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In their over four decades of existence, it’s safe to say that no cinematic institution draws as much enthusiasm or disdain as the Golden Raspberry Awards orRazzies. Founded in 1981 by John Wilson and Mo Murphy,the Razzies were initially meant to function as a satirical counter to the Academy Awards, hosting an annual “celebration” of the worst movies of the year. But while some considerthe Razzies a hilarious counterto how self-congratulatory the awards season can get, almost as many people find the show mean-spirited and just as prone to picking the easy targets as the Oscars.
Indeed, much like the Academy Awards, the Razzies regularly play favorites, frequently nominating the likes of Adam Sandler, Tyler Perry, and M. Night Shyamalan. But by far, their biggest whipping boy, almost from the start, has beenSylvester Stallone, who holds a record of40Razzie nominations and 12 wins. In the ceremony’s first couple of decades, it almost became a running joke to nominate Stallone, but many of his nods were arguably undeserved, the most egregious of which even got a Worst Picture nomination 30 years ago.
Cliffhanger
Cliffhanger Is Better Than Its Reputation
1993’sCliffhangercame at what seemed to be a breaking point for Sylvester Stallone’s career. Despite breaking out in 1976 with the Best Picture-winning classicRocky, which got him Oscar nominations for Lead Actor and Original Screenplay, his track record had become significantly spottier since. And in the early ‘90s, coming off numerous critical pans likeRocky Vand the absolutely direStop! Or My Mom Will Shoot,Cliffhangerlooked destined to make or break his career.
Thankfully, in teaming up withdirector Renny Harlin, fresh off the massive success ofDie Hard 2, the signs seemed encouraging. With Stallone co-writing a script, they madeCliffhanger, based on a story idea by famed rock climber and author John Long. His premise functioned as a sort ofDie Hardin the mountains, kicking off when former military intelligence operative Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) pulls off a midair heist to steal over $100 million from a US Treasury plane.
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However, their plane crashes in the Colorado Rockies, stranding Qualen and his team in the mountains and scattering the suitcases full of money. They send a distress call to mountain rescue ranger Gabe Walker (Stallone), who’s dealing with survivor’s guilt after the death of a friend in a climbing accident. The terrorists capture Gabe upon his arrival and force him to retrieve the suitcases of money.
What’s most refreshing aboutCliffhangeris how it holds no pretensions about what kind of movie it is.The plot is utterly absurd, but it’s not trying to be high art; it mostly functions as a way for Harlin and Stallone to deliver tense action sequences with stunts that would initially seem preposterous until realizing they were performed practically. It’s a hugely impressive film on the technical level (it even got Oscar nominations for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects but lost all toJurassic Park), intending to thrill the audience first and foremost. It’s a ridiculous but hugely enjoyable blockbuster that delivers exactly what it promises — nothing more, nothing less. It’s not without good reason that fans have been awaiting a sequel for years, which might finallybe entering production soon.
Why Did the Razzies Hate Cliffhanger?
For such a make-or-break point in Stallone’s career,Cliffhangerproved the success he desperately needed. While it only performed modestly in the US, earning roughly $84 million on a $70 million budget, it more than doubled this amount overseas, becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. In what was becoming an increasingly rare scenario for Stallone,the movie received mostly good reviews from critics and audiences; it currently boasts 68% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and positive remarks fromthe likes of Roger Ebert.
And yet, this positive public opinion didn’t exactly translate to the awards circuit.While it did get three technical Oscar nominations, it also landed four Razzie nods, most notably for Worst Supporting Actor (John Lithgow), Worst Screenplay, and Worst Picture. The last nomination is particularly baffling, as most agree that whileCliffhangerisn’t exactly high art, it’s nowhere near among the worst films of 1993. Especially when that year also includedCop and a Half,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III,Son of the Pink Panther, andSuper Mario Bros., none of which landed a Worst Picture nod, it now seems like an even more dated choice.
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So why did the Razzies go withCliffhanger? The most obvious answer seems to be the organization’s dislike of Sylvester Stallone. Never mind the fact that he’d made his most critically and commercially successful work in a long time,Stallone had been nominated at the Razzies for the last nine consecutive years, to the point where his name popping up in the nominations seemed more and more like a deliberate joke. If anyone other than Stallone had taken the starring role, it’s hard to imagine the Razzies would’ve taken the bait, especially not overCop and a Half, which is now widely considered one of the worst films of the ’90s.
Of course, this also ties into a much larger issue with the Razzies as an organization.For a group that brands itself as being anti-Oscars, they’re every bit as guilty of trend-chasing and going after the easy targets. Consider how they crownedThe Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn: Part 2as the 2012-13 Worst Picture. It’s almost unanimously agreed that fellow nomineesThat’s My BoyandThe Oogieloveswere much worse, butTwilightwas as easy a target as you could possibly be in 2012. And earlier this year, Megan Foxwon two Razziesdespite the fact that one of those films barely made a blip in the public consciousness. It just looked like an organization beating a dead horse that stopped being funny years ago.
Cliffhanger Didn’t Deserve Its Razzie Nods
While no one is going to argue thatCliffhangeris a cinematic achievement on par withThe Godfather, it’s a perfectly acceptable and occasionally pretty fun action thriller. It’s not high art, but it has no aspirations of being so, and that dedication to delivering dumb fun should frankly be celebrated when done well.
It’s certainly not deserving of its Razzie nominations, which were likely for no reason other than Stallone’s involvement. Maybe we shouldn’t expect much better from an award show that thinksnominating children for bad actingawards is funny.Cliffhangeris streaming onParamount+.
