The Best (Oscars) and Worst (Razzies) in film

And so the time has come. Award season is over (tear, sniffle, sniffle). At least for the big players. We’ve had the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the SAG awards and the Grammys all pass us by. And beside the last-minute addition to bring back the Billboard Music Awards (May 22), and maybe a mediocre Kid’s Choice Awards (April 2) or the MTV Movie Awards (June 5), the ultimate culmination of great film, directing, acting, cinematography, costume designing, what have you, concluded with the 83rd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday. Couple that with the not-so-coveted Razzie Awards that were presented Saturday night and we can celebrate the hard work of the past year — the work we can admire…and the work we can blow a raspberry at.

The Academy Awards, as hard as they try not to, always seem to drag on. It’s three hours long, so how can they not? This year, though, the show seemed to move along at a decent pace. Others may disagree, but I didn’t get antsy or go on a snacking rampage to fill the void at any moment during the show.

As for the hosts, as one of my fellow Facebookers stated, “Anne Hathaway didn’t seem to be in that great a shape at the Academy Awards, but she must have been because she carried James Franco all night.” True story. Hathaway was her usual bubbly self, making the best of the moment — even the awkward ones — and even showcasing the singing chops she debuted when Hugh Jackman hosted two years ago. Surprise — Anne can sing!

I had high expectations for her co-host, James Franco. I’m not sure what went wrong, but there was absolutely no delivery to his lines. I know he was reluctant to host in the first place — but if he had pretended it was just another acting job, he could have brought out the funny-cool demeanor that we often see in gigs like “Pineapple Express” or “Freaks and Geeks.” Except for maybe his Marilyn Monroe costume change (although any man in a bright pink dress and a blond wig is funny), Franco just seemed like a hum-drum robot.

As far as awards went, all the acting awards were predictable — Best Actor: Colin Firth “The King’s Speech”; Best Actress: Natalie Portman “The Black Swan”; Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale “The Fighter”; Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo “The Fighter”; as was Best Animated Feature, “Toy Story 3” and Best Adapted Screenplay, Aaron Sorkin for “The Social Network.”

The only toss-ups were Best Director — which surprisingly went to Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”; most were betting on David Fincher for “The Social Network” to snag that one, and Best Picture — which again went to the more formal Oscar choice, “The King’s Speech,” rather than the younger, clever, hip movie “The Social Network.”

Overall, though, it was well-balanced: “The Social Network” took home three awards; “The King’s Speech” took home four awards; “Inception” took home four awards (Best Director should have been one of those, but Christopher Nolan was snubbed from a nomination yet again); and “Alice in Wonderland” and “Toy Story 3” both received two awards. One of “Toy Story 3’s” awards went to Randy Newman for Best Original Song. Newman, with 20 Oscar nominations, now adds two wins to his belt, and he gave quite an amusing acceptance speech. Who knew the man was so funny?

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For those unfamiliar with the Razzie Awards, more formally known as the Golden Raspberry Awards, it is a presentation of the worst in show. The first-ever Razzies, back in 1981, awarded “Can’t Stop the Music” (a pseudo-biography on the Village People) the Worst Picture Award. Since then, such movies as “Showgirls,” “Cocktail,” “Wild Wild West,” “Catwoman” and “The Love Guru” have all taken the cake, or the raspberry if you will. The Razzies are always presented — but not yet aired on TV — the night before the Academy Awards. Hopefully, that will soon change.

Despite a $318 million worldwide gross for “The Last Airbender” and a $228 million worldwide gross for “Sex and the City 2” — which also made it the highest grossing romantic comedy of 2010 — both didn’t pan out well at this year’s Razzie Awards. I guess money isn’t everything.

***“The Last Airbender” snagged the Worst Picture Award (along with Worst Eye-Gouging Use of 3-D; Worst Screenplay; Worst Director; and Worst Supporting Actor), while fellow nominees of the category included far-worse films such as “The Bounty Hunter,” “Twilight: Eclipse,” and “Vampires Suck.”

“Sex and the City 2” snagged Worst Prequel, Remake, Ripoff or Sequel; Worst Screen Couple or Ensemble (More-so suited for the cast of “Valentine’s Day”); and all four ladies went home with the Worst Actress award, which should have gone to the all-time worst actress out there, Megan Fox, for her role in “Jonah Hex.” That movie (it would demean the industry to call it a “film”) should have also taken home Worst Picture, though it wasn’t even nominated.

***As a “Sex and the City” fan, I didn’t think the movie sequel was as God-awful as the critics claimed. It was a weird premise, sure, having the girls head over to Abu Dhabi. But, hey, it was still fun. And the same goes for “The Last Airbender.” I’m sure the fan boys who envy the original animated series were stoked about the movie. But maybe fandom just isn’t enough these days.

The most well-deserved wins of the night went to five-time nominee Jessica Alba for Worst Supporting Actress for her roles in “The Killer Inside Me,” “Little Fockers,” “Machete” and “Valentine’s Day,” and to pretty boy Ashton Kutcher, who took home Worst Actor for “Valentine’s Day,” and “The Killers,” starring alongside Katherine Heigl, who would have also made a great Worst Actress nominee.

I’m all in favor of the idea of the Razzies, but it’s too bad that the awards in the past few years only seem to go to those films that are not only bad, but blockbuster bad. Whatever happened to the concept of recognizing actual bad movies without regard to box office? I’d like it better if the Razzies went to those movies that made no money because they were, well, just so bad. I’m not sure why the Razzies have gone off the path the last few years, but they really should get back to finding those hidden awful gems, like “Xanadu” “Road House” and “Gigli.”