2009 Movies: The Dazzie Awards for the worst

By tvnz.co.nz's Darren Bevan

Published: 2:45PM Wednesday December 23, 2009

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With the best of the year comes inevitably the worst.

While some may claim reviewing films is the best job in the world, I would counter the argument by saying that for every diamond you see, there are at least 10 lumps of cinematic coal which should be hurled off a cliff.

However, there were three contenders for the newly created annual Dazzie award (with the great apologies to the Razzies and a legal line to prevent a court case)

So after much consideration, it was decided that all three should share the award - because singling just one out was a little unfair.

In no particular order - here's the Dazzies for 2009.

First up is Sandra Bullock's The Proposal - a film which has picked up a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as a publisher who has to pretend to be married to her assistant so that she's not deported from America.

I don't know exactly why this film rankled me so much - perhaps it was its predictability and tiresome story as well as the over acting involved, but it just irritated me from start to finish. Even the film's tag line - Here Comes The Bribe just brought out the worst in me.

Still compared to my feelings after watching A Bunch Of Amateurs , that was probably a good thing.

This Burt Reynolds vehicle found him as fading star Jefferson Steel, whose agent has booked him into Stratford to play Shakespeare. Only in a turn of events which is supposed to inspire hilarity, it's not the Stratford of the Bard's birth, but a sleepy backwater.

As if that wasn't enough to tickle your funny bones, Steel is continually mistaken for the likes of Sean Connery and Tom Selleck - it was at this point, that I realised I'd actually started to gnash my teeth so badly I was in danger of losing my entire set.

Compounded by the fact this was lauded as a personal favourite of the Queen and Prince Phillip after the Royal Film Performance, I'd never been at such a loss to work out how a film was made in the first place.

The final Dazzie goes to a film which had a great trailer and Jack Black.

On reflection, I probably shouldn't have had high expectations for Year One about a pair of cavemen who are banished from their tribe.

But as it had the wonderful deadpan performance of Michael Cera, I was prepared to forgive it.

That was until the "jokes" started and lines like "I want you to enter the holy of holies" are countered with such witticisms as " Oh that's a coincidence as I want you to sit on the poliest of polies". I really should have realised that the humour was as Neanderthal as the film's setting.

So which film do you think was worthy of a Dazzie?

Comment on our message board below!

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