovering classic piles of crappy celluloid that's happened since. But it was fun to revisit this and be reminded of one of the things that helped form my interest in awful movies to begin with. This is more a curiosity than an essential now, but it certainly can be a fun one to flip through if you need inspiration for a bad movie to watch with your friends.
There's some movies that have been nominated for or even won Razzies, but the book isn't just focused on those. After all, the Razzies only began in 1980 and Hollywood has been making "films" for decades before then. Just because The Ten Commandments, Airport 75, or Zardoz came out years and years ago doesn't make them safe from being razzed on. Admittedly, this book is really mostly just the author recapping the plots of each movie with some snarky commentary on the acting and the quality or rather lack thereof of plot points. It's not exactly sophisticated film critique, in other words. But often just explaining what happens is enough to make it clear why a film sucks and get the reader interested in checking out some particular piece of Hollywood dreck. There are also quotes pulled from other reviews, particularly stupid bits of dialogue or songwork, and as an artifact of when this was published, info on what chapter on the DVD to skip to for the best worst parts.
The book is divided thematically, covering everything from bad monster movies to more normal disaster flicks to allegedly sexy stories that really aren't. It's a nice cross section of different bad genres, and I appreciate that the author is never dismissing any particular genre out of hand. There's a section on musicals and it's not all musicals suck, it's these particular musicals are bad at being musicals and thus suck. It also feels nice that so many different kinds of movies are included - Hollywood is equally bad at everything, it seems.
The book is kinda a fun time capsule in a way, given that it's clearly meant to be a sort of bad counterpart to the movie guide. This probably came out at the tail end of the time when it made sense to buy a big book just to tell you what movies are and aren't worth renting, and even the fact that this book spends sixty or so pages just listing out 25 years of Razzie results points to it as coming from a time when the internet wasn't as all pervasive as it is now. After all, nowadays there's a whole Wikipedia article for that, and trying to tell you where to find the films would become an impossibility with the constant shifting of what's on which streaming service.
I haven't seen more than a handful of the films covered here, and I do feel like these days the collection is in some ways outdated. Not that it's a bad selection, but simply that there's twenty further years of movie making and of people discovering classic piles of crappy celluloid that's happened since. But it was fun to revisit this and be reminded of one of the things that helped form my interest in awful movies to begin with. This is more a curiosity than an essential now, but it certainly can be a fun one to flip through if you need inspiration for a bad movie to watch with your friends.
September 18, 2017
Great actors sometimes show up in terrible movies. Bad actors do too, sometimes a movie is made on the flimsiest idea or just to get tits on the television. The Razzies are all about bad movies, either they are made cheap and cheesy, made while they can benefit from famous persons dead or actually the writers and actors believed they worked on something great.
And oh my, great it is to see some of the most terrible movies. This shortlist of movies and reasons why will show you how your most beloved actor once was caught up in a turkey of a movie. It will show you just what movies go together with a good sense of humor, good friends and a night to waste.
And oh my, great it is to see some of the most terrible movies. This shortlist of movies and reasons why will show you how your most beloved actor once was caught up in a turkey of a movie. It will show you just what movies go together with a good sense of humor, good friends and a night to waste.
April 8, 2021
DO you love bad movies and sarcasm? then you will love this book that lambasts and laments the terrible movies Hollywood has unleashed on poor unsuspecting audiences since time immemorial.
Is every terrible movie included? No and there are some that you may not agree with but for the most part an accurate accounting.
Is every terrible movie included? No and there are some that you may not agree with but for the most part an accurate accounting.
Read
September 15, 2019The Usual Suspects...
...including everything from "Plan 9 From Outer Space" to "Showgirls" and then some. Written with some insight and a true love for schlock. Read it and then download some of these egregious examples.
...including everything from "Plan 9 From Outer Space" to "Showgirls" and then some. Written with some insight and a true love for schlock. Read it and then download some of these egregious examples.
August 6, 2020
I'll use this book to bulk up our Friday Night Bad Movies & Junk Food list, but I can't recommend it. Wilson is sexist, objectifying, body-shaming (he compares Madonna to the Pillsbury Dough Boy), and he refers to Christine Jorgensen with a transphobic slur.
January 29, 2024
Considering the content, this had the potential to be truly hilarious and biting. Instead, a few guffaws aside, this books swings between tame and dull...when it should have been a skewing of crap, but with total love. So disappointed.
December 9, 2024
John Wilson (creator of the Golden Razzberrie awards) gives an insightful compilation of his reviews of the best good-bad movies of all time with pretty funny commentary interspersed throughout.
Wilson presents a wide variety of films from well known stinkers like Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls”, “Jaws 4: The Revenge”, and “Rambo First Blood: Part Two” to lesser known titles and straight to video movies that even I (a seasoned bad movie watcher) hadn’t heard of before.
