Yawn.

A global box office of $266 million, against a production budget of $40 million, and Universal is not sure that they want a sequel?

"Especially of those who worship that figure are so insecure about their faith that they will turn to murder to get their point across."

The review on NPR's Fresh Air was fairly positive, and particularly praised Dakota Johnson. Mark Kermode on BBC Radio 5 suggested that some of the most negative early reviews were by critics who had not actually seen the film, but who had knives out for less than honorable reasons.

But "Kingsman" was garbage, too, and had a pointlessly vulgar and sexist little end scene.

Also a woman editor, Lisa Gunning.

"Anyway, maybe Hollywood will take the umpteenth hint and start making more movies without worrying about how they're going to appeal to 15-year-old boys."

Kaching!

A couple of other tidbits from the box office analysis (Box Office Mojo):

I thought that direction of The Matrix Reloaded was credited to the Wachowski Brothers.

Gore, along with the Supremes and James Brown, was the biggest artist performing in 1964's TAMI show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Some relative newcomers, The Rolling Stones, closed out the show.

They don't see women, with bodies or independent will or rights. They see vessels which contain babies.

So here's the weird deal. The Republicans (yes, they must be blamed and named) talk crap about gridlock and the president not doing his job (i.e., going along with whatever the GOP wants) and yet the GOP dominated Congress and the shitstain Tea Party has raised doing nothing to a fine art. For example,

Here's the thing I keep wondering about. Cosby allegedly did these acts repeatedly over time.

Thanks for the recommendations.

I saw one Guardian review (I think) which lead off with the idea that pretty much all written erotica is laughable and onscreen stuff not much better. So, here, is not an appreciation of erotica, but the idea that maybe people can have sex, but they should never read or talk about it.

"But in the end, I'd finish all three books, 1,600+ pages of what I'd sneered at as mindless drivel with a terrible moral outcome when I could been reading smart things by good writers. "

Of course, it is possible that if "50 Shades" was a success, it might cause more and "better" works to be adapted. On the other hand, some of the attacks on the book and film seem to just want to push erotica back into a corner, or under the covers, and never talked about.

Everyone says this, that there are magical unicorns of fan fic hotter than "50 Shades," but no one is willing or able to put forward an example, or an example of a work that has been just as commercially successful.

No, the dark day for humanity was the Transformers movies. By comparison, this stuff is harmless.