'From its dominant top to its submissive bottom, it’s utterly ridiculous': Audience laughs at 'Fifty Shades Darker' screening with critics panning the kinky romance flick
- A Wednesday preview of the 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' sequel elicited howls
- Bad reviews abound, panning the BDSM-themed flick as campy and boring
- Yet the original, also panned by critics, grossed $571 million worldwide
- One rare positive review praises sequel as 'the trash masterpiece we deserve'
Critics are lining up to deliver a swift caning to the backside of 'Fifty Shades Darker', the second film in the BDSM-themed trilogy based on the popular novels.
This installment, adapted for the screen by the author E.L. James' husband Niall Leonard, picks up with lovers Anastasia and Christian after their falling out in the billionaire's Red Room sex dungeon, where the soul-tortured sadist had delivered a lashing a bit too rough for Anastasia's tastes.
Now the tables are turned on the wealthy Christian, who comes crawling back to Anastasia, swearing he'll forsake his beloved BDSM to be by her side once again.
Further details emerge of Christian's abused childhood, the cringe-worthy rationale for his kinky preferences in the bedroom and creepy behavior outside it, and further subplots revolve on a former submissive of his and Anastasia's lecherous new boss.
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![Critics are panning the second installment in the 'Fifty Shades' trilogy](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209215840/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/09/20/3D050FA400000578-4209478-image-a-12_1486673607046.jpg)
Critics are panning the second installment in the 'Fifty Shades' trilogy
But those plot threads are 'thrown aside in frustratingly quick fashion', writes USA Today's Brian Truitt.
'The erotic lite sequel somehow manages to be worse than the stupefyingly bad 'Fifty Shades Of Grey,' he fumes.
Director James Foley took the reigns for the second installment, replacing director Sam Taylor-Johnson from the 2015 original.
A Wednesday preview screening of the new film, set to open Friday for Valentine's Day weekend, drew 'a lot of snickering,' according to The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore.
'Both leads are attractive and look good without clothes,' writes DeFore. 'But the roteness of their bulge-flexing intimacies is such that when, near the film's end, the movie showed off Mr. Dornan's physique in a gym scene, women at Wednesday's preview screening were openly laughing at the contrivance.'
![Character Christian's incessant muscle flexing drew open laughter at Wednesday's screening](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209215840/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/09/20/3D050FB400000578-4209478-image-m-11_1486673518693.jpg)
Character Christian's incessant muscle flexing drew open laughter at Wednesday's screening
Other critics piled on. 'For a movie about bondage, the stars seem strangely disconnected,' Stephen Whitty penned for the Newark Star-Ledger. 'In fact there's little danger, heat or passion in this film at all. It's 50 shades of beige.'
'A movie only a masochist could love,' writes Matt Singer for ScreenCrush. 'What little plot there is resolves quickly and easily, but then the film keeps going, until you begin to understand what it feels like to be punished by a self-described sadist like Christian Grey.'
!['Fifty Shades Darker' stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan attend the UK premiere](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209215840/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/09/20/3D05172A00000578-4209478-image-a-14_1486673781543.jpg)
'Fifty Shades Darker' stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan attend the UK premiere
'From its dominant top to its submissive bottom, it’s utterly ridiculous,' writes Newsday's Rafer Guzman.
'Say this for screenwriter Niall Leonard: He brings his wife’s ear-stabbing prose faithfully to the screen. "I don’t know whether to worship at your feet," Christian says breathily, “or spank you.”'
The positive reviews sound hardly different from the vicious take-downs, but find more to love in the film's inherent cheesiness.
'Consider this film as a ticket to two hours of blessedly brainless escapism,' writes Mara Reinstein for US Weekly.
'The sequel works because its creators didn’t set out to make camp; they were simply true to the source material, with few airs about making great art,' concurs Vanity Fair's Jordan Hoffman.
'It’s the silly, good-natured trash masterpiece we deserve right now.'
- Fifty Shades Darker Review: It¿s an Utter Delight | Vanity Fair
- 'Fifty Shades Darker' Review | Hollywood Reporter
- Review: 'Fifty Shades Darker' takes a turn for the worst
- 'Fifty Shades Darker' review: For masochists only | NJ.com
- ¿Fifty Shades Darker¿ review: So awful, you¿ll whip yourself for seeing it | Newsday
- 50 Reasons Why 'Fifty Shades Darker' Is Ridiculous: Review - Us Weekly
- ¿Fifty Shades Darker¿ Review: A Movie Only a Masochist Could Love
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