Director: Michael Tiddes
Writer(s): Marlon Wayans and Rick Alvarez
Starring: Marlon Wayans, Kali Hawk, Affion Crockett, and Jenny Zigrino
A parody of the 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey. Unlike my other reviews, this one will be concise and in an entirely different format.
49 shades of stupid, 1 shade of hope.
Besides allowing Marlon Wayans to continue acting, these parody films are intended to make light of serious writing, character arcs, and storytelling techniques. However, most of these films and especially Fifty Shades of Black miss 90% of this. Instead of focusing on the framework of the story and cleverly picking it apart, faulty slapstick humor is combined with fart jokes in a poor attempt to entertain audiences. The scarce moments when the writing attempts to be clever, the film flourishes. But, these flourishing moments are heavily outweighed by twenty jokes that fall flat. The only thing that emphatically stands out is the identical storytelling of 50 Shades of Grey. Scene to scene, shot to shot, it is almost an exact remake and that detail is something that cannot be overlooked. Most moments are overblown, but the detailed ascent before the the tragic plunge into stupid jokes is meticulously crafted. Subtle jokes go miles further than jokes that are forced in your face and I do not understand why Marlon Wayans cannot accept this. Yes this film is not any good, but there is hope for satirical films in the future.
Requiem for the Satire
Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Naked Gun, Airplane, and even the first Scary Movie, are long forgotten. Satirical giants such as Mel Brooks and Peter Sellers exist only on our home television screens. For hundreds of years, satirical writing has always been one of the most common forms of expression; from fighting oppression or simply poking fun at another piece of work, satires have stood the test of time. As 2016 begins though, great satirical screenwriting has almost faded completely. Sure, as long as Trey Parker and Matt Stone write for South Park satires will exist on television, but what about the absence of them in film? Sacha Baren Cohen seems to be taking his career into another direction and all we are left with is Marlon Wayans. But Wayans has not always been this bad. He starred alongside his family in the 1996 satirical hit Don’t be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. Even Fifty Shades of Black had brief moments of genius. The sad thing is though, films like this now are intentionally bad and the Wayans brand cannot grasp how to be funny and good at the same time. Why are our satirical films so intellectually devoid? It is far more difficult to be intelligently funny than it is to be stupid funny. Any child can fart and giggle, but it takes a diligent wit to win over national audiences. I still have hope for satires and refuse to acknowledge they are only behind us. However, until effort and time are incorporated into one of these films, we will continuously receive the modern version of a satire.
Overall
Some brief moments are genuinely hysterical, but too much of the film is weighed down in sub-par slapstick jokes. There is hope for satires, but only a glimmer remains for now and I will give Fifty Shades of Black a D.
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