Well, Western civilization did not fall because of the film Fifty Shades of Grey. No, it is not the greatest movie ever, but I will say that it is a damn sexy movie.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good an actress Dakota Johnson turned out to be in the role of Anna. When I heard about the casting, she didn't seem like she'd be up to the role, but she was really good. Jamie Dornan I admired for Once Upon a Time but didn't know much about him. He was good, but Dakota was the standout. I liked how mousy lines in the book had a little teasing tone and glint in her eye. She had more personality than the dishrag Anna did in the book.

The film is limited by the R rating. My two female friends and I commented afterwards about all the things cut from the book -- namely Anna's joy at giving Christian a blowjob!

While trying to shock mainstream audiences with the bondage/toy room, they had to water down the sex. I mean really, why does the MPAA make a female orgasm or oral sex on a woman necessarily NC-17? There's a LOT of female nudity in this film, but only hints of male nudity.

The film ends abruptly just as the first book did. Given the monetary success of the opening weekend, the fimmakers will be more than ready to cash in on films two and three.

Stellar cast in this melodrama weepie. Oh, man, did I cry.

Hrithik Roshan plays a quadriplegic who was injured in an accident 14 years ago. Aishwarya Rai plays his devoted nurse of 12 of those years. Ethan (Hrithik) had been a world famous magician and has become a successful radio host after his paralysis. He decides to petition for euthanasia -- the title Guzaarish means request. At first, Sofia (Aishwarya) is furious with him, but he gradually convinces all around him that this is what he truly wants.

Aditya Kapoor plays a young man who seeks Ethan out as his teacher of all his famous magic secrets.

Certainly the best acting I have seen Hrithik do, and beautifully shot.

Sweet Rom com.

Parineeti plays Gullu, a young shop girl burned one to many times by callous men and their families expecting outrageous dowries -- something illegal in India, but still pervasive.

She convinces her father to scheme to catch the next jerk who proposes to her, and extort money so they won't be jailed for demanding a dowry. She and her father will then use the money to immigrate to America.

They disguise themselves as a wealthy pair from Dubai, and go to the city of Lucknow with fake documents to find their sucker.

The applicant that just won't give up is young restaurant owner who wins her over with his fantastic food, and his egalitarian attitude. They capture his parents on tape asking for a dowry, but then later he gives her the money as he doesn't think it's right. After a mock ceremony, they drug him and leave the city with the cash.

Gullu is tormented by guilt, and there is a happy ending when she ultimately returns the money. Aditya was sweet, but would he have gotten over his outrage that quickly?

Not much to this film, but the music was good, and the romance was sweet. Daawat in Urdu means both Invitation and Feast, and the double meaning of Invitation to Love and Feast of Love works well with our hero's profession.

I seriously don't understand the vitriol and hate for this movie and the Wachowski siblings. My husband and I decided to catch a 3D matinee with very low expectations, and we both really enjoyed it.

It is visually STUNNING -- both the world building and the costumes!! That was what made it for me -- an original script, not from a frickin' comic book, and beautiful visuals. Frankly, I think it was more beautiful than any of the prequel Star Wars movie, and the dialogue no more stilted and self-serious than those Star Wars films or the The Hobbit movies, for that matter. Did it need a few more lighter moments that could have been pumped into a trailer to sell it?

Yes, the acting was a little clunky, as the dialogue wasn't always the best, but my God, what a ride. I love Space Opera Romances!

Hey, Tatum Channing as a Lycan-hybrid with elf ears on jet roller blade boots? Yeah, sign me up. And THEN he gets wings? You just clicked off all my paranormal hero check boxes in one swoop.

Mila Kunis was fine, but there were a few plot points where she went from being a little street smart, to being unbelievably gullible. I wish a little of the incredible care and energy that went into the set and art design had been taken with the script. It was still a nice romance (I've always loved dogs!"), and lots of cool stuff blew up. But Sean Bean didn't. I mean, wtf? Don't the Wachowskis know that's a RULE? Eddie Redmayne majorly chewed on the scenery, but so what, because he sure committed and went for it!

Yes the plot was a bit derivative of Dune and Solyent Green and lots of other Sci-fi, but again, it wasn't yet another comic book adaptation, thank you Lana and Andy!

Rewatched and reassessed. Knowing where the film is going, I could really appreciate the journey the two main characters take, and how surreal the musical numbers are in juxtaposition to the harsh reality of the main film. The music numbers seem to me now to be the sexual fantasies of the female characters.

I just appreciate also the acting of SRK in this now after seeing him in over 30 films. This is truly one of his best.

I must have watched this first expecting a romantic film and being stunned at the ending. It is a movie about love, but with an indie spirit and tenor. Going in with a different mindset made watching it much more enjoyable. Truly a classic.

Especially strong performances. Steve Carell is unbelievably creepy.

Channing Tatum isn't really getