Theatrical Review: 50 Shades Freed

Date: Saturday February 17 2018

Time: 12:20pm

Place: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall

Party: 3 (my mom, one of her friends from the community, and I)

 

Director: James Foley (I looked it up and he is the same James Foley who almost directed Purple Rain- he turned it down and suggested Al Magnoli who went on to do an amazing job with it)

Writers: EL James (novel), Niall Leonard (screenplay) (fun fact: they're married! mind=blown)

Composer: Danny Elfman

 

Cast:

Anastasia Steele- Dakota Johnson

Christian Grey- Jamie Dornan

Jack Hyde- Eric Johnson

Elliot Grey- Luke Grimes

Mia Grey- Rita Ora

Taylor- Mark Martini

Jose- Victor Rasuk

Kate Kavanaugh- Eloise Mumford

Dr. Grace Gray- Marcia Gay Harden

Gia Matteo- Arielle Kebbel

Sawyer- Brant Daugherty (of "Pretty Little Liars" fame)

Prescott- Kirsten Alter

Boyce Fox- Tyler Hoechlin

 

Duration: 105 minutes (+3 trailers)

Write-up:

http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2015/03/theatrical-review-50-shades-of-grey.html

http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2017/02/theatrical-review-50-shades-darker.html

my review of the previous movies for those who are interested... then maybe you'll get an idea of what kind of review is about to follow

 

Opening comments 

 

A couple of firsts came with this movie.

First, my mom and I had someone else in our party this time. Funny that the other day, she asked if we should include my aunt (who saw all those sci-fi/superhero movies with us) and I said no... and then she comes back from happy hour and says one of her friends wanted to come. I thought for sure it was going to be super awkward, but we were driving in the car on our way there (hit a little traffic, but luckily missed nothing) and she made that same comment and we agreed.

I think what kinda helped was that she sat next to my mom and I was on my mom's other side and I was kinda reacting to the movie on my own without much conversation between us. The funny thing is that instead of us seeing it in our local theater (which burned down a few days after we saw "Despicable ME 3"), it was in a big movie house and yet, the experience was simultaneously being part of a large group and intimate. If that makes any sense...

 

I will say that I didn't care much for the TV promos for this movie... pretty much every one montaged all the scenes where Anastasia was answering to "Mrs. Grey" or saying to call her that... yet in the books, she wasn't so quick to adopt her new married name and it was a point of contention between them. And don't get me started on the use of that Demi Levato song, argh!!

 

As for the actual movie trailers...well, after traffic, and having trouble finding a parking spot (it felt like it was a Black Friday situation except I'd never been to the mall on Black Friday-- must be the President's Day weekend sales), we were stuck in line for a bit because people in front of us wanted to do more than just buy a movie ticket and go... what a pain... luckily a second cashier showed up to take care of us...

Anyway, we were in by the end of a trailer. One of the actors played Morgan in "The Mindy Project" (that was such a great show...). From there, there were 3:

 

Ocean's 8- Sandra Bullock is out on parole like George Clooney was and she's getting a group together to rob from a fashion show. Mindy is in the cast along with a lot of other bad ass chicks of various backgrounds. It looks like a lot of fun.

 

Book Club- it's about women in their 60's and 70's wanting to rekindle the sex in their lives after they read 50 Shades of Grey... this was the PERFECT trailer for this movie, I swear :P not sure if we'd see it in a theater because my folks are mad about something Jane Fonda was politically involved in years ago... but it'd be fun to see on HBO when it comes there.

 

Mamma Mia! 2- I'd heard about this, but had no idea how they could do another movie or what it's even about. I was afraid that Sophie had cheated on Skye with 2 other guys and she was in the same situation as her mom. It is actually following the model of the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" sequel where they went into how Tula's parents met. The young girl in the trailers is actually Donna and how she met Sam, Bill and Harry and Donna and the Dynamos became a thing. A bunch of us are still mad about Meryl Streep's political comments, but we still like her in movies like this. It also appears that they recast Harry Bright cuz that does not look like Colin Firth. Too bad they couldn't recast Pierce Brosnan and get someone who can actually sing...

 

:sigh: much like I'd been doing all this stuff to put off doing some Prince-related writing (summing up why my favorite songs and albums are my favorites)... I'm putting off getting to this actual movie... it really wasn't that bad, but it's not Oscar-worthy cinema by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Book to Movie Adaptation

 

I did this for all the other movies, so I might as well do it now. I think this was a faithful adaptation. There were some R-rated details and uncomfortable dialogue that they did not put in the script... I think there was a scene during the honeymoon where Christian told Anastasia not to use the bathroom before sex because it'll make for a better orgasm. Something like that... although I've heard (not that I'd personally know- still a virgin and in no hurry to change that) you should do so after you have sex because it cuts the risks of UTIs.

 

And then... well, the trailers do spoil the fact that Anastasia gets knocked up, that's not giving much away... there is a scene towards the end of the movie where they do stuff in the red room while she's pregnant... seriously, WTF? Then he makes some other comment that just made me wanting to shout obscenities at him. But then again, I spent much of this book doing that. It's a strange thing, though, because my plan in life does not involve having children, yet whenever a man gets possessive of a woman and pregnancy is involved, I flip out on them. It's about her and the baby, it's not about you and your so-called "needs."

 

I don't know if it's that feminine instinct or I was really wronged by a man in a previous life... I've got a lot of weird opinions about a lot of random things. And there are some Prince songs I don't like to listen to because the lyrical content conflicts with those opinions... less than 10 out of 100's of songs...

 

Moving on... already WAY off topic.

 

 

The Main Event

 

Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey get married in a nice ceremony and there's a montage with the opening credits showing all their honeymoon exploits. (Which are more about collecting Pandora charms than sex scenes-- but they did manage to squeeze one in there... because why not?).

However, getting married has not deterred Christian from being possessive and controlling. If anything, it's gotten worse. I will give him the fact that Anastasia potentially winding up in a tabloid because her being bare-breasted on a nude beach... but everything else after that... there's a reason RED is the safe word here. A lot of red flags. As much as he is willing to compromise and he's compromised a lot over the last movie, there are still issues I have with him that will likely never go away.

 

Much of the movie is about the two of them adjusting to the married life, dealing with the underlying threat of Jack Hyde (Anastasia's former boss who attacked her in the previous movie) and an unexpected pregnancy.

 

For the sex itself... they did up the ante a bit compared to the previous movie.

It's like this... the first movie was about the two of them getting to know each other. Likewise, their sexual identity as a couple was still trying to find itself. The second movie brought more communication into the fray and this movie has more focus on the S&M bondge and such. Like it's a regular thing for them now and she's ok with it. And compared to the previous two movies, there were more sex scenes. At least one or two more that I can remember.

 

Not counting the honeymoon montage and one of those scenes where there's a look exchanged and the next scene she's asleep in bed...

 

1- handcuffs on her wrists and ankles... a bit of dialogue that was missing, though... in the book, after they finish, he's very apologetic to her because the handcuffs left marks on her skin and he'd been too rough on her... this is one of those points where the book harkened back to Twilight where Edward was really apologetic to Bella after they have sex because he left bruises all over her body. It bothered me how some people said that their relationship was abusive and that scene was an example of that. It was not intentional at all. Whereas I'm pretty sure the handcuffs were Christian's idea and he regretted it afterwards.

 

2- there's a car chase scene... a really cool one... and for whatever reason, Anastasia got such a high off that adrenaline rush that when they pull over into a parking lot, she climbs on top of him and they do it right there... I don't remember that scene in the book at all (the chase scene or the sex)... I don't know what everyone else was thinking, but I was kinda like "yeah, ok..." not really sure what to think. Also, the way it was shot and acted out, it was a little clunky and awkward. Almost like a scene from Showgirls where the actors were positioned in a such a way where there is no conceivable way that penetration could have occurred. Actually, there wasn't just one scene in Showgirls like that. (I hadn't seen the movie myself and don't plan to, but I had seen a couple of videos of people reviewing it or just pointing out all the CinemaSins committed)

 

3- the "frustration" scene where Anastasia actually uses her safe word... on the third book and it FINALLY happens... as she puts it afterwards, "that was not love, that was revenge"... I remember reading that scene in the book and cheering that she took a stand. But I don't remember it involving a vibrator. That was another of those awkward scenes to kinda watch. I have a feeling that it'd be the kind of scene where, if I was younger, my mom would send me out of the room and to come back when it's over. (That happened years ago when she was watching The Sweetest Thing and I think it was an oral sex scene... I think I saw it years later when I was old enough and she was the one on the receiving end).

