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Mike Myers top of the flops in annual Oscars spoof
2009-01-22
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Mike Myers flop "The Love Guru" emerged as the front-runner for Hollywood's least coveted awards show -- the Razzies -- here Wednesday, the annual Oscars parody that salutes the worst-of-the-worst. Myers's comedy, about an ice hockey player who enlists the help of a mystic guru to help him turn around his professional and personal fortunes, earned seven nominations for next month's eve-of-Oscars "dishonors" on February 21. The film picked up nods for worst picture as well as worst acting nominations for Myers, Jessica Alba, Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley and pint-sized "Austin Powers" star Verne Troyer. Upon its release last year, "The Love Guru" received almost universally scathing reviews, with the New York Times describing it as "downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again." John Wilson, who created the Golden Raspberries or "Razzies" in 1980, said Myers had done "everything but make the audience laugh." "Many people suggested his own search for inner truth led him to make this movie but somewhere along the line he forgot it was supposed to be a comedy," Wilson told AFP. Other pictures in the running were two Hollywood spoofs, "Disaster Movie" and "Meet the Spartans," vying for honors with M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" and Paris Hilton's "The Hottie and the Nottie". Hilton, a perennial Razzies favorite, earned three nods -- worst actress and worst couple ("The Hottie and the Nottie") and worst supporting actress for her cameo in the quickly forgotten "Repo! The Genetic Opera." Meanwhile German director Uwe Boll picked up four nominations. "Uwe Boll is the world-class movie director -- anything he does is awful," Wilson said. "He was the overwhelming choice to receive our career achievement award." Boll's commercial fantasy flop "In the Name of the King" picked up five nominations. Just behind was Shyamalan's "The Happening" starring Mark Wahlberg which picked up four nominations, including worst picture, and worst director. Shyamalan, one of the hottest directors of the 1990s following a string of successful films including "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs," was guilty of "using the same gimmick over and over and over again" Wilson said. "In 'The Happening' the villain turns out to be plants. And it is every bit as ridiculous as that sounds," Wilson said.
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