Fifty Shades of Grey Review

So, I have a confession to make. This past Valentine’s Day, I saw Fifty Shades of Grey with Julia, numerous groups of women, and elderly couples.

Reviews for this movie were awful, with a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.1 out of 10 on IMDB. Reviewers even said that there wasn’t a lot of sex in the movie, which is odd for a movie that is, for all intents and purposes, a movie about sex. Needless to say, I walked into this movie with very low expectations, and perhaps that benefited the movie.

Fifty Shades is not a good movie, but it is not the garbage that many people said it was. It’s mediocre. For starters, there is more “sex” than reviewers let on. The lead actress, Dakota Johnson, is shown nude for a large portion of the movie, and her counterpart, Jamie Dornan, is shirtless for a large portion as well. As for actual sexual acts? Well, there’s not as much as fans or curious viewers were probably hoping for. The earlier sex scenes, are treated with more care, and are a little more fleshed out. Once the BDSM aspect is brought into the mix, however, the scenes become more rushed. It’s as if the director just threw those scenes into the movie just for the sake of staying true to the source material.

Julia’s read the trilogy and had this to say:

All around, it’s what you’d expect if you’ve read the books. We all knew there couldn’t possibly be as much graphic detail as in the books for it to premier as an R rated movie, but it does a good job of capturing the spirit of their relationship. Considering how this story was modeled after Twilight, I was worried the main character, Anna, would be the same plain and ordinary type as Bella in order for you to imagine yourself in her place, but that wasn’t the case. Dakota Johnson was fantastic, and Anna’s personality and development was my favorite part of the movie. Jamie Dornan wasn’t enirely what I expected, but Christian Grey is a lot to live up to. This interview he did with Jimmie Fallon was hilarious if you haven’t seen it.

Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele was by far the highlight of the movie, but I admit it took me a little bit to determine whether she was talented or not. In the end, I concluded that she is actually pretty talented, and did a great job portraying a women who transforms from a shy, nerdy girl, into a confident and empowering young woman.

Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey, on the other hand, didn’t really bring anything game changing to the table, and I feel like they could’ve casted any guy with abs to play his role.

The movie looks great visually, as every scene and environment pops off the screen and has a great clean, crisp feel to it.

The soundtrack is also a highlight of the movie, headlined by artists like Ellie Goulding, Beyonce, and The Weekend.

The biggest problem with this movie is the boring story. Most people will see this movie for the sex, but people who are going in the hopes of finding a compelling, thought-provoking story will be very disappointed. Not once did I feel an attachment to the story, or any of the characters in it.

Also, the ending was poorly done, and was just another cliched cliffhanger that is, for some reason, required for the first movie of an inevitable trilogy.

2/5 grey, but somewhat juicy apples.

The Giver Review

 

This year has been the year of the novel to film adaptation. Some have been successful (Fault in our Stars), others not so successful (Divergent).

The trend continues with The Giver, a children’s novel written in 1993 by Lois Lowry. As was with a lot of other kids, I read this novel back in 5th grade, and I was a fan of it.

However, the film adaptation was not nearly as interesting as I remember the book being.

The premise is simple; A community of people exist in a utopian society where the idea of “sameness” is enforced so that there is no jealousy or conflict. Injections that each person is required to take every morning makes sure they stay emotionless, and everyone is assigned a job instead of choosing one they want. Jonas, the novel and film’s protagonist, is assigned a job as the “receiver of memory.” This means that he is able to receive memories from the past from the man known as The Giver. As Jonas learns more and more about the past and what his society is missing, he becomes conflicted, and wants things to go back to the way they were in the memories.

The film is directed by Phillip Noyce, and stars Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, and a bunch of uninteresting characters.

Apparently, Bridges has been trying to get this film made for the past 20 years, and his performance shows it. He is the real standout, as his character of The Giver is far and away the most interesting person on screen.

The usually great Streep does what she can with the material she’s given, but she was surprisingly uninteresting. I actually found Thwaites’ character of Jonas to be more interesting than Streep’s, a rare accomplishment indeed.

Besides those three characters, the film has nothing left to offer in the form of characters. Thwaites’ love interest is easy on the eyes, but she is dull overall. The same goes for Thwaites’ friend, Asher. However, I can’t blame the actors really, as they were probably directed to act dull since they’re supposed to be emotionless. Perhaps they could have acted a little less dull? Anyway, having so many characters like that can work in a book, but not a movie.

The biggest problem besides the dull characters was that the film felt rushed, and as a result, the ideas in it aren’t as fleshed out as they were in the book. There’s some heavy material in this movie. Imagine a society that has never experienced pain, loss, love, and true joy? These are ideas that could have made this movie great if they were fleshed out just a little bit more.

Bridges’ performance as The Giver saves this film from being a total train wreck, but the abundance of dull story telling and characters comes back to bite another novel-to-film adaptation in the ass.

So how do you like them apples? These apples brought me back to my childhood, but they left a a sour taste in my mouth. There were good bites here and there, but overall they tasted pretty dull.

2/5 dull and sour apples 

 

2 heartstring favs for the 90s dad, Robin Williams

For my next fav, I’m gonna have to showcase one of my most beloved fatherly actors, Robin Williams.

Oh captain my captain…

He had both a comical and charming side — he was the Genie, and a Tarzan, the psychiatrist who cared, and the father who just loved his children.

First up:

Mrs. Doubtfire

This movie is a testimonial to the spectrum of feels you could have for a dad just trying to connect with his post-divorced family.

Robin Williams knows how to target children with his epic sound effects and hilarious laughter. His character is bashful and entirely himself.

I love the bizarre quality his hair dresser, Harvey Feirstein, plays in bringing out an awkward but accepting spirit when the character, Daniel Hillard, becomes Mrs. Doubtfire.

No matter how weird Mrs. Doubtfire got, you understood him as if you were his child, and your love for him completely shadowed his flaws.

Also, what happened to this girl, Mara Wilson? She rocked in Matilda, and their father/daughter relationship had serious good chemistry.

 

And for the second heartstring, Ryan has some words:

Good Will Hunting

Robin Williams was a comedic genius undoubtedly, and his comedic roles, especially as the voice of Genie from Aladdin will always be near and dear to me. However, I was a huge fan of his dramatic work as well, and my favorite all-time role of his was Sean Maguire from Good Will Hunting.

As a down-to-earth therapist who tries desperately to bring out the best in Matt Damon’s underachieving character Will Hunting, Williams made the role of Sean Maguire his own, and it earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

There are many scenes throughout the movie where Williams showcases his talent as a dramatic actor, but no scene encapsulates him more than the famous “park bench scene.”

It is one of, if not the best scene from the movie, and you learn everything you need to know about Williams’ character in only four minutes.

Sure his comedy was great, but in my opinion, this was Williams at his best. RIP to some truly great talent.

He was able to embrace curiosities in his acting, whether it was cross-dressing or fighting a lion. He still exists in my childhood, my dvds, and movie history forever.

I’d like to plant an apple tree for this man to share with generations to come.