The highlight here is the “Jaws 4” review, it made me laugh more than once and the fact that they gave Bruce the rubber shark the award for worst career is just great.
This was a quick and entertaining read that made me laugh and was very informative. I’d recommend it to any movie fan whether you’re familiar with this genre of film or not.
That being said nominating Shelley Duvall and Stanley Kubrick for worst actor and director for “The Shining” was just wrong.
4/5.
Wilson presents a wide variety of films from well known stinkers like Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls”, “Jaws 4: The Revenge”, and “Rambo First Blood: Part Two” to lesser known titles and straight to video movies that even I (a seasoned bad movie watcher) hadn’t heard of before.
The highlight here is the “Jaws 4” review, it made me laugh more than once and the fact that they gave Bruce the rubber shark the award for worst career is just great.
This was a quick and entertaining read that made me laugh and was very informative. I’d recommend it to any movie fan whether you’re familiar with this genre of film or not.
That being said nominating Shelley Duvall and Stanley Kubrick for worst actor and director for “The Shining” was just wrong.
4/5.
July 30, 2011
If, like me, you enjoy movies that are so bad that they are good then you will find this an essential reference book to increase your DVD collection. Includes many movies that I have never heard of before but will now search for on Amazon and eBay. Although my own personal favourite - 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' - only got an honourable mention. (Edward D. Wood's 'Glen or Glenda' has just moved to the top of my bad movie wish list!) I was also surprised to see that the original of Tron or Death Race 2000 did not make the listings; especially as Death Race 2000 starred Sylvester Stallone! As well as listing some of the worst movies - or should that be best, I have confused myself now - this book list all the nominations for the Razzie awards as well as all the winners up to 2003. All credit to Paul Verhoeven who actually turned up in person to collect the Worst Picture Razzie for 'Showgirls' in 1995; sadly this book does not cover the more recent years to grant Sandra Bullock the same credit for not taking herself too seriously to accept the Worst Actress Razzie the night before collecting the Best Actress Oscar!
June 9, 2009
Some of the most awful movies of all time are profiled in this collection of reviews, many/most of which were nominees for the annual Razzie Awards, though those awards didn't start until about 1981. As a result, some older movies are included that couldn't have ever been part of that ceremony. While the profiles of the movies are insightful and often quite funny, the book is pretty cheap-feeling and there is a horrendous waste of space within the pages. The pictures in the middle are grainy and not so appealing. There are little categories after the reviews for key bits of dialogue, DVD chapter stops, trivia, etc... and that part is VERY light. So often these tidbits appear on part of a page and there's room for much more, but, instead, it's left blank. It's a fun read and a decent book, but it can't begin to compare with the deliriously funny Bad Movies We Love book.
April 29, 2012
Being somewhat a fan of B-Movies (mainly from episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000) and being a follower (but not a member) of the Razzie Awards for quite some time now, I was happy when I came across this book a few years ago at a discount book store. There are some honestly hilarious reviews included (as well as a few admittedly boring ones). My main problem with this book, however, is that I wish they would've covered more of the popular bad movies, such as Howard the Duck or Wild, Wild West (or, even better, they could do another book about it). I liked that they included the history of the Razzie awards (up to the year that the book was published, that is, which would be 2004).
February 27, 2013
The founder of the Razzie Awards, given annually the day before the Academy Award ceremony to the worst in their categories for the year, has compiled this guide to his choices for the hundred "best" bad pictures of all time. The earliest film is Maniac (AKA "Sex Maniac") (1934) and the latest is Glitter (2001). The films cover the full range of genres and are mostly U.S. made. The very few that are not were released dubbed.
Wilson writes well and made me laugh out loud repeatedly. He also made me want to search out some of these ludicrously awful films for a few more laughs. Recommended for connoisseurs of such things.
Wilson writes well and made me laugh out loud repeatedly. He also made me want to search out some of these ludicrously awful films for a few more laughs. Recommended for connoisseurs of such things.
December 23, 2025
Whether you agree with those nominated or who won these particular awards is kind of irrelevant. The book is really funny and fun. If you love bad films, both inadvertent and not, this IS a hoot. If you provide your own riff tracks, your hired.
January 2, 2011
Oh, so fun! Treat yourself to a bad movie soon. And may I recommend Splice? Too new for this book but I hope it sweeps the Razzies this year!
March 23, 2013
Entertaining, as far as snarky books go ... I enjoyed it (and it gave me some new information on cinematic turds I was previously unfamiliar with)!
January 5, 2020
Lots of fun
Hilarious reviews of equally hilarious bad movies. Reading the book is almost as much fun as watching the movies. I recommend it.
Hilarious reviews of equally hilarious bad movies. Reading the book is almost as much fun as watching the movies. I recommend it.
April 28, 2025
If you like bad movies, this is the book for you.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews