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Jamie Dornan is being criticised for his lack of “sizzle” in the first Fifty Shades of Grey reviews, with the movie in general sparking mixed reactions.
The chemistry between Dornan’s BDSM-loving billionaire Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson’s naïve student Anastasia Steele is “decent”, apparently, with Johnson being praised most highly as the “real find” of the film.
The US newcomer manages to “squeeze believability out of one of the more silly romantic entanglements in recent popular culture”, says the Guardian, but Mashable reports that regrettably, “there's not nearly enough sex”. There are supposedly at least twenty minutes of sex scenes - the most of any mainstream Hollywood 18-rated movie in more than a decade - but each to their own.
Fifty Shades of Grey film stills
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Director Sam Taylor-Johnson has been credited by The Hollywood Reporter for “stripping away the oodles of cringe-inducing descriptions”, namely that god-awful tampon scene, proving that all her on-set barnies with author EL James were worth it.
Justin Chang from Variety was disappointed by the final half-hour or so, calling it “punishing in more than just a literal sense” for ending on a “less-than-scintillating cliffhanger” that falls clearly in line with “fan-driven franchise fare”.
Kim Kardashian, meanwhile, absolutely loved it, tweeting “Omg it’s soooooo good!” from a private screening she was enjoying with her girl friends.
Fifty Shades is, at the heart of things, “soft-core porn for the ladies”, notes the New York Post, while David Ehrlich from Time Out New York gives us the most succinct reason to buy a cinema ticket this weekend: “Fifty Shades may not make you come, but you’ll still be glad you went.”
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