 

4- well, let's just say this scene kinda ruined Ben & Jerry for everyone :P ... the only cliché that was missing out of it... the two of them were getting busy on a tabletop in the middle of the night... I was so waiting for the following scene to be the next morning and everyone was having breakfast at the same table... they had that "boob land" dialogue in the nude beach scene yet they couldn't push the super cheesiness of this movie to that extent?
Minus Ben & Jerry, that scene kinda made me think about a Prince lyric "I'd rather wait 'til everyone's fast asleep and do it in the kitchen on the tabletop"... "Shh" is such a great song if only for the guitar solos alone...

 

5- there's a montage that occurs in Anastasia's mind when she's musing over a cup of tea of them having sex...

 

I might be missing another, but that's the basic gist of it.
For the most part, though... the positions really didn't vary a whole lot... some might find that lame and boring... but I guess as far as the awkward vs. erotic debate goes, this movie probably has the most awkward sex scenes of the franchise. It's almost like they stopped caring about not hamming it up too much. They knew the material wasn't the greatest and just wanted to get through it.

 

I know this franchise is meant to be about... as Anastasia puts it in the second movie.. "kinky fuckery"... the best parts of it weren't about it so much as the villain.

I don't know why, but I kept calling Jack Hyde "Eric" in my head... maybe cuz he reminds me of Eric from "True Blood" despite not having seen much of it... or cuz his actor's name is Eric... but yeah, the threat of them coming after them felt really real. And the adrenaline involved with that was a good high. Not to mention it means something interesting is going on.

There were a few laughs during the movie at some inappropriate times (never during the sex scenes, so that was good), but there were some good timed laughs. One of them was when Jack gets reprimanded by the bodyguards and they say how they don't have anything to hold him. Anastasia says that they have things to use... it's like... yeah, we ALL know what she's talking about. And it's a good use of that equipment for sure.

 

However, the ultimate climax of the movie... it maybe borrowed a little too much from Twilight... the female protagonist having to meet someone dangerous and keeping their movements secret from everyone else they care about... but it was a good conclusion to this. And Anastasia gets to have one more bad-ass moment I had to cheer for- even if I was the only one in the theater to do so. (The Twilight movies really did not give that to Bella at all and that's a tragedy... she's much better a character than she's given credit for, I think).

 

Beyond the sex and the action, this movie is ultimately character driven and it's about our two main characters and their relationship. They're not going to buy into it unless you feel invested in them. Some people aren't, but I am for some odd reason I really can't explain. I just hang on the edge of my seat (despite knowing what happens) to see where things go with them.

 

The biggest issue I had with Christian Grey throughout the books boiled down to his overreaction over Anastasia's pregnancy.

But the way it comes about in the books, maybe I was reading too much into things, but I was under the impression that someone at work was purposely not fielding calls from Anastasia's doctor to her about certain appointments and that's how she missed getting her birth control shots.

 

However, in the movie, she gets sick and sees a doctor and just finds out she's pregnant and just simply forgot to go for her injections. And then Christian loses his shit over that.

:sigh: see, this is my big issue... somewhere in the 2nd book, he makes a comment that he hates condoms and has her see a doctor to get a certain kind of birth control that is a monthly injections. If this relationship is ultimately his idea, why the hell is it her responsibility to be on birth control? If it was a mutual thing that both of them did, that'd be something else... but him losing it with her just infuriated me. In the book, they were having sex practically every chapter. Not so much in the movies, but really... all that sex, what do you expect is going to happen?

Not in the book, but in Breaking Dawn part 1, I also took issue with Edward's reaction to Bella wanting to keep her pregnancy. Because this human-vampire hybrid baby was practically killing her, he said that they were supposed to be partners after being married and she had decided without him to take herself away from him forever. Men (living or undead) can be real jerks sometimes when unplanned pregnancies occur and it just infuriates me.

 

But when the two of them (back to Anastasia and Christian) talked about it and she really gave him a piece of her mind about his overreaction to what happened... that was just so good on her. I was proud of her just telling him how she felt and not letting him off the hook for his behavior.

That was something that the third person in our party admired to. She said how she kinda didn't like the actress in the previous movies, but she really liked how she stood up for herself. In a world that has become so about girl power and women being able to stand up for themselves... not a lot of the movie really speaks in favor of that, but there were scenes like this that supported it. And I thought that was good.

 

Not sure of what any of the songs were, but there were some really good songs in the movie. And of course, I got a little emotional when "Love me Like you do" made a comeback at the end in a very predicable fashion... I just love that song so much and I had since put it to a figure skating montage. Not someone I have romantic feelings for, mind you, but his skating just kept coming to mind when I listened to it to the point I just couldn't avoid doing it. It's not as good as the montage I did with a Depeche Mode song (which really told a good story through the footage I used), but it went all right.

 

As for grading this movie...

I guess I'll give a B+.

There were some good points in the movie I really liked, but there were some low points where I either hated Christian Grey or just thought the sex scenes were awkward to watch. Or just really bad cheesy dialogue.

 

One thing he did that I liked... after doing something that made me very unhappy... Anastasia commented how she never got to spend time with her friends anymore. The next scene, her friends get to come with her on a weekend getaway and she gets some good time with them. And somewhere in between, Ben & Jerry becomes the third party of a three-way. I'm not the type of girl who needs to get a pint to eat my feelings about things, but it will be a while before I get myself another pint :P

 

Theatrical Review: 50 Shades Darker

 

Date: Saturday February 11 2017

Time: 1:30pm

Party: 2 (my mom and I)

 

Director: James Foley (I looked it up and he is the same James Foley who almost directed purple rain- he turned it down and suggested Al Magnoli who went on to do an amazing job with it)

Writers: EL James (novel), Niall Leonard (screenplay) (fun fact: they're married! mind=blown)

Composer: Danny Elfman

 

Cast:

Anastasia Steele- Dakota Johnson

Christian Grey- Jamie Dornan

Jack Hyde- Eric Johnson

Elena Lincoln (aka Mrs. Robinson)- Kim Basinger

Leila- Bella Heathcote (Victora in Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows")

Elliot Grey- Luke Grimes

Mia Grey- Rita Ora

Taylor- Mark Martini

Jose- Victor Rasuk

Kate Kavanaugh- Eloise Mumford

Dr. Grace Gray- Marcia Gay Harden

 

Duration: 118 minutes (+3 trailers)

Write-up:

http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2015/03/theatrical-review-50-shades-of-grey.html

my review of the original movie for those who are interested... then maybe you'll get an idea of what kind of review is about to follow

Opening comments 

 

I still can't believe how excited I was about this movie and waited 2 years practically counting the days for it. It seriously has to be the guiltiest guilty pleasure ever for me. I should not like it as much as I do.

Of the books it was my favorite in the trilogy just because Christian wasn't as daunting and abusive although he still had his typical control freak moments.

The theater has way more people than the first one did. (A good metaphor for the crowd size: think of it like the mathelete championship in "Mean Girls"). At least 3 couples in their mid to late 20s maybe older. I said last time there was only 2 other people in the theater and they wouldn't have been there if they had anything better to do cuz they weren't terribly into it. [I think both days were particularly rainy ones].

 

The more I watched the movie and it was maybe 3-4 times since (still need to get the DVD back from my aunt- don't know if she even saw it yet- I'd seen it once or twice on HBO for the heck of it) I disliked Christian more. But I still liked it for some odd reason. And of course it gave me 2 great songs. "Love me like you do" especially. I'm using it in my latest figure skating montage. Not because I have those strong romantic feelings for the skater in question but because his skating fits the timing of the music so well- I couldn't not do it. (Hopefully will post it to YouTube soon).

Trailers 

It's kinda lame when they show the same trailers for movies a couple trips in a row. Saw "Julieta" (I tried to look it up online and couldn't find it... but I found out I was googling the wrong name... the lesbian relationship is the daughter and her friend and she's estranged with her mother because she's afraid her sexuality led to her father's death- like God was punishing her)..

Then "love and friendship"(which is based on a Jane Austen novel and looks like a fun thing to get on DVD for a rainy day- when/if it hits DVD it just said coming soon).

