The Razzies: Who will win, who should win, and who had a lucky escape from the Golden Raspberries

With awards season well underway it’s not just the best in cinema that is being celebrated. Scotsman writers and (Not) Everyone's A Film Critic podcast hosts David Hepburn and Graham Falk have their say on The Razzies.

Russell Crowe is perhaps slightly unlucky to have been shortlisted for his scene-stealing turn in The Pope's Exorcist.

The Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies, will be held – as is traditional – on the day before the Oscars on Saturday, March 9.

It will be the 43rd time the awards that nobody wants to win will be held, and the shortlists were announced the day before the Academy Awards nominations on January 22.

Here we take a look at how the four big categories are shaping up. You can see the full nominations here.

Worst Picture

David: It's been a good year for bad films so it's impressive that the terribly-named 'Expend4bles' has managed to turn its mere $100 million budget into an impressive seven nominations, including for Worst Picture. The fourth in the increasingly unwanted Sly Stallone franchise has to be the front-runner, being the most expendable of Expendables to date and notable for being a film that nobody seems to have actually seen.

Is Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey any good? Listen to the Scotsman's Film Podcast and find out!

At the other end of the money scale, costing just $100,000 (one-thousandth of The Expend4bles' budget), it would be lovely to see 'Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey' beat the blockbuster to the crown. A baffling horror film that is as nasty as it is bad (why is Winnie a man in a badly-fitting mask?), it feels like it has a long life of midnight screenings ahead. A Razzie would only bolster its growing reputation amongst bad film aficionados

Graham: I have some feelings over this as one of them was so bad, I kinda enjoyed it? Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey was a disaster. It simply wasn't Pooh doing the killings, just a bloke in a Pooh mask that seemed to have gone a little too deep into his obsession with the 100 Acres Lane set up and couldn't stop. I attended the UK premiere of this and hilariously when the cast introduced the film they reminded everyone that they "had a really small budget" which sort of set us up for cinematic failure.

But all in all, while I'm not sure it was their intention, it was hilarious. Stupid. Nonsensical and laudably bad but films don't always have to be masterpieces to be enjoyable - just ask Tommy Wisseau. There's also a nomination for the film prequel that nobody asked for nor needed in The Exorcist: Believer, which is bizarrely not as bad as David Gordon Green's latest Halloween film - 'Halloween Ends - which is arguably the WORST film of all time. Literally. Horrendous. Michael Myers doesn't even show up for around 45 minutes - what are you doing, son?

David: A notable absence in the shortlist, although it does feature in some of the minor categories. is 'Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny'. Managing to make the previous entry in the series, the much-derided 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', look like a piece of competent film making surely deserves recognition. Time travel? Really?

Worst Director

David: When it comes to Worst Director, Scott Waugh is probably a narrow favourite for 'Expend4bles', but I think they'll give it to Rhys Frake-Waterfield for 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey' - a film that doesn't appear to have been directed by anybody.

Graham: Ah, the worst director. Yes. You can maybe see where I am going with this. While I haven't hated all of David Gordon Green's films (in fact I have really liked some), I can not forgive him for Halloween Ends to the point where it was almost instantly obvious that The Exorcist: Believer was going to be exactly what it was - hot garbage. Rhys Frake-Waterfield will feel hard done by after Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey smashed the Box Office...in Mexico and, as much as I enjoyed it in a 'were they aware of the fact Pooh is wearing dungarees instead of a red jumper' kind of way, it probably deserves to be there.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is streaming on Disney+ now

David: It may be an outside bet, but it would be great to see some British success at this year's ceremony and nobody is more deserving than Ben Wheatley. This is a director who produced a dazzling series of low-budget films such as 'Kill List' and 'A Field of England', followed by some well-received bigger-budget movies like 'Free Fire' and 'High-Rise', and who has now made a stupid film about a big shark - 'Meg 2: The Trench'. I would like to commend him to the judges.

