THE cinema’s fetish for kinkiness – in the latest offering sadomasochism – has swelled the pockets of countless thousands within the industry. To prove a point, Fifty Shades of Grey, which opens this weekend, had advance ticket sales of almost three million across 35 markets, inside one week.
While on the subject, there is another film about sadomasochism winging its way here, this time The Duke of Burgundy, from British director, Peter Strickland. It’s about a woman who studies butterflies and moths and tests the limits of her relationship with her lover, both living in a large house on the edge of a forest.
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, an adaptation of the first book in the trilogy of erotic novels by E.I. James, and in which a virginal student journalist, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), is debauched by a rich businessman (James Dornan), with a hankering for S&M, is directed by Sam Taylor Johnson.
Universal Studios took the decision to not show the film in advance to critics or journalists, having gambled that early reviews might hinder the already brisk advance ticket sales.
Interestingly, each cast member had five days in which to learn their lines, and on the basis that ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is destined to focus in the main on explicit content, they are hardly likely to have been pushed to the limits in having to read over the script.
^ IT has been difficult to come by a really good comedy of late, and while the latest in the genre, The Wedding Ringer, might have that ring of appeal about it for some, sadly, it fails to get off the ground.
Yes, there is good chemistry between the two principals Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, but the humour is, to say the least, rather silly.
The socially impaired Doug Harris (Gad) is about to marry a woman above his station in life but the problem is he doesn’t have a single friend to enlist into his wedding party. That is until he crosses paths with Jimmy Callahan (Hart), head of Best Man Inc. Callahan provides not just the service of being best man, but enlists an assortment of low-lifers to act as groomsmen.
One saving grace in the film is an entertaining to watch extended dance sequence. Yes, there are the customary disaster scenes and a bizarre football game played in mud.
^ YET another time-travel film this week in the ambitious Project Almanac.
When searching for a project idea in order to participate in a sponsorship opportunity, David Raskin (Jonny Weston) comes across clues that lead to a secret compartment in his late father’s basement. He enlists the help of a group of his friends – including one particular girl he has had his eyes on at his school for quite some time, and she become a part of this time travelling group, providing a romantic interest.
But as the future falls apart with disasters, and each of them disappear little by little, they must travel back to the past to make sure they never invent the machine or face the destruction of humanity.
