Hollywood has a lot of odd traditions — chief among them is the Razzies, or the Golden Raspberry Awards. It's typically released a few days before the Academy Awards announce their annual nominations, and its ceremony is held on “Oscars Eve,” or the night before the Academy's ceremony.

Unsurprisingly, the Sylvester Stallone-led Expend4ables have been nominated for seven awards this year.

While originally founded to poke fun at films co-founders film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy in 1981 to film they feel are “cinematic failures”, the Razzies have had their fair share of controversy.

In 2022, the Razzies retracted the Worst Performance by Bruce Willis Award after the actor's family announced that he had been diagnosed with aphasia. The organization's founders released a statement that said, “After much thought and consideration, the Razzies have made the decision to rescind the Razzie Award given to Bruce Willis, due to his recently disclosed diagnosis.”

In the same statement, they also rescinded their nomination of Shelley Duvall in The Shining after they discovered how director Stanley Kubrick essentially tortured the performance out of her.

They added, “As we recently mentioned in a Vulture Interview, extenuating circumstances also apply to Shelley Duvall in The Shining. We have since discovered that Duvall’s performance was impacted by Stanley Kubrick’s treatment of her throughout the production. We would like to take this opportunity to rescind that nomination as well.”

As recently as last year, the Razzies had to introduce a new rule where they could no longer nominate anyone under 18 when 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong was nominated for Worst Actress for Firestarter.

The organization issued an apology, “As a result, we have removed Armstrong’s name from the Final Ballot that our members will cast next month. We also believe a public apology is owed Ms. Armstrong, and wish to say we regret any hurt she experienced as a result of our choices.”

The Razzies are billed as satirical and I'm the last person to defend people with more money than I'll ever have in a lifetime. I think it's all well and good to have something that balances out the glitz and glamor of the awards season. Not to get preachy or anything, but actors are people, too.

Definitely to sound like a hypocrite here: these are my thoughts on who would win.

2024 Razzie Awards predictions

Expendables 4 poster and Razzies Award.

Below are the predictions. Sorry, Expendables 4, you're on there a lot.

WORST PICTURE

  • The Exorcist: Believer
  • Expend4bles
  • Meg 2: The Trench
  • Shazam! Fury of the Gods
  • Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

I like a “no-thought, just-vibes” film to relax, and action films in the vein of how they were made in the '80s usually do the trick. And because of this, you'd think I would spare Expend4bles, but no. While I think it should win solely because the title is written that way, I do have other reasons. Many of the scenes that were meant to be funny just fall flat. I like the fact that it tries so hard to be funny; but I dislike that it fails almost every single time.

I didn't think the film would win any acting awards, but it was exhausting trying to get through the movie. That's not what action movies are supposed to invoke — especially one that has had 10 years since its last film to prepare for a comeback.

WORST ACTOR

  • Russell Crowe (The Pope’s Exorcist)
  • Vin Diesel (Fast X)
  • Chris Evans (Ghosted)
  • Jason Statham (Meg 2: The Trench)
  • Jon Voight / Mercy

I'm not choosing Diesel just because he was outshone by the increasingly unhinged Dante played by Jason Momoa. I've seen all Fast & the Furious movies and I know what to expect from Diesel — grunting and “family.” I'm not sure if it's because they don't want to lean in to the fact that it has been 23 years since the first movie and that means Dominic Toretto is old man Dom now, but that should have provided a better contrast to Momoa's performance.

As it is, Diesel's more stoic than ever bordering on long-suffering. Instead of giving off he's-been-at-this-long-enough vibes, it reads more like he's-been-at-this-too-long. And from his performance, I don't think that was intentional. I think he's just over it and it's difficult to feel invested in a movie when its lead star doesn't seem to be.

WORST ACTRESS

  • Ana de Armas (Ghosted)
  • Megan Fox (Johnny & Clyde)
  • Salma Hayek  (Magic Mike’s Last Dance)
  • Jennifer Lopez (The Mother)
  • Dame Helen Mirren (Shazam! Fury of the Gods)

I can't bring myself to vote for Mirren — I love her too much. However, I believe at some point most Oscar winners get Razzies; balance of the universe and all that… And I was fully prepared to give my vote to Megan Fox because I had seen the fourth Expendables movie before Johnny & Clyde, but I have to admit I thought she was good in this movie.

But the award has to go to someone and for me, that someone is Ana de Armas in Ghosted. For me, effort and enthusiasm play a big part in performance. De Armas is a good actress (see the first Knives Out movie), but her assassin comes off as bored instead of world-weary.

