Even film fans who don’t really understand Bruce Willis’ high-altitude flights of action felt heartbroken when his family came forward announced the end of his career a few days ago – after all, there was once a comical Bruce who, for example, played the sometimes rhyming, somewhat clumsy detective David Addison in the series “The Model and the Snoop”, who really made everyone’s hearts beat faster. Shortly before the Oscars, the Razzies, the Golden Raspberries, are awarded in Hollywood – and the organizers have now, dismayed, withdrawn the award for Willis. The price for Willis, who suffers from aphasia, a speech disorder due to a previous illness, was “unreasonable”.
The Razzies have been around since their inventor, John Wilson, first presented them in his living room in 1981. The “Golden Raspberry Awards” are now presented in a separate ceremony, and everyone who joins for a fee has the right to vote. This year, one film swept up almost every trophy from worst film to worst screenplay, “Diana: The Musical.”
The organizers had created a separate category for him
Willis was the winner right from the start, because he was playing in a league of his own: The Raspberry Academy, how to call it, had created its own category for him: “Worst performance by Bruce Willis 2021”. That’s an achievement in itself. He’s appeared in a whopping eight films in one year, with “Cosmic Sin” winning. In hindsight it’s not so funny anymore.
However, the raspberries are not meant in a bad way: “The best own their worst” is the Razzie slogan, the best stand by their failures. Willis received the award for “Armageddon” in 1998. In recent days, the Raspberry organizers have been castigated for their tactlessness. On the other hand, some collect their prize in person, like Paul Verhoeven for “Showgirls” or Halle Berry for “Catwoman”. Ben Affleck, unbeatable in 2004’s “Gigli,” “Daredevil,” and “Paycheck,” got his on TV after complaining it wasn’t loaded. Or the composer Alan Menken: He’s an EGOT, these are people who have won everything, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. And Menken, who got his first Oscar for “The Little Mermaid” and followed it up with an impressive seven others, proudly poses with his raspberry on the Razzie website: he is now a REGOT. There may be moments when the Razzies are out of place. But overall, the berries have a healing effect: they help against megalomania caused by millions of dollars. And that’s what they need in Hollywood sometimes.