A spoof of the franchise that started out as Twilight fan fiction offers up another barrel for Marlon Wayans to scrape. This time the mucky mind who pitched into the Scary Movies (Scream parodies, the first two of which were directed by his older brother Keenan) and the Haunted Houses (Paranormal Activity parodies) turns his clumsy hand to EL James’ bonkbuster and its derided film adaptation.
Wayans plays Christian Black, a spin on Grey who – get this – is black and lousy in bed. And that’s the joke, whipped out as often as the prosthetic male genitalia (monstrously huge or hilariously teeny) that makes for a vintage Wayans visual gag.
Black’s submissive is Hannah Steele (Kali Hawk), a frumpy klutz whose abuse is amplified out of the realm of satire into a weird hinterland of really unfunny gross-out and blaxploitation revenge flick. There’s a Cosby joke, a Kanye joke and huge spaces where the laughs should be. It’s still, marginally, better than the source material.