Then there was "Amityville Awakening"- why the hell do they have to keep making these movies? And why is this in 50 shades? Is this movie so genre-less and random that they don't know what to lump in with it?

Ok moving on...

 

The Main Event 

(I see a patten developing- I might keep doing that heading for my movie reviews).

 

So the movie picks up exactly where the book said it would- we have a Christian Grey flashback and we catch up with Anastasia Steele 5 days or so after she ran out of the red room. She's got her life together with a brand new job in the publishing industry. Things are good but she does seem kinda miserable at times- for only one conceivable (although not necessarily believable) reason. 

Christian shows up at her friend Jose's photography show and asks to "renegotiate terms." And much of the movie is about that. Anastasia and Christian figuring out their relationship and what they're willing to give the other.

Add in a few chance encounters with Mrs. Robinson, Anastasia's boss Jack Hyde and Christian's ex submissive Leila stalking her and just about anything can happen.

Book to Movie Adaptation I'll add this in briefly (I actually wrote most of this post on my iPhone because I didn't want to be stuck behind a computer screen yesterday).
Again, another really good book-to-movie adaptation. But anything that erases Anastasia's "inner goddess" monologue is a huge plus in my book (I think this was the book that combined gymnastics and figure skating terms in one metaphor... just no!).
The storyline follows just about the same way. But obviously there's a scene or two that Anastasia isn't physically in that helps bring more to the story. One of which I was very skeptical about in the book and seeing the visual made me believe it actually happened.

Then after posting this, I forgot a couple things I wanted to address.
First, there's a certain sex toy that comes into play in the movie. One that Anastasia was a fan of... but the discrepancy is that in the movie, she was seeing them for the first time. Whereas in the books, they were first introduced to her in the first book and they make a comeback going to the masquerade ball and she's eager to use them again. [A couple silver balls connected by a chain that- to quote the movie- "don't go up your butt"].

And at the final scene where there's another huge party (this time for Christian's birthday), Kate somehow finds the original contract about Christian's "master & servant" arrangement and Anastasia talks her out of confronting him about it.
That was actually a great touch in the book because it seems like Christian has so much control over Anastasia, isolating her from everyone else in her life. And he was finally going to be held accountable. In the movie, Kate and Elliot spent most of the time away on vacation and communicating via Skype. Almost like Christian had Elliot frisk Kate away on this trip so he could have time alone with Anastasia to get her back... but he left out the part that she broke up with him.
Yeah, that second party was already crazy enough with that all-too brief Mrs. Robinson/Dr. Gray cat fight. [Also kinda funny in an odd way how Kate is so fixated on Anastasia losing her virginity in the first movie yet here she's only concerned that she's happy]

Other commentary

For starters the movie was better than the first one. There's the same amount of sex scenes (counting the ones fully fleshed out- yeah that innuendo was impossible to avoid- if you add the scenes where they're making out and in the next they're in bed covered up with blankets then it's twice the amount of the original). 

I mean I'm still a virgin and nothing has really changed between this movie and the last one from a maturity perspective. But at the same time- the sex scenes were very vanilla for the most part- so they weren't as intimidating as the last movie- but they were actually kinda boring because the first two were in the same position. Going from that perspective alone though just talking sex- the one masquerade ball was the hottest. (It boggles my mind how people can go somewhere during a party, hook up and return to the party. It seems exhausting. I wouldn't have the confidence, let alone the stamina for that).

 

Sex aside... I spent the first 10 minutes of the movie on edge about Christian coming back into Anastasia's life and if she'd be able to handle him. The first few times they were alone together I'm thinking "don't have sex with him"- because that would be okaying him to have his way with her again and just erasing her free will cuz she can't help herself around him. But I give her credit for not compromising right away and even though she did give him some free passes, she at least made him work for it. She also had some good burns on him. One went like "you can't use sex to solve this" (got a laugh from the audience- cuz that's kinda their relationship) and after he tried to take her the same salon he took all his past submissives to and he tried to explain how she's different than the others she says something "yeah I'm so special you tried to take me to the same salon as your other submissives."

