It’s been a rough few weeks for LeBron James. Not only are the Lakers in danger of missing the playoffs (ninth in the Western Conference), but James received a Golden Raspberry (“Razzie”) nomination, joining Scott Eastwood (Dangerous), Roe Hartrampf (Diana the Musical), Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) and Mark Walberg (Infinite) among this year’s nominees for Worst Actor.
The dubious honor came for James’ performance in Space Jam: A New Legacy, which, despite its relative success at the box office (it grossed $162.8 million worldwide), was critically panned, receiving only a 25-percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus reads, “Despite LeBron James' best efforts to make a winning team out of the Tune Squad, Space Jam: A New Legacy trades the zany, meta humor of its predecessor for a shameless, tired exercise in IP-driven branding.”New Legacy was better received by audiences, however, garnering 79 percent approval from viewers.
In total, New Legacy was nominated for four Razzies—Worst Actor, Worst Picture, Worst Remake and Worst Screen Couple for James and “any Warner Cartoon character.” The original Space Jam starring Michael Jordan was no masterpiece by any means, though the sequel failed to meet even those low standards, receiving criticism for its bloated run time (115 minutes) and gratuitous product placement, essentially serving as a feature-length infomercial for James’ various corporate sponsorships.
Of course, no one was expecting James, a novice actor who previously cameoed in Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, to redefine the genre with a layered, emotionally resonant performance. At the end of the day, he was just trying to make a silly kid’s movie with his friends including longtime NBA pals Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
James isn’t the first athlete to receive a Razzie nomination. Shaquille O’Neal (Steel) was one of five nominees for Worst Actor at the 18th Golden Raspberry Awards in 1997, though he would ultimately lose to Kevin Costner (The Postman).
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