Okay, so we’re just checking that what fans know as Rambo 2 actually won the Golden Raspberry for 1985. Damn, Wilson, you are savage. Let’s be real though – most of the time critics are looking for flawless storylines, cinematography, and hard-hitting drama. Rambo isn’t really one of those stories.
Rambo: First Blood Part II is the type of film you go and watch when you want some action. Explosions, blood, a good guy, a bad guy and (hopefully) a happy ending involving a chopper. So, despite the critics panning this one, and it receiving a Golden Raspberry, we’re sticking with Stallone and saying “Go, Rambo”!
1986: Howard The Duck
Even though this film premiered in 1986 and was a bit of a flop, the joke is on all the critics who panned Howard the Duck – did you know he made a cameo appearance 28 years later in Guardians of the Galaxy, and most recently, in the latest installment of The Avengers? The cigar-smoking drake perhaps went over audiences' heads in the 80s, but hey, Guardians is all about a talking raccoon and a talking tree.
However hard Howard the Duck might have tried to persuade us that “ducks can talk”, it just wasn’t going to fly for 80s cinemagoers. Despite the fans of the OG Marvel comic book, and Howard giving the film a somewhat cult status, it is still considered one of the worst films ever made. Financially it was a bit of a disaster too – making just $15 million after the studio forked out $30 million for its production.
1986: Under The Cherry Moon
Tied closely with Howard the Duck in 1986, is Under the Cherry Moon. Starring and directed by iconic singer-songwriter Prince, the film is like the earlier, poorer version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which was to premiere two years later.
Sure, the musical drama might satiate Prince’s crazed fans, but for general audiences, it's definitely better to stick to enjoying the soundtrack and leave the film to the die-hards. Winning five Razzies, Prince scored himself Worst Actor too! We’re kind of sad Kristin Scott Thomas scored Worst Supporting Actress, but hey, when you sign on to a film that stars someone who’s paid for their music and not their acting, what do you expect?
1984: Bolero
Drum roll, please. The winner for 1984’s Golden Raspberry is…Bolero! Hollywood loves a bit of romance, so when you can add a splash of drama, it’s bound to be a hit, right? Just to be safe, they even put a conventionally gorgeous woman in there and made it about her sexual awakening.
We’ve just about had it with Hollywood – we want to see the sexual awakening of a frog, thank you very much! Anyway, the film was a flop, and enough of a flop to earn nominations for nine Golden Raspberry Awards, winning six of them. Sorry Bo Derek, but your husband John was being just a tad creepy directing a film with that kind of storyline.
1983: The Lonely Lady
Winning the Golden Raspberry for 1983, this is a disastrous film about the unraveling of a screenwriter’s starred career, revealing the truth of how she reached the peak of her fame during an awards ceremony. Some have gone as far to say that it is the “worst film of all time”– the film poster, for example, shows a naked couple during an intimate scene, with the caption “from the sensual world of Harold Robbins comes the story of a woman’s struggle for fame in Hollywood.”
There are so many things wrong with that situation that we don’t even know where to begin. The main character, Pia Zadora cozies up to toxic men to sleep her way to the top, basically. We’re with Ebert on this one: “If The Lonely Lady had even a shred of style and humor, it could qualify as the worst movie of the year. Unfortunately, it’s not that good.”