As for the other characters, they certainly made things interesting. Like Mrs. Robinson- she's so cordial with everyone else but when she's alone with Anastasia she's such a bitch- putting the idea in her head that she can't give him everything he needs and she isn't good enough. Easy to say for someone who took advantage of him as a teenager and turned him into the sex freak he became. (Yeah it is kinda impossible to review this movie without taking about sex- even in general terms cuz it is the plot and character development).

I cheered at the end of the movie when Christian's mom bitch slapped her when she overhears a certain conversation.

Taking a moment aside from the new characters it was great seeing more of Marcia Gay Harden in this. Since the release of the first movie, "Code Black" has kinda made her a fixture in our house and it brought a sense of comfort. Especially during a scene late in the movie where there's a family crisis.

Rita Ora also gets a little extra screen time as Mia. But I didn't really feel a connection to her cuz the blonde hair was such a random aesthetic change. She was at the masquerade ball and I thought she was Anastasia's friend Kate. Same exact hairstyle. She's not nearly as fun to be around as Alice (the "Twilight" character she's supposedly based on).

Jack Hyde I liked at first. Seemed like a good guy who was very open to Anastasia's opinions. But when he finds about her and Christian, it gets intense. Anastasia taking care of him was another "hell yeah" moment but a bunch of us just said "oh!!" when she did what she did. (Nothing excessive- just enough to get away- in the book she said her mom's 2nd husband taught her special defense... maybe moves she should have maybe used on Christian but won't).

Then Leila- her storyline was just sad and kinda intense- how it all is developed and resolves. I just found it weird we see her stalking for several moments early in the movie and she disappears until we completely forget about her and there's a dramatic confrontation.

My opinion on Jamie Doran hasn't really changed. I'm less intimidated but I'm still not head over heels. With Christian Grey, it's kinda hard to be. (There's a moment coming up in the last movie that I'm not looking forward to because in the book he was so loathsome I wanted to beat the shit out of him).

Dakota Johnson is still great. If she wasn't, I wouldn't be as engaged in these movies as I am. I go through the events of the plot through her. Although once or twice there was slight disconnect. There was one point in the movie I was actually bored but it lasted all of 10 seconds. (And no- it wasn't a sex scene that fixed that- I think it came either before the confrontation or the crisis).

Music and directing

It was a little grittier at points with the change in directing, but it wasn't distinct enough for me to say much more with this script. (If "Purple Rain" had him directing with Vanity still playing the love interest- it'd be a little more intense. It'd be interesting if both versions of that movie actually existed so I could compare them- but I also hadn't watched the one and only version since Prince died so it's a moot point). 

Danny Elfman did the score but it's kinda hard to pick that out when it's not in a Tim Burton movie.

I'm doing the music subheading because of the Zayn/Taylor Swift duet that's been on the radio for a month. It appears in the scene where Anastasia and Christian are on the sailboat. And also the end credits. I didn't really love the song but it grew me when I found it at home- the movie it was created for. It was because of it that I saw a post credits preview of the next movie- which will be out next year. I heard they were filmed back to back but didn't think it'd be that soon. I had to wait 2 years for this one. And it was definitely worth the wait.

Grade: A-

(I had an A yesterday on my iPhone and changed it to A-. I thought a bit about how one or two moments were unintentionally funny and a movie like this, you can't really rate too high. But dammit, we had fun with it for what it was. I gave the original a B+.)

 

Theatrical Review: 50 Shades of Grey

Date: Sunday, March 8 2015
Time: 1:30 pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 2 (my mom & I)

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Type: R-rated book-to-movie erotic romance
Based on E.L. James's best selling novel

Duration: 120 minutes (+3 previews)

Cast:
Anastasia Steele- Dakota Johnson
Christian Grey- Jamie Dornan
Kate- Eloise Mumford
Jose- Victor Rasuk
Taylor- Max Martini
Mrs. Grey- Marcia Gay Harden
Eliot Grey- Luke Grimes
Mia Grey- Rita Ora

Opening comments and trailers:

It was a very quiet day at the theater. There was only one other couple in the theater with us. If I had to guess, they were in their 50's and likely had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon. Clearly, this was the best option they had and judging from the occasional yawns and audible eye rolls, they'd have done anything else if they had the option.

Interestingly, all three trailers were for R-rated movies.

