We’re rounding out the first round of matches in the Best Worst Picture Bracket Game. I’m still not entirely sure what it means to be the best Worst Picture winner, but I guess we’ll find out when the winner is crowned. As we go into the weekend, we’re matching up two movies based on books every woman I know over 30 has read. Probably more than once.
We had another close match yesterday. The winner in our twin-themed bracket was determined by a single vote. That one vote put I Know Who Killed Me into the next round vanquishing both Jack and Jill from the contest. That means Lindsay Lohan’s bizarre entry in the torture porn genre will face off against the winner of today’s bracket in round two.
Both of today’s movies are adaptations of wildly popular books. Literary critics were dismissive of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series of young adult novels. But they found E. L. James’ Fifty Shades books even more offensive. The two series have a connection in that James originally wrote Fifty Shades as Twilight fan fiction. The author was frustrated with the lack of hardcore vampire sex in a series of books aimed at tween girls but read and obsessed over by their moms. So she set out to rectify the situation with her own erotica.
Seeing as how the popular novels failed to win over critics, it’s no surprise the big screen adaptations weren’t critical darlings. Also no surprise that fans of the book didn’t give a hoot about the reviews. While most critics panned Twilight and Fifty Shades, they generally acknowledged that the movies improved on the source material.
The Razzies had spent years poking at the Twilight movies without actually giving them any awards. In 2013, that changed when the final movie in the series, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, won seven awards out of eleven nominations. Those awards included: Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Screen Couple, Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, Worst Director and Worst Screen Ensemble.
We haven’t actually covered the 2015 Razzies yet, but the big winner was Fifty Shades of Grey. It received a total of six nominations along with Jupiter Ascending, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Pixels. As you can see, the Razzies spread the love. In fact, Fifty Shades shared its Worst Picture Award with Fantastic Four in one of those ties it loves so much.
Since we’re going to be talking about the 2015 Razzies next week, I’ll cut this one short. Don’t want to spoil things too much.
Which popular literary adaptation do you want to see take on I Know Who Killed Me in the next round?
I voted for 50 Shades of Grey because it is actually a dangerously inaccurate depiction of BDSM and related sexual proclivities. Vampires, on the other hand, are fictional, so the only danger in Twilight is developing bad taste in movies, which is a problem 50 Shades also shares.
I would like to think that an actual vampire might watch Twilight and think, “We sparkle?” Inspired by the movie, he reluctantly exposes himself to sunlight and burns to a crisp.
Thank you Stephenie Meyer.
Obviously, I am mostly voting for the movies that I am assuming are the worse of the two.
I guessed as much. I’m not sure 50 Shades is the lesser evil here. Twilight has that creepy CGI baby. Sheesh! That thing gave me nightmares. And if anyone starts allowing their daughters to be imprinted upon, I shudder at the implications.
Good point. I guess I still think that people are more likely to model 50 Shades in a dangerous way than they are to do the same because of that relationship in Twilight.
Understand that while I have seen bits and pieces of Twilight, I haven’t watched more than the trailer for 50 Shades. From what I hear, the movie toned down the content from the book and added some humor. The director wanted to depart from the source material more than she did, but she fought with the author and lost. Which is part of why the sequel was delayed and will be directed by someone else. A certain someone who lives in my house has read the book I don’t know how many times. It’s on her Kindle and there was… Read more »
I think both are pretty problematic in their own ways. Full disclosure: I’ve never watched the movies, but I work in a library, so I feel duty-bound to familiarize myself with any new book that is a big hit with our patrons. (I also almost always regret having done so.) Therefore, I tried to read both Twilight and Fifty Shades. I didn’t get very far with either one, though. Granted, I’m not a big romance fan, anyway, but I thought both were were badly written but also had some disturbing messages about relationships. The imprinting in the Twilight books really… Read more »
The Meanest Lines From the Fifty Shades Darker Reviews
http://www.vulture.com/2017/02/the-meanest-lines-from-the-fifty-shades-darker-reviews.html
“Has there ever been a film in which the hero has so much sex without properly taking off his trousers?”
Marcia Gay Harden says she’s ‘game’ to do another #FiftyShades movie http://peoplem.ag/h70JqqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9IIGqwFPzQ
I’ve read the simple description of the “Fifty Shades” saga of them being tawdry harlequin romance novels if written by a 14 year old (in this case, E.L. James), who has no real experience or context of BDSM.
Episode #246 – 50 Shades Darker LIVE
https://www.flophousepodcast.com/2017/12/episode-246-50-shades-darker-live/
We reached into the vault to finally release this gem from back in the summer, the first and only time we’ve had an extra guest at a live show, the always lovable Hallie Haglund. And what better thing for three gross dudes to discuss with a woman than 50 Shades Darker?
@50shadesabuse
The original campaign to raise awareness that the 50 Shades of Grey series romanticises domestic abuse. Tweets by Natalie Collins & Emma Tofi.
http://50shadesisdomesticabuse.webs.com/
If you want to know how messed up “Fifty Shades of Grey” is watch the three videos by the YouTuber known as “The Dom”. He goes into some detail towards why EL James should really seek professional help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGfW3saxM6E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze9iikBabns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nxAAu79oGk
I have no interest in viewing the “Twilight” series or what is and what becomes of “Fifty Shades of Grey”, but I voted for “Fifty Shades of Grey” simply because I’ve a least spent some time thinking about the book and the first film (too bad that it gets that key element of BDSM wrong though, which is a point Daffy brought up and one of the major complaints I have heard from other sources as well. When the key element of a story is mishandled, that’s never good).
Incidentally, Kim Basinger’s daughter, Ireland managed to “suck her into” both franchises!
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actress-kim-basinger-and-daughter-ireland-baldwin-arrive-at-news-photo/83753626
Kim Basinger’s daughter convinced her to take on raunchy role
http://yeah.buzzlie.com/kim-basingers-daughter-convinced-her-to-take-on-raunchy-role/
A Tribute to Fifty Shades Darker’s Unexpected Riddick Shout-out http://www.vulture.com/2017/02/fifty-shades-darker-has-a-random-vin-diesel-shout-out.html?mid=twitter_vulture And then there’s the amazingly campy scene where many of the movie’s stars line up to ritualistically humiliate Kim Basinger, which features Dakota Johnson throwing her cocktail in Kim’s face (including the lemon rind!), Jamie Dornan insulting her sexually, and Marcia Gay Harden striding into the scene out of nowhere to slap Kim Basinger upside her wet head. The fact that Kim responds to this triple whammy of shame by defiantly dropping her napkin as though she were dropping a mic is merely the cherry on top of this movie’s… Read more »
http://forums.boxofficetheory.com/topic/17757-fifty-shades-darker-february-10th-2017-first-trailer-on-page-13/?do=findComment&comment=2862603
Kim Basinger should definitely get the Razzie. She was the worst thing about it.
Rita Ora a close second.
Do you think Kim Basinger was not the best for Elena? https://moviechat.org/tt4465564/Fifty-Shades-Darker/58c82e1b2214d80b5c067aa0/Do-you-think-Kim-Basinger-was-not-the-best-for-Elena?page=2 [–] marisanz 5 months ago Kim Basinger used to be a very sexy and pretty lady, but I watched a brief scene of her in the trailer and I thought she looked weird, like if she had a problem with botox or something..Her face looked really weird, I did not like it.. I don’t think she matches for the role, maybe 10 years before, but now she looks tired and bored, at least in that scene she did not look good considering she was a sex bomb.. I… Read more »
https://www.facebook.com/50shadesabuse/posts/507769892736756?comment_id=507773209403091&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R0%22%7D
Elena, the grown woman who seduced one of her son’s teenage friends(15) whom she knew had a history of abuse and basically used as a sex toy for her own fun? The one that targeted someone under the age of legal consent? Why would anyone agree to play her?
