Let me preface this by saying I have never seen 50 Shades of Grey. I've seen the reviews, I know the story, but after seeing 50 Shades of Black I feel like I've seen the actual movie it was parodying. Wayans' comedies have devolved from clever self-aware satires to blatant movie rip-offs with sporadic laughs. The difference is, unlike the Haunted House movies, there are next to no laughs in 50 Shades of Black. It's essentially deconstructing every scene in 50 Shades of Grey to show the audience how dumb it is, which would be fine if it was actually funny. But no, this humor is scraped right from the bottom of the barrel, reusing the same stupid gags from previous spoofs and rehashed awkward shock "humor" that comes across more cringe-worthy than anything.
I like Marlon Wayans, I really do. He seems like an awesome guy and he was actually a great writer one point, and a great actor too (to this day I'm blown away by his performance in Requiem for a Dream), but his talents must have gone to his head because he isn't tapping into his genius anymore. It's just easy joke after easy joke, and as simple as the jokes are, none of them land. In fact, at one point after a painfully awkward dinner scene that went on 5 minutes too long, I couldn't help but laugh, for the wrong reasons mind you, thinking, "Jesus Christ, this is a real movie?" It was painful.
All of me wanted this movie to be good, but part of me knew it would be a disaster. Well, that part of me was right. Sure, I chuckled at a few scenes, but I also chuckled a few times in A Haunted House 2 and that's still a terrible movie. The difference is 50 Shades of Grey is even lazier and somehow even less clever than AHH2. I anxiously await the day the Wayans brothers come out with another great spoof movie, but I have a feeling it's going to be a long, long wait.
