The world has been a bit scary and a lot more cautious in the past couple of weeks. Recent events have made everyday life a little more stressful. Things are changing at a pace folks wouldn’t even wish on their worst enemies... but some things stay the same. Case in point: Because it’s always a good time to dunk on Cats, and the Razzie Awards knows it, they recently awarded the Tom Hooper-directed oddity with a whole lot of "awards."
While the originally planned show did not pan out as expected, The Razzie Awards soldiered on with their awarding of six honors to Cats, according to a report from THR. Those “honors” included wins for Worst Picture, Worst Director for Tom Hooper, and Worst Supporting Actor and Actress for James Corden and Rebel Wilson.
The dunking didn’t stop there, though, as Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Combo completed the run of good luck at this awards show for bad movies. Surely going into a field that saw nominations for films like The Fanatic, Rambo: Last Blood, and the Hellboy reboot felt like it would give Cats the opportunity to leave with some dignity intact. Truthfully, there was only three wins the movie had lost out on, with Francesca Hayward’s potential Worst Actress win going to Hilary Duff for The Haunting of Sharon Tate.
However, two losses were actually wins, as Cats was double nominated for Worst Screen Combo, which saw “Jason Derulo & His Neutered CGI Bulge” losing out on to “Any Two Half-Feline/Half-Human Hairballs,” and Worst Supporting Actress, which had Judi Dench proudly owning the fact she was even up for it in the first place.
As the film has been the perpetual whipping pet for folks from the moment it released its first trailer, Cats hasn’t had an easy nine lives. While the movie has endured a limited degree of success, as fans have planned “rowdy” screenings reminiscent of those for The Room or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the "positive" profile the film has earned is mostly of the ironic sort.
Who knows where the legacy of this Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation will lead, as Cats has always been the sort of story that’s been beloved by some, and mercilessly scorned by others. As its box office grosses left much to be desired, it’s a movie that’s memory will live on, though not quite in the way it intended.
Still, if a movie is going to go as hard in the paint of insane mediocrity as Cats did, it’s always good to have something to show for it. While winning the most Razzies of the night is a dunk so hard Michael Jordan had to stretch out like a Looney Tune to deliver it, it’s still a kingmaking event that puts Cats as the pick of the litter when it comes to bad cinema from 2019.
If you haven’t experienced the majesty that is Cats, you won’t have to wait too long before you make that Jellicle Choice. The film will be available on Digital HD tomorrow, with physical media releases on Blu-ray and DVD on April 7th. You’re probably under curfew anyway, so why not crack open the beverage of your choice, and get nuts with the Rum Tum Tugger, Jennyanydots, and Mister Mistoffelees.