She made romancing Evans seem like a chore which didn't make me feel invested in their relationship. By the end of the movie, I didn't really care if they tried to make dating work. I wanted them to survive so that I wouldn't feel bad about disliking her performance.

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Kim Cattrall (About My Father)
  • Megan Fox (Expend4bles)
  • Bai Ling (Johnny & Clyde)
  • Lucy Liu (Shazam! Fury of the Gods)
  • Mary Stuart Masterson (Five Nights at Freddy’s)

While I'd like to give the award to Fox by virtue of her being in that movie, I'm aware that that's unfair… but I found her annoying in this. It's not the first time she's played a femme fatale-like character and she certainly has the look (and the outfits) to play a badass assassin, but I didn't think she pulled it off at all. I suppose if your character is written to be an occasionally helpful eye candy, there really isn't anything you can do to elevate it.

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Michael Douglas (Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania)
  • Mel Gibson (Confidential Informant)
  • Bill Murray (Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania)
  • Franco Nero (The Pope’s Exorcist)
  • Sylvester Stallone (Expend4ables)

I like Sly. He's Rocky. But I honestly think he's going to receive his 11th Razzie for this movie and not just for my irrational hatred of the title. Yes, the actor holds the record for the most wins for this award. [SPOILER ALERT] I didn't even care the he died — and not just because I knew he wasn't, not really. I also didn't care that he wasn't really dead.

If Stallone's character was meant to step aside to give the other actors the chance to shine… well, mission not accomplished.

WORST SCREEN COUPLE

  • Any 2 “Merciless Mercenaries” (Expend4bles)
  • Any 2 Money-Grubbing Investors Who Donated to the $400 Million for Remake Rights to The Exorcist
  • Ana de Armas & Chris Evans (who flunked Screen Chemistry) / (Ghosted)
  • Salma Hayek & Channing Tatum (Magic Mike’s Last Dance)
  • Pooh & Piglet as Blood-Thirsty Slasher/Killers(!) in Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

I would actually give the *grits teeth while typing out the title* Expend4bles a pass on this just so I can vote for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. When you turn a beloved pantsless childhood icon into a merciless serial killer, the execution (pardon the pun) should be flawless. And this simply isn't.

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

  • Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
  • The Exorcist: Believer
  • Expend4bles
  • Indiana Jones and The Dial of…Still Beating a Dead Horse
  • Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

No, I'm seriously not choosing it just for the title. I was actually torn between the action movie or the absolute butchering of Winnie the Pooh, but Expend4bles (I'm trying not to weep as I type that — again) seems like it's trying so hard not to phone it in because it's a sequel but it absolutely does. One can fall under two schools of thought here: it's the fourth movie so they're tired of making it so we should give it a pass.

On the other hand, Expendables 3 was 10 years ago. That's more than enough time to have thought of a way to make it more fresh. Or you know, decide to just retire the characters… for good. No, I don't mean kill them off. I'm not that brutal.

WORST DIRECTOR

  • Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey)
  • David Gordon Green (The Exorcist: Believer)
  • Peyton Reed (Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania)
  • Scott Waugh (Expend4bles)
  • Ben Wheatley (Meg 2: The Trench)

Again, execution, which is the director's job. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey could have been so good. But sadly, it isn't. For me, Frake-Waterfield could have gone two ways: major camp or major horror. Unfortunately, it's neither. It's disappointing because if he had gone camp, it would have been enjoyable. If he had gone major horror, then it would have been a sight to see — and definitely well worth the terror of having a beloved children's story character go off the rails.

WORST SCREENPLAY

  • The Exorcist: Believer
  • Expend4bles
  • Indiana Jones and the Dial of…Can I go home now?
  • Shazam! Fury of the Gods
  • Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey

And we're back to irrationally hating the title… although not really. I have legitimate reasons for thinking the movie's screenplay deserves the award. Like I mentioned before, I like a good action movie where people fight and things just blow up. While people do fight and things do blow up in this film, it's just not a good movie. In my opinion, it doesn't even come close to being “so bad, it's good.” It's just plain bad.

Most action movies aren't made for the acting, I understand that. But so many things in this movie that aren't action sequences feel as if they're just tacked on. Even the revenge arc doesn't feel as urgent or even emotional.

So there you have it. Are we in agreement or are we going to have a better fight than the ones in Expend4bles? Still can't get over that title.

The 44th Golden Raspberry Awards will take place on March 9.