1- a kind of a goofy teaser trailer for "Magic Mike: XXL" with Channing Tatum being Channing Tatum...
the first movie was a letdown for me once they introduced an actual plot (the idiot newbie played by Alex Pettyfer got involved in buying & selling drugs, putting the other characters at risk of losing their livelihood).

2- "True Story" starring Jonah Hill and James Franco in decidedly different roles. The former is a journalist recently released from Time magazine and the latter is a murderer he gets entangled with.

I suppose the trailer was put together just before this Oscar season. They made sure to note both of the men were Oscar nominees, but said nothing about Felicity Jones's accolades for "The Theory of Everything."

3- "Train Wreck"- the trailer hilariously begins with a flashback of a father telling two daughters "monogamy is a lie"... enter our female lead who has issues with commitment and falls in love with Bill Hader.
According to IMDB, Amy Schumer wrote and stars in this. The two of us had a bunch of crack-up moments through the course of the trailer. Like with "True Story," it feels oddly promising. (Compared to, say, Will Smith's new movie where you knew from the get-go that it wasn't going to succeed).

Comments on the book:
Spoilers from this point forward
I read the book back in October in three days. By the time I reached the ending, I said to myself flat-out that I wouldn't read the rest of the series or see the movie.
And it would seem after seeing the movie (transgression #1) that I'm about to go back on my word and commit transgression #2.

I'll come clean right away in saying I have the same level of sexual experience Anastasia had at the beginning of the novel... which is zero. I may have said in previous entries that I don't mind sexual content in film as long as it brings something to the plot.
Throughout the book, it got a little hectic after a while. Maybe a little too repetitive. I'll admit a lot of it is badly written. But my offense doesn't lie with the sexual content so much as Christian Grey himself. Of course, at the beginning, the tension and attraction was there. But when his true nature came out, being a stalker and being way too into this particular lifestyle... I told myself repeatedly no matter who the guy was, I wouldn't allow myself to be in that situation. Certainly not a relationship that's just about sex... going by the number of sex scenes in the book alone... again, repetitive and trying conceptualize it... it sounds exhausting.

So anyway... yeah, I thought Christian was too controlling. There were points where I was very upset with him, wanted to beat the crap out of him or just plain run in the other direction.

What I will say, though... the movie was actually better than the book.

Story:

Most people already kinda know the story, so I'll just give a summary to save time.

Anastasia Steele is a naïve, sexually inexperienced soon-to-be college graduate. She goes in her roommate's place to interview billionaire Christian Grey for the school newspaper. He's giving a speech at commencement.
After doing the interview, the two of them run into each other a couple times and Christian asks Anastasia to enter into a relationship with him. But not your typical kind of relationship. 

*Cue Depeche Mode*
Let's play Master and Servant

He conducts his S&M relationships as a Dominant with his partner being a Submissive. Involving a lot of bondage, flagellation and [lack of a better word] sex toys (none of which are seen in the movie, but used once in the book).

At several points, Anastasia finds herself at odds with Christian. Attracted to him, but intimidated by the way he conducts himself in his private quarters. And, of no fault of her own, she falls in love with him... which makes things all the more complicated.

Characters and Actors:

I'd already gotten a good look at Dakota Johnson from the trailers, so she was exactly how I pictured Anastasia in my head. Nobody could have done this role better than her. She was very mousy and unconfident to begin with. Most of her interview with Christian emphasizes this. There's a definite chemistry between the two actors where I felt the air went out of the room. It was so intense.
But as time goes on, and the relationship progresses, I became more impressed with her. Dakota Johnson pushes this character's boundaries, making her stronger in this relationship than I felt while reading Anastasia's monologue in the book. She does her best to make the best of the situation, but ultimately hits her limit with Christian.

As for Jamie Dornan, he's gotten a lot of flack from the reviewers. Firstly for him being another Brit turned American and secondly with him not being able to fake his way through badly written material.
I'm going to take the opposite side of the argument and say that he did Christian better justice than the book even did. Did I find him intimidating as this character? Yes. But he felt... safer... I guess you could say. Less threatening. Getting to physically read his expressions and seeing how he conducts himself, Christian didn't have me screaming for Anastasia to run in the opposite direction as if he was a serial killer or a conventional vampire.

Translation- Book to Movie:

I almost hate to say it, but it was a better book-to-movie adaptation than "Twilight." I'm a huge Twi-hard to begin with, so trust me, I know what I'm talking about.

Both actors did their roles perfectly. Jamie Dornan certainly had a better American accent than Robert Pattinson (he's good looking on the outside, but the attraction sometimes has trouble carrying over because he doesn't have the accent).
A lot of Bella's sass and individuality in the book was lost in the translation from book to movie. To the point where I wish I could have played her instead... Kristen Stewart only really fit the role for me in "New Moon" and in "Breaking Dawn: Part 2" after she becomes a vampire.
The fact that Anastasia tries so hard as she does throughout the movie to change Christian to fit her ideal notion of a relationship... I find that admirable. It's just too bad it didn't work that way.

Overall, the movie followed the book exactly and cut corners where they needed to be cut for the sake of pacing and pushing the envelope.

Sex Scenes:

Unlike in the book, where sex was happening in almost every chapter (after the whole introduction to the "red room of pain"), we didn't have our first sex scene until maybe the first 45 minutes... the book was maybe 100 pages before Anastasia went down the rabbit hole (I find it funny that Christian put "eat me" and "drink me" next to pills and juice to cure her hangover... clearly, the allusion was there).

The sex scenes were delegated to four scenes:
1- for the first time in his life, Christian goes "vanilla" so Anastasia can lose her virginity... of the four scenes, it was easily the steamiest...
2- wrist bondage, blindfolded anal sex that lasts maybe 10 seconds after a tantalizing minute-long set-up
3- a montage with various methods of bondage and whipping
4- blindfolded, bondage at hands and feet, flagellation in slow motion

Montages get a lot of grief in reality singing competitions in "The Voice" and "American Idol," but this was a perfect use of one. It cuts down on repetition, helped the story progress, and it toned down the overall content.
The slow-motion, on the other hand, I found that a little too clichéd.

Those with far more experience than myself have written online and in reviews that the sex scenes [book and movie] are more awkward than erotic. I'll give them that in the book with the inner monologue and such.
Personally, I found the content in the book more steamy and bothersome (covering both ends of the spectrum). In the movie, it didn't bother me quite as much. It was planned more delicately to give more time over to character development. The nudity was kept to butts and frontal above the waist. And overall, it didn't last long enough for awkwardness to really set in.
According to IMDB, the sex only took 14+ minutes of the two-hour scene time.
[Comparatively, "Bel Ami" with Robert Pattinson had an influx of sex scenes, most with no real bearing on the plot- other than showing he's a womanizer- all very steamy, but to the point where the awkwardness overstayed its welcome]

Additional Comments:

The scene where Anastasia drunk-calls Christian is freaking hilarious!
I also liked the "business meeting" scene where she and Christian are meticulously going through items on the contract and negotiating. She was very professional about it and he seemed to respect that.
My favorite scene overall... where I actually got teary-eyed... was the helicopter scene. I can thank Ellie Goulding's "Love Me Like You do" for that. It was such a beautiful track. But it was also at the point of the movie where I was getting swept up in the romance and knew we were only moments away from it getting to the nasty... and I didn't want to it. Because I was afraid I'd lose faith in the movie overall. I was really enjoying myself by that point. I enjoyed spending time with the characters and they were getting developed really well.

There was never really a point where I did lose faith in the movie or in its ability to entertain me. There was however one moment where I was counting down the major scenes we had left because my attention span was beginning to lose traction. That lapse lasted maybe for a minute.

I was getting so invested in this relationship that I hated to see it end. The final five minutes had me wanting to cry, with her eyes being full of tears, but I never reached that threshold. Based on the expression in his eyes, part of me really wanted to believe he'd changed his mind about his self-conduct.
Ultimately, the ending mirrored how they parted ways after their introductory interview scene- her getting on the elevator and both speaking each other's first name. I knew it would be abrupt after reading the book, but I wished there was just another minute to give some kind of closure.

I guess that means I'll have to read the rest of the series... I may have my misgivings about it, but I do have this thing about closure...

Grade: B+[I didn't find the script as badly written as most reviewers, but it still had some weak points. But clearly I am part of the target demographic because my interest was held almost the entire time and I enjoyed it... certainly more than "Mortdecai"]