Is there an emoji for when you win something (smiley face!) but it’s something really embarrassing (blushing face!) but still you win a lot of it (blushing smiling face?)? If so, roll it out, because “The Emoji Movie” could use it.
On Saturday, the day before the 2018 Academy Awards, the Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst movies of the year were handed out, and “The Emoji Movie,” whose stars included Patrick Stewart voicing a piece of talking poo, is truly No. 2. Er, No. 1, if you like.
The 2016 animated movie not only claimed worst picture, it also won worst screenplay, director and “worst screen combo.” That last award was given to “any two obnoxious emojis” from the film, beating out competitors including “Johnny Depp and his worn-out drunk routine” from “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” and “any combination of two characters, two sex toys, or two sexual positions” from “Fifty Shades Darker.”
The plot summary sounds like something a fourth-grader scribbled down as a last-minute creative-writing assignment, but here it is:
“The Emoji Movie” features T.J. Miller. formerly of “Silicon Valley,” as Gene, a young “meh” emoji who faces problems because he can make multiple faces, not just the one he’s expected to produce. He meets up with many different emojis in Textopolis, a digital city inside the phone of a teen named Alex. Stewart, of “Star Trek” fame,” lends his proper British accent to the piece of poo emoji, and deadpan comic Steven Wright voices Gene’s father, another “meh” emoji.
The Razzies also named Tom Cruise as worst actor for “The Mummy,” and Tyler Perry claimed the worst actress award for “BOO! 2: A Madea Halloween.” Kim Basinger won worst supporting actress for “Fifty Shades Darker,” and Mel Gibson won worst supporting actor for “Daddy’s Home 2.” The “Baywatch” film received the award for the “Razzie Nominee So Bad You Loved It.”
“The Emoji Movie” has earned its honors. The film has an “overwhelming dislike rating” at CNET sister site Metacritic and a weak 9 percent critical approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
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