50 Shades of Gray

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Stewball
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50 Shades of Gray

Post by Stewball »

Since I was afraid I'd be assaulted with an overdose of estrogen in the form of a romance novel/soap opera, I was pleasantly surprised with the intensity of the script. It's the romantic vs the control freak who's coming from a very dark place; but she's in spiritual control, countering and submitting as required in what turns out to be a very complex (mating?) ritual. [spoiler]When he finds out she's a virgin, he's hooked, but not by the fact itself, rather in her response when he says to her "you're beautiful, you must have had men throwing themselves at you", and she said, "none that I wanted".[/spoiler]

I didn't realize until it started that Focus Features was involved, looks like they've graduated to the well deserved big time, and it is very well done as usual for them. The acting and production are both excellent. It looks like the early box is off to a good start as well, but so are the boo birds with an IMDb 3.3 from over 18,000 users (by Friday afternoon, yeah right). So far the highest Criticker score, besides mine, is a T3. Or maybe some of that is from those who thought the sex and S&M would be more graphic--they were very erotic but no full frontal and only one short scene with real pain.

It ends abruptly and it is the first of a 3 volume love story so those of you for who that would be a turn off, be warned. 8/10

Stewball
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Re: 50 Shades of Gray

Post by Stewball »

If the situation continues, this could be the biggest gap between a negative reception and blockbuster box office ever, though it would be difficult to get such comparative stats. In any case it is a wide gap, with both the public and critics, the latter being hard to pack the ballot box. Any opinions out there as to why that is; or are there some other examples of a financially successful "bad" movie?

It's easier to think of well liked b/o flops like Blade Runner, Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club and, yes.....Her (with only $25 mil total, but 94/82 R/T & 8.0 IMDb).

TheDenizen
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Re: 50 Shades of Gray

Post by TheDenizen »

Stewball wrote: are there some other examples of a financially successful "bad" movie?

Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell comedies have made hundreds of millions of dollars. The mind boggles.

The fact is that it doesn't matter whether critics think 50 Shades is shit or not. Millions of housewives read the book and most of them are going to see the movie regardless.

GreenyPillar
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Re: 50 Shades of Gray

Post by GreenyPillar »

To be honest, I didn`t like the film due to well-known reasons - because of the ripped off scenes the motion picture has lost a part of the sense implied by the title and the fact that it`s a screen adaptation of the novel; I`d say that the film has been turned into a plain melodrama which is quite boring to watch.

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