Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

[#ED]

Discuss.

 

Edited February 11, 2015 by #ED

[Plain Old Tele]

All in caps?

[#ED]

All in caps?

 

I changed it, but it appears all the posters in the marketing have the title in all caps.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2015 by #ED

[CoolioD1]

NOT THE SEX THREAD

[Jake Gittes]

Argh

[Alpha]

http://youtu.be/bj8a9SUX2jQ

A+++

[baumer]

I think this should be reserved for those who have actually seen the movie.

[CJohn]

I am here for the dirty details.

[filmlover]

80 Inner Goddesses out of 10.

[baumer]

Can we make this a thread for those who have actually seen it?  If you want to make fun of it, use the main thread.

[Jessie]

Good movie, managed to bash it off 4 times. Haven't managed to do that since Species 2

[CoolioD1]

Good movie, managed to bash it off 4 times. Haven't managed to do that since Species 2

Yeesh. I haven't managed that myself since I saw Spongebob on Friday.

[#ED]

<strong class='bbc'>Automatic generated message</strong><br />This topic has been closed by a moderator.<br /><br /><strong class='bbc'>Reason:</strong> Locked till Weds.<br /><br />If you disagree with this action, please report this post and a moderator or administrator will reconsider it.<br /><br />Kind regards,<br />Box Office Theory Forums Staff

Edited February 9, 2015 by Telemachos

[#ED]

Re-Opened. International release is today. 

[baumer]

I think a fair warning is if you don't use this thread to discuss the movie....IF YOU HAVE SEEN IT...then it will get shut down.

[Avatree]

18 hours to go.

[75Live]

Can't go into it now but it was bad

Will expound tomorrow

D

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

The disappointing thing about Fifty Shades of Grey is that despite its major flaws, it wouldn't have taken a lot to make this film good. The character of Ana, our entry into this world, is actually a pretty compelling figure. Thanks to Dakota Johnson's electrifying performance and some good writing, Ana feels like a real, complex human. She is introverted and goofy, but also super intelligent, hilariously witty, and surprisingly assertive as the film continues (even though her relationship with Christian is supposed to make her "submissive"). But the writers squander this good characterization by not defining Ana's dreams before she meets Christian. What does she want from her life? Excitement? Passion? Love? What job does she want? What does she want from a guy? All of these questions are left open ended. As a result, once Ana begins to fall for Christian, we don't really understand why she is falling because we don't know what she is looking for. This inability to understand her affection for Christian takes all the life out of the relationship, which is-of course-the center of the film.

It doesn't help matters that Christian is an awful character. There is nothing recognizably human in him; he is not charming, funny, or even that nice. I understand that he isn't meant to be a good guy, but I would've liked to seen more personality in him because I believe that the best characters are dicks who have personalities (think Tony Soprano or Michel Poiccard). Christian's just a blank slate. Worse, he's a blank slate for no discernible reason. The film leaves his causes for being a dick ambiguous and mysterious, which means that we can't even empathize that much with him. As a result, he only makes the already uninteresting relationship unbearable to watch.

Lastly, a quick comment on the filmmaking. The film is well directed, but the S&M scenes are boring as hell to watch. Who knew that S&M could look so tame on film? For whatever reason, the film chooses to cut away every time there is violence on the screen to a part of the body that isn't being hit. I don't really want to see violence and sex intertwined like this, but if the crux of your movie is about S&M, you shouldn't lessen its impact by cutting so poorly.

But honestly, all of these flaws would've been excusable if the film fleshed out Ana just a little bit more. If the film had given her goals/wants/desires in the beginning, we could've empathized with her through the relationship, and really enjoyed the film. Instead, we're left with a lifeless and dull movie.

C-



 

Edited February 13, 2015 by Dark Jedi Master 007

[75Live]

Dark jedi pretty much summed up my review.

The movie was boring and bad. The only semi interesting parts were the "sex" parts. The rest did absolutely nothing. The soundtrack was bad and the songs never fit the scene.

There were some OK parts like Dakota Johnson was fine and I don't just mean her being naked. She was not the problem with the film.

The guy was brutally bad acting wise. The girl I took that was fan girling over him and the movie turned to me after he said about 10 words and said he was horrible. Apparently, we were supposed to feel bad for his character but that never was shown by him and he just comes off as an unlikable, cardboard cut out

There was zero chemistry between the two leads which didn't help

After all the hype and "controversy" about this, the supposed erotic sex scenes were dull and tame. I have seen better sex scenes in the Friday the 13th movies.  The scenes were unintentionally funny and people were laughing where they shouldn't be.

the first hour or so was so bad that my friend and I almost fell asleep. The only thing that kept us awake was us picking out which character was the Twilight counterpart. Jose was Jake, the blonde boyfriend was Jasper. Gray's sister was Alice, etc, etc

I know this will work for some people and I wish it did for me, but more so for my friend who was so looking forward to it.

Almost gave it an F but I rarely do that. Plus Dakota and her body helped push up the grade.

D

Edited February 13, 2015 by 75live

[filmlover]

Considering the epic trashiness of E.L. James' poorly-written, inexplicably-popular novel and the film's troubled road to the big screen, it wouldn't be unreasonable to head into the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey expecting the 2010s equivalent of Showgirls. However, what the film ends up settling for is mediocrity. Don't get me wrong, this is about a billion times better than the book, as it dispenses with all of the amateurish narration (there isn't a single reference to any "inner goddesses") and the more ridiculous stuff (like the infamous tampon bit). But don't mistake "a billion times better than the book" for "somehow a good movie", though. The film still suffers from a multitude of problems, most of which relate to the poor writing (we still have wretched lines like "I don't make love, I fuck...hard"), and the insistence of selling the audience this twisted dud of a romance. It also doesn't help that one of the movie's biggest flaws is Mr. Grey himself. The casting of Jamie Dornan (an 11th hour replacement for Charlie Hunnam) proves to be fatal. Not since Hayden Christensen in the Star Wars prequels has there been a lead actor fail at carrying a film on his shoulders as much as Dornan does here. While admittedly handsome, he never sells any of the character's supposed mysteriousness or convey how damaged he is (Christian is a victim of child sexual abuse), and his attempt at an American accent flops. He appears even more lackluster next to Dakota Johnson, who actually manages to make Anastasia a more interesting character on the screen than on the page. I've enjoyed Johnson in everything I've seen her in (supporting parts in films like The Social Network, 21 Jump Street, and The Five-Year Engagement), and she proves more than capable at taking the spotlight despite the rest of the film and her co-star weighing her down (the two have no chemistry as a result of the imbalance in performances). Of course, everyone knows that the only reason Fifty Shades of Grey was so popular was because of the really steamy sex scenes, and while the film had no choice but to really tame them down to secure multiplex distribution, there isn't anything that stands out as being exactly provocative. I'll admit that the film manages to surpass early expectations and is never unwatchable. However, the bad writing and Dornan's poor performance sink the film. There isn't anything here that stands out as being very sexy and the film isn't trashy enough to be a camp classic, and it completely collapses as it nears the finish line. If you were a fan of the book, my guess is that you'll be reasonably satisfied; everyone else will leave the movie wondering what the fuss was all about. C