HOLLYWOOD -- The world waited 14 years for a sequel to Basic Instinct. Perhaps it could have waited a bit longer.
Basic Instinct 2, with Sharon Stone reprising the role that made her famous - that of a bisexual, ice-pick-wielding murderess - was the big winner ... er, loser, at the 27th annual Razzie Awards. The ceremony, traditionally held on the day before the Oscars, highlights the worst of Hollywood each year.
A $70-million mess that earned less than $6 million at the U.S. box office, the film - rechristened Basically, It Stinks, Too by the Razzie folks - was a four-time loser at the awards ceremony, held Saturday night at Hollywood's Ivar Theatre. Besides Worst Picture, Basic Instinct 2 "won" for Worst Actress for Stone, Worst Screenplay (Leora Barish and Henry Bean) and Worst Prequel or Sequel.
But there was enough cinematic awfulness in 2006 for the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation to spread its brickbats around. Earning three Razzies was Little Man, starring Marlon Wayans' head attached to a midget's body (playing a grizzled thief who is mistaken for a baby). Wayans and his brother, Shawn, who played the "baby's" adoptive father, shared Worst Actor dishonors. The film was also given the Worst Screen Couple award and Worst Remake or Rip-Off (it was clearly "inspired" by a 1954 Bugs Bunny cartoon, Baby Buggy Bunny).
Lady In the Water earned two Razzies for its auteur, director M. Night Shyamalan. The once Oscar-nominated director (for 1999's The Sixth Sense), who cast himself as one of the film's enlightened heroes, was feted as both the Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor of the year.
"I don't think there was one big-budget mainstream movie that had an original thought in it," said Razzie creator and guiding light John Wilson.
chris.kaltenbach@baltsun.com