Fifty Shades of Grey (film)
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 The Razzie Awards sure did drop some shade onto this film...
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Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2015 American erotic romantic drama film directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, with a screenplay by Kelly Marcel. The film is based on E. L. James' 2011 novel of the same name and stars Dakota Johnson as Anastasia "Ana" Steele, a college graduate who begins a sadomasochistic relationship with young business magnate Christian Grey, played by Jamie Dornan. This film (along with Fant4stic) won the Worst Picture at the 36th Golden Raspberry Awards. The film premiered at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival on February 11, 2015, and was released on February 13, 2015, by Universal Pictures and Focus Features. It is the first installment in the Fifty Shades film trilogy and was followed by two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, released in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Plot
When college senior Anastasia "Ana" Steele (portrayed by Dakota Johnson) steps in for her sick roommate to interview prominent businessman Christian Grey (portrayed by Jamie Dornan) for their campus paper, little does she realize the path her life will take. As enigmatic as he is rich and powerful, Christian finds himself strangely drawn to Ana and her to him. Though sexually inexperienced, Ana plunges headlong into an affair and learns that Christian's true sexual proclivities push the boundaries of pain and pleasure.
Why It's Fifty Shades of GARBAGE
- Firstly, the film has no good reason to exist, as it is based on an already terrible book. Why would you make a book adaptation that already has really bad writing? That's like making a gritty film adaptation based on some terrible anime movie adaptation that was originally live-action.
- The portrayal of BDSM is terrible and inaccurate as the film actually romanticizes sexual abuse.
- In fact, the relationship between Christian and Ana is more about abuse than love. Christian even stalks Ana throughout the film!
- Really bad acting, especially from Jamie Dornan as Christian. Dakota Johnson's acting as Ana is no better; her acting is very boring, and Ana is also stupid enough to not see the red flags coming from Christian's actions.
- The film barely even has a proper story.
- Some sex scenes are rather poor and just come off as forced.
- Lazy directing of Sam Taylor-Johnson. Even the director herself hated the film. She said her differences with E. L. James caused her to leave the series.
- Poor pacing. This is because of sex scenes, which come off as boring and take up a bunch of the film.
- Most of the characters are bland and poorly written with no character development and an overall lack of emotion, with some ranging from boring stereotypes to completely unlikable jerks who act mean towards each other and are very easy to hate overall.
- The movie is extremely uncreative and soulless, as most of its elements are taken from other dark romance films like the Twilight series and True Romance and does nothing new with them at all due to the writers playing things way too safe and were being lazy when writing this film.
- It spawned two sequels, which are equally as bad, if not worse, as this film, as they repeat many of the same flaws as the first film but multiply them to a bigger extent to the point where it proves Universal Pictures did not listen to the criticisms that the first film received and decided to make more sequels due to the major box success it had.
- In fact, the poor reception of the third film, Fifty Shades Freed, resulted in the franchise being put on hold and no future projects being planned due to the negative reception of the franchise overall.
Qualities That Have "Earned It"
- The soundtrack, courtesy of Danny Elfman, is very well done:
- "Earned It" by The Weeknd is an R&B/chamber pop track that just oozes seduction. Although some people express dismay, we now have to refer to Fifty Shades of Grey as an "Oscar nominee"; the song itself is thought to have more than "earned it".
- "Love Me Like You Do" by Ellie Goulding is universally acclaimed and agreed to be much sexier and more romantic than the actual movie, thanks to the writing and Goulding's performance. It even got a reprise in Fifty Shades Freed. It was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
- The remix of "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé made for the film is also good, although the original song is great too. Featured in the trailer, this version of the song has a much darker, more dramatic sound and atmosphere, coming off as positively eerie at times. It helps establish the tone the film is going for very well. There are even some who opine that it surpasses the original.
- "I Know You" by Skylar Grey is a hauntingly vulnerable song detailing a person entreating their love interest to let them in and not let their past ruin their future, which fits perfectly with Ana's view of Christian and their relationship.
- Beautiful cinematography thanks to Seamus McGarvey's excellent filming.
- Turning fanfiction into a film is a unique idea as the Fifty Shades trilogy started as fanfiction of The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer.
- The ending scene where Christian and Ana broke up in the original cut was great, although it was very short-lived in the extended cut as it hints that the pair get back together anyway.
- The sex scenes, while somewhat forced, are sometimes arousing and seductive to watch, and many are well done, such as the ice on Ana's body. Unfortunately, the following films degrade a lot.
Reception
Fifty Shades of Grey received generally negative reviews, with criticism of its acting, screenplay, and pacing; however, some critics noted it as an improvement over the book, and others praised the cinematography and set design as well as the soundtrack. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 25% approval rating with an average rating of 4.20/10 based on 281 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "While creatively better endowed than its print counterpart, Fifty Shades of Grey is a less than satisfying experience on the screen.". Metacritic gave the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on reviews from 46 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
Jeremy Jahns gave it a "Dogshit!" rating and was featured in the Top 10 Worst Movies of 2015.
Box office
Despite receiving generally negative reviews, Fifty Shades of Grey was an immediate box office success, breaking numerous box office records and grossing $166.2 million in the US and Canada and $403.5 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $569.7 million against a budget of US$40 million. It is currently the fourth-highest-grossing film directed by a woman (behind Mamma Mia!, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Wonder Woman), and at the time of the end of its theatrical run, it was the fourth-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time (behind The Hangover Part II, The Passion of the Christ, and The Matrix Reloaded).
Videos
Trivia
- The film was banned in Cambodia, Kenya, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, India, and Zimbabwe for obvious reasons of the nude scenes. In Kenya, anyone who distributes or shows the movie is liable to prosecution.
- Sex scenes constitute 14 minutes and 17 seconds of the run-time.
- After its release, many parents were furious to discover this movie being shown within view of children's movie at the drive-in theatre of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, which cursing to cancel the planned cinema trip and head home.[1]
- Remote-controlled cameras were utilized for a majority of the sex scenes so the set could be more private for the actors, though stunt coordinator Melissa R. Stubbs said in an interview that in some of the wilder scenes, the two lead actors had to spend hours naked in front of a full crew.
- There was initial speculation that the film could receive an NC-17 rating in the United States. Studios typically steer away from the adults-only rating due to the impact the classification has on a film's commercial viability, with some theatre chains refusing to exhibit NC-17-rated films. While screenwriter Marcel said she expected the film to be NC-17-rated, producer De Luca anticipated the less restrictive R rating. On January 5, 2015, the MPAA did give the film an R rating, basing its decision on "strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and language."
External Links
References
Comments
- Mature
- Bad media
- 2010s films
- American films
- Adult films
- Drama films
- Romance films
- Universal films
- Based on books
- Razzie Awards Worst Picture winners
- Worst Screenplay winners
- Box office hits that received negative feedback
- Films aware of how bad they are
- Live-action films
- Banned films
- Controversial films
- Focus Features films
- Boring films
- Bad films
- Films reviewed by Chris Stuckmann