It's notable that this is an all-male shortlist, so it's a shame to see Nia DaCosta missing out on a nod for 'The Marvels' - which managed to be an even worse MCU entry that the nominated 'Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania'. It's good to see her proving women can be just as bad as men when it comes to making films. 

Graham: Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania is in there too, which I have conflicting feelings about. I have this notion that when Paul Rudd smiles, the world heals and he smiles a fair amount in this, so maybe we should have let him off and the film by proxy?'

Worst Actor

David: With both Vin Diesel (for Fast X) and Jason Statham (Meg 2: The Trench) up for Worst Actor, it's really just a case of tossing a coin to see who will be crowned on the night. Frankly it's amazing Statham didn't get a double nomination given his 'work' on The Beekeeper. Maybe his overall body of work will give him the edge - at this point there should really be a new category for 'Worst Jason Statham Film'.

Hopefully the two action heroes will cancel each other out though, and see Russell Crowe raise the raspberry. It's maybe a little unfair on Rusty, as 'The Pope's Exorcist' is nothing if not entertaining, but his performance at the titular papal helper fits squarely into the 'so bad it's good' category beloved of Razzie judges.

Russell Crowe is perhaps slightly unlucky to have been shortlisted for his scene-stealing turn in The Pope's Exorcist.

Graham: Shocked. Appalled. Frankly astounded. Russell Crowe up for Worst Actor in The Pope's Exorcist? Give me strength. I am normally in full support of almost anything The Razzies do or say as a fan of terrible movies, however, Crowe's role as Father Amorth is iconic and one of my favourite roles of the last year - heck, the last decade! Cease your insanity immediately. A pair of Catholic priests with incredible one liners doing exorcisms, one on a Vespa, and bringing back the old school cop vibe of Lethal Weapon but in the cloth? It's incredible and I am going to defend it for the rest of my days.

Alas, that is where my anger with the Razzies subsides. Vin Diesel has rocked up for his part in Fast X, which I'm assuming is him talking about the importance of friends (famblee) and driving fast cars for the millionth time and Jason Statham in the laughably bad Meg 2: The Trench make a little more sense to me

David: The main disappointment of this shortlist is the lack of a possible Oscar nom crossover in the form of Leonardo DiCaprio's turn in 'Killers of The Flower Moon'. Acclaimed by many, it's a marmite performance that others (including this Leo fan) consider his worst-ever performance - a gurning mess masquerading as acting.

Worst Actress

David: There's no shortage of big names up for the Worst Actress prize, including Dame Helen Mirren for 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' - a nomination that would perhaps get the organisers arrested for treason in Britain. While Dame Helen would probably relish adding the trophy to her groaning mantelpiece, one suspects that Megan Fox may triumph for the understandably little-seen 'Johnny & Clyde'...simply because she's Megan Fox.

Having witnessed the staggeringly-awful trailer for her new Amazon Prime autobiographical film 'This Is Me...Now: A Love Story' though, I'd be casting my ballot for Jennifer Lopez in 'The Mother'. Her crimes to cinema are multiple (have you seen Gigli?) and deserve recognition.

Graham: This is a creme de la creme of big names that, admittedly, do deserve their place on this list. But it feels kind of mean to include Dame Helen Mirren, however, it can not be argued. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is bad. And she was bad in it too. But we can't award her a Worst Actress award, can we? CAN WE? No. No we can't. She's an icon.

Elsewhere, Megan Fox is back and I had wondered where she had been since Jennifer's Body (iconic film, sorry not sorry) for her role in Johnny & Clyde but I think we really have to honour Ana de Armas for the sole reason she was nominated for an Oscar last year and it just goes to show that even the best Actors and Actress can be scuppered by bad film making.

David: Unlucky/lucky to miss out on the conversation must be Brie Larson for 'The Marvels'. Her performance suggests that she realised just how bad the film was on the first day of shooting and went into self-preservation mode, hiring a hypnotist to put her into a comforting trance for the entire process. It's a perfectly reasonable reaction, but just makes a dreadful film even worse.