Read this in an article about FSoG. Glad people are speaking out, but I’d rather they didn’t stigmatize mental health. Abuse is a choice.
https://twitter.com/50shadesabuse/status/876717152077840384
https://web.archive.org/web/20160516162849/http://yeah.buzzlie.com/kim-basingers-daughter-convinced-her-to-take-on-raunchy-role/ Kim Basinger wasn’t initially keen on the thought of acting out “dominatrix” scenes, until her daughter convinced her to. The 62-year-old actress plays the older ex lover of naughty businessman Christian Grey in the second movie Fifty Shades Darker, due out next year (17). Kim’s no stranger to racy roles on the silver screen, having played a woman having an affair in 1986 drama 9½ weeks. However, she initially had some reservations about starring in the new movie opposite hunk Jamie Dornan – until her famous daughter Ireland, whom she has with ex Alec Baldwin, swayed her. “I’m sure… Read more »
“Fifty Shades Darker” May Do 50% Less Than First Film: Sources Say E.L. James Got Final Cut http://www.showbiz411.com/2017/01/30/fifty-shades-darker-may-do-50-less-than-first-film-sources-say-e-l-james-got-final-cut The world is waiting for this Friday’s release of “Fifty Shades Darker,” the sequel to “Fifty Shades of Grey.” But not that much of the world. Early tracking suggests that the sequel could do 50% less business at the box office on opening weekend. The first film had an opening weekend of $85 million, which turned out to be fully half of its domestic total of $166 million. The new film is projected anywhere from $30-$40 million this weekend. It almost doesn’t… Read more »
‘Like a paranoid tiger-mom’: how control-freak authors took over Hollywood – Writer EL James was granted total control over the film version of Fifty Shades Darker, and it’s a trend that’s set to get bigger. But some in the business think it’s bad news.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/09/fifty-shades-darker-el-james-control-freak-authors-hollywood?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
An Outsider Attempts To Understand ‘Fifty Shades Darker’
http://uproxx.com/filmdrunk/fifty-shades-darker-review/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1B2g9-MJak
The Twilight fan fiction saga continues! Will this be as bad as “Fifty Shades of Grey”? Or will it be….WORSE? Here’s my review of “Fifty Shades Darker”!
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY DIRECTOR SAM TAYLOR-JOHNSON WISHES SHE HADN’T MADE THE FILM
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a10011009/fifty-shades-of-grey-director-sam-taylor-johnson-wishes-she-hadnt-made-the-film/
Katrina Passick Lumsden’s takedown on the whole trilogy is also amazing!!
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/340987215
So What The Hell Does E.L. James Do Now? http://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/fifty-shades-is-over-so-what-the-hell-does-el-james-do-now-.php By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 21, 2018 | Comments (244) The Fifty Shades series is an undeniable success. The first book has sold over 125 million copies, been translated into 52 languages, and remains the fastest-selling paperback ever in the United Kingdom. The film trilogy has grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Television studio manager turned author E.L. James was named as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2012, and her grosses make her one of the richest writers on the planet. Currently, there are five… Read more »
Voting for Breaking Dawn on the basis that, since Fifty Shades started as a Twilight fanfic, the Twilight franchise is responsible for both.
I can’t believe that women line up to watch and read a story about a man who repeatedly sexually abuses and sexually assaults a woman, and she likes it.
It’s literally a story about a woman who is so stupid and awkward she literally knows nothing about the world. Then she sales herself to a man and allows him to sexually torture her, for HIS pleasure.
She falls in love with him, while he remains cold AND abusive towards her!
I don’t really understand it either, especially since it isn’t sexy and romantic, which is what I thought women liked. Then again, the day I figure out women is the day I reach the highest point of enlightenment (i.e. not happening:-).
From what I’ve gathered (at least going from my good friend, Google), EL James, the woman behind “Fifty Shades…” is really as much of a hack of a writer (if not worst) as “Twilight’s” Stephanie Meyer. And according to the director of “Fifty Shades of Grey”, Sam Taylor-Johnson, EL James was incredibly difficult to deal with (she was/is basically, a huge control freak, who doesn’t want to compromise).
I’m sure that E. L James had a great Idea but the execution was poor due to the repetitive referencing to “inner goddess/subconscious” coupled with juvenile writing. And the book is so hard to translate into screen because now that it has gone mainstream they have to water it down from BDSM to just romance.
