FIFTY SHADES DARKER SHOULD STAY OUT OF THE LIGHT OF DAY
A pair of movies that crash and burn thanks to terribly boring, unimaginative scripts
FIFTY SHADES DARKER DVD/Blu-ray/Digital HD Warner Bros. out of 5
What’s good about this movie? A week removed from watching it, I’m still asking myself that question.
The highlight of the original Fifty Shades of Grey was Jamie Dornan, who plays inconsistent control freak/billionaire/sadist Christian Grey. But that’s honestly because, before I watched the movie, I saw his “Fifty Shades of accents” segment on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show.
In this, the second part of the trilogy, the set is the best part. There’s a masquerade ball, which feels almost like a Baz Luhrmann movie with its dress and decor. The independent publishing company where Ana works is a subtler kind of beautiful, with rustic wooden floors, lots of natural light, and piles of books. Christian’s apartment is as impressive as ever; so is Ana’s, for that matter.
But the story? It’s not good. Two-dimensional leads Christian and Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) continue their “relationship.” Unbelievable villains, including a weird stalker ex-submissive of Christian’s who looks eerily like his dead mother, get in the way. The movie is mostly about sex, but there is no sense of passion in the sex scenes, even when there are whips involved.
Apparently Fifty Shades started as Twilight fan faction. I’d rather be watching Twilight.
But if you like this series, then you might like the Blu-ray special features. There are lots of them — including deleted scenes, cast commentary and a look at the new “toys” (which are nothing shocking).
FIST FIGHT DVD/Blu-ray/Digital HD Warner Bros. ★ 1/2 out of 5
I’m going to assume Warner
Bros. thought Fist Fight would be just another goofy comedy that would register decent numbers at the box office.
I’m sure they had no idea how much of a train wreck the movie would be in the end, as it walked up to the line of goofy comedy — then proceeded to jump past it into the realm of crass comedy.
I’ll admit I enjoy a colourful comedy as much as the next guy but Fist Fight pushed the envelope of boorishness so far that it wasn’t funny. The premise was simple — a strait-laced teacher gets a colleague fired when he won’t cover up a violent action with a student. The fired teacher challenges his colleague to a fight after school to settle the score because “snitches get stitches.”
This could’ve been funny. The cast is certainly qualified, with Charlie Day and Ice Cube featured in the main roles with support from Tracy Morgan, Jillian Bell, Dean Norris and Christina Hendricks. However, the cast was let down by a bad script that lacked originality. It was difficult to like any of the characters, as none of them had any redeeming qualities.
Perhaps to make up for the lack of a coherent story, the writers decided to push the envelope when it came to obscenities. It’s not unusual for raunchy comedies to pepper the dialogue with swearing but Fist Fight is comprised of the most swearing I’ve ever heard in a film. Did it help the movie? No, it didn’t.