Fifty Shades of Black (DVD) – Movie Review
Follow Genre: Comedy
Director: Michael Tiddes
Distributor: eOne
Duration: 89 minutes

Fifty Shades of Black (DVD) – Movie Review

Site Score
2.0
Good: Acting is better than you'd expect
Bad: Pretty much everything
User Score
1.0
(3 votes)
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Rating: 1.0/10 (3 votes cast)

The Wayans brothers have been around for quite some time and are quite known, mostly because of their sense of humor, which you either love or hate. Most of their flicks are prone to show a lot of smut, often in a rather hilarious setting and now they try to relive their glory days with this parody of Fifty Shades of Grey. Sadly, they dropped the bar for this one to a subpar level, making this movie very difficult to watch through. Nonetheless, we did see Fifty Shades of Black, and it’s clear that the creators decided to skip coming up with funny jokes and go straight for a cash-grab due to the reference to the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise.

Fifty Shades of Black

Hannah Steale (Kali Hawk) is a university student who has the chance to interview Christian Black (Marlon Wayans), as her friend Kateesha (Jenny Zigrino), who was supposed to do the interview did not make it. Even though Hannah is considered to be a ‘basic’ girl, Christian sees something in her that he finds attractive or even exciting, and thus he tries to win her over. While Hannah also sees something special in him, he is only in it for the sex. Nonetheless, they slowly grow closer and even create a contract where it is written that everything in this relationship will solely be about sex. If you’re looking for a bigger story or plot, you will be sorely disappointed, as the source material this movie is based on also didn’t have a very elaborate plot to work with.

Overall the flow is rather rapid, as the movie only spans 89 minutes and there aren’t that many moments where nothing is happening. Nonetheless, the things that are happening are rather dull, predictable and simply not funny at all. If you can watch a ‘comedy’ with a straight face, only cracking a small smile when the credits start to roll simply because the ordeal is over, you know as a filmmaker you must have missed your mark. The movie did have more potential, but the creators chose the easy way out by opting for gags that have been done a million times before. Sadly, even with the fast flow of events, you’ll wish the movie was even shorter or that things progressed even faster than this.

The main problem with this movie is not the humor alone, it’s the fact that you see most of the gags coming from several miles away. Not only do most of them lose their edge, they become even worse when they weren’t funny in the first place. Luckily, the movie does redeem itself a bit with acting performances that are actually quite decent. Nonetheless, Marlon Wayans and Kali Hawk can’t save this ship that has sailed against many icebergs. Supporting roles are also known faces from both the comedy world, as well as bigger movies, and they do add a certain hint of quality to this otherwise substandard experience.

As expected, this DVD release does not come with any special features and for once we have to applaud the choice of not prolonging the torture that is Fifty Shades of Black. Also, the movie is pretty much a standalone experience that does not even need a making of, or anything else, as what transpired speaks for itself. Nonetheless, the only thing that might have showed some actual humor could have been a gag reel.

Conclusion

Fifty Shades of Black is one of those movies you should do your best to avoid, as you’ll never get those 89 minutes of your life back. Nonetheless, those who love the Wayans Brothers’ humor might get a bit of amusement out of this one, but overall this flick is riddled with predictable jokes, failed attempts of trying to ‘shock’ the viewers with smut and a parody of a plot that already failed to interest half the world. Simply put, this movie should have been called Fifty Shades of Nope.

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Rating: 1.0/10 (3 votes cast)
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Fifty Shades of Black (DVD) - Movie Review, 1.0 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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