Director Michael Tiddes
Genre Comedy
Cast Marlon Wayans, Kali Hawk, Fred Willard, Mike Epps
Rating R
Release Date January 29th, 2016
“An inexperienced college student meets a wealthy businessman whose sexual practices put a strain on their relationship.”
Marlon Wayans is very much the “what you see is what you get” type of actor. Every now and again he will pop up in a film or T.V. show episode in a serious role and catch you off guard, but for the most part he plays the goofy guy in a Wayans brothers spoof movie. Scary Movie, White Chicks, Little Man, Dance Flick, Haunted House, and mixed in for good measure a serious role in G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Surprisingly, he wasn’t in Date Movie, Epic Movie or the numerous other spoof movies but they are all pretty much the same. Director Michael Tiddes also directed Haunted House 1 & 2 so I guess he figured why not put Marlon Wayans back on the big screen in the Fifty Shades of Grey spoof film, Fifty Shades of Black.
True to the spoof films that came before it, Fifty Shades of Black makes a mockery of the book turned feature film. It makes a point to mock other films, most notably Magic Mike, and actors/actresses by way of verbal jabs throughout the hour and a half runtime. Fifty Shades of Black offers the audience an abundance of raunchy and overly goofy humor as well as an endless supply of racial stereotyping (primarily self-inflicted interestingly enough).
I must admit the writing was creative, especially considering the style of film and I enjoyed the jabs at celebrities and current pop culture in general (of course Trump’s name had to be mentioned at least once). The acting was pretty good and I thought Marlon Wayans and Kali Hawk had solid chemistry. It was also nice to see Mike Epps in a movie again, even if it was only for a few minutes (can someone please give this guy a job?!). I guess I will just watch All About the Benjamins a few more times. I feel like the need to fill every second of the film with a funny act took away from the ability to properly land some of the funnier, better written jokes.
Fifty Shades of Black was exactly the film I expected it to be, which I would consider “meh” personally but some people with a different sense of humor might really enjoy it. It appeals more to the over-the-top Naked Gun brand of humor (although less original of course) and fans of the Wayans films will appreciate the newest entry. If you are familiar with the films that they are making fun of, you will obviously get more of the jokes.
Fifty Shades of Black is not a terrible film, I mean it really is what it is, no more and no less. I will admit that I did have some good laughs but overall this style of filmmaking gets old for me. I just prefer more of a buffer to break up the slapstick brand of humor, or at least some cameos along the way. A few of the jokes that didn’t quite resonate with me in the theater were able to get a delayed chuckle while writing this review, for what it’s worth.
