Fifty Shades of Black (2016)
Directed by Michael Tiddes
An inexperienced college student meets a wealthy businessman whose sexual practices put a strain on their relationship.
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18 films that influenced Fifty Shades of Black
What critics say influenced Fifty Shades of Black
They do their best by bolstering the main storyline with funny scenes that pick on movies like Whiplash and Magic Mike (including the movie’s best scene involving a TV mom of advanced age proving she’s a very, very good sport), but there just aren’t that many other S&M romantic dramas to lump into the mix.
The film is also very of-the-moment with its references to such things as Whiplash, Magic Mike, #BlackLivesMatter, and the last Ronda Rousey title fight.
There’s a Magic Mike scene with some swollen balls, a Whiplash gag that no one who sees this movie will get (and it involves Florence Henderson), and Jane Seymour shows up to spout some tired racist jokes, which just makes me sad.
When it all runs out of steam, the cock-and-ball routines downshift into riffs from Whiplash and Magic Mike, but sadly, these aren’t funny either.
(A leftfield spoof on “Magic Mike” fares less well.)
By setting his sights on the film adaptation of EL James’ bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey , Wayans finally finds a target that offers him a valid excuse for his trademark crudeness.
The prospect of spoofing Fifty Shades of Grey, as Marlon Wayans attempts to do in his new film Fifty Shades of Black, is a surprisingly difficult one.
"Fifty Shades of Black" is Marlon Wayans' parody of "Fifty Shades of Grey," and if you think jabbing at the book-slash-big screen phenomenon is akin to slam-dunking on a kiddie rim, think again.
For those completely unfamiliar with “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the parody “Fifty Shades of Black” might seem nonsensical.
Working again with director Michael Tiddes and co-writer Rick Alvarez, Wayans stars in this filthy, witless parody of "Fifty Shades of Grey" -- a movie no one took seriously in the first place, you'll recall, which makes it tricky to mock.
Wayans didn’t have to scratch too deeply into the zeitgeist to come up with this racially tinged parody of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Heck, the Wayans (spearheaded by oldest brother Keenan Ivory Wayans) gave us some hilarious films like “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” and the original “Scary Movie” installments.
The comic style of writer-actor Marlon Wayans has found fewer takers with each outing; Wayans abandoned the gross-out humour of the Scary Movie series for the even crasser A Haunted House films, spoofing horror tropes to minimal effect.
Con Scary Movie y su secuela, él y el resto de la dinastía Wayans dieron inicio al renacimiento dosmilero de la vertiente, y de ahí en adelante infinidad de imitadores se han encargado de sepultar cada vez más el potencial y estatus que solían tener esta clase de filmes.
It’s one thing to skewer an entire genre, as the Wayans did in Scary Movie or Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood , but quite another to pick a single source to parody, and a very thin gruel of a source at that.
As if Scary Movie, Epic Movie, Vampires Suck et al weren’t bad enough, here comes another depressing “cinema parody” that isn’t half as amusing as the film(s) it wants us to laugh at.
Mr. Wayans, who skewered horror flicks with the “Haunted House” and “Scary Movie” series, has found another ripe subject for pillorying.
And like most spoofs, which Wayans (Scary Movie and Haunted House series) seems to have staked his film career on, Fifty Shades of Black is more a series of scenes or set-pieces, rather than a fluid narrative.
The film is also very of-the-moment with its references to such things as Whiplash, Magic Mike, #BlackLivesMatter, and the last Ronda Rousey title fight.
Such clever little ironies are in short supply in the movie, but the see-what-sticks approach does yield a couple of hits for every hundred misses, including a rack of whips that reference those used in Hollywood slave dramas and Florence Henderson’s game turn as a dominatrix version of J.K. Simmons in “Whiplash.”
Though it is unsettling and perhaps disappointing to see Mrs. Brady behave so obscenely, I laughed at the scene's core concept, which compares the dominant/submissive relationship in "Fifty Shades" to the one in "Whiplash" (tempo!).
Based on the trailers, Fifty Shades of Black humorously mirrors not only Fifty Shades of Grey but Magic Mike and Whiplash.
They do their best by bolstering the main storyline with funny scenes that pick on movies like Whiplash and Magic Mike (including the movie’s best scene involving a TV mom of advanced age proving she’s a very, very good sport), but there just aren’t that many other S&M romantic dramas to lump into the mix.
There’s a Magic Mike scene with some swollen balls, a Whiplash gag that no one who sees this movie will get (and it involves Florence Henderson), and Jane Seymour shows up to spout some tired racist jokes, which just makes me sad.
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One was a poop joke, and one was a Soul Plane joke.
We're not talking "Soul Plane" here -- which, coincidentally, gets mentioned in "Fifty Shades of Black" as an example of a bad movie, even though it is much funnier than "Fifty Shades of Black."
Now let’s see what the Wayans clan can do with I Am Curious (Yellow) , or Blue Velvet , or Behind the Green Door .
Now let’s see what the Wayans clan can do with I Am Curious (Yellow) , or Blue Velvet , or Behind the Green Door .
Although the scenes are played for laughs, they do still contain BDSM, with the whips on display named after slavery-themed films like Roots , Glory , 12 Years a Slave , etc. There's also substance use and abuse by adults: The main female character gets drunk, and someone tries to spike her drink with Molly; the main male character recalls becoming a billionaire because he used to use and sell crack cocaine.
That’s just an aspect of his controlling, dominant nature, which also includes hiding in her laundry basket to keep an eye on her and demanding she sign a contract detailing what exactly he can and cannot do to her, such as whether he’s allowed to use the whip labeled “12 Years a Slave” on her, or just settle for the one marked “Roots.”
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Marlon Wayans (ingratiatingly wimpy) and Kali Hawk (with bangs and clumsy sweater) act out the Beauty and the Beast rituals of "Christian Black" and "Hannah Steele."
Well, it made Kung Fu Panda 3 look like Citizen Kane.