This whole franchise just looks like Bella and Edward without the vampires and with some handcuffs and some butt spanking thrown in.
http://forum.earwolf.com/topic/21061-50-shades-of-grey-2015/page__view__findpost__p__237894 A friend of mine worked on the film and I got to read the original STJ script it was fantastic it really elevated the book made it smarter sexier and less creepy, but E L James put her foot down and vetoed almost all the changes, even to the point of the last scene where Anna leaves him Sam wanted the last word to be red her safe word assuming that the audience would be smart enough to put it together, instead EL insisted on her saying stop because its the last word in the book. Dakota Johnson was… Read more »
I’m guessing that the “Fifty Shades” franchise appeals to women’s fantasy that they could somehow “change” a man for the better. It kind of goes all the way back to “Beauty and the Beast” if that makes sense.
Yeah, many women do like to direct & inspire change in a man, although I hardly find that concept very romantic either.
The problem with these movies is they don’t work for either audience. For the normal audience, they don’t work since they are literally movies about a woman enjoying mental and sexual abuse. For the Perverted Audience, it STILL doesn’t work because the sex is so softcore you could fall asleep through those scenes.
Right, because there are people who are slaves & slave masters, and I get the feeling that this film franchise doesn’t go all the way with that. It’s sounds all too in-between and broad to me.
In a nutshell, the “hero” is a psycho stalker (he does something a**holey because he’s so damaged from his sad childhood, then she saves him with true love. Happy ending. Repeat, repeat, repeat.) and the “heroine” is a clumsy oaf that has no confidence at all and the personality of moist moss. She’s a 21-year-old college graduate who does not have an email address, is baffled by how to use a laptop, and has never even masturbated. She’s written as hopelessly insecure and immature. It’s like she’s a child in an adult body, and this damaged creeper is just a… Read more »
Sam Taylor-Johnson Wouldn’t Have Directed Fifty Shades of Grey If She Could Do It All Over Again
http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/sam-taylor-johnson-hates-fifty-shades-of-grey.html
10 Terrible Movies That Earned Tons Of Money At The Box Office http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/10-terrible-movies-that-earned-tons-of-money-at-the-box-office/2/ The Twilight Saga Box Office: $3.3 billion RT Score: 39% avg The Twilight Saga New Moon (2009) Sometimes it’s hard to believe that an absurdly inconsistent franchise, which revolves around a love triangle containing some of the most boring characters in film history, along with some cheap visual effects, made more than $3 billion at the box office with only five movies. We’ve included the entire Twilight Saga because we couldn’t choose just one – they are all equally terrible. Why it’s terrible: The entire Twilight Saga… Read more »
NEW: FULL Trailer for ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Sequel ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ + Posters
https://youtu.be/TUnylyz5mqQ
It may suck to be a teenager, but the Twilight series sucks more
http://www.avclub.com/article/it-may-suck-be-teenager-twilight-series-sucks-more-246589
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0GIji9Qea4
‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Was Supposed To Be As Successful As ‘Twilight,’ So What Happened?
http://uproxx.com/movies/fifty-shades-darker-box-office/
Read the best worst reviews of the cinematic masterpiece “Fifty Shades Darker” http://huff.to/2krDpeB
50 laughably bad Fifty Shades Darker quotes
http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/fifty-shades-of-grey/feature/a820703/worst-50-shades-darker-quotes/
‘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
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4209478/Fifty-Shades-Darker-screening-draws-open-laughter.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dolgUUr8GxY
Chris Stuckmann reviews Fifty Shades Darker, starring Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Hugh Dancy, Eric Johnson, Jennifer Ehle, Luke Grimes, Rita Ora, Victor Rusak, Eloise Mumford, Max Martini. Directed by James Foley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajusrL3ajm0&feature=youtu.be
https://www.facebook.com/50shadesabuse/posts/717370131776730
This is a long video (half an hour), but I cannot endorse it enough. Make a cuppa, press play and watch this guy highlight just how abusive Christian Grey is, how insulting the story is to anyone who knows real BDSM and what an appalling writer EL James is. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 (NSFW, obviously!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGfW3saxM6E&feature=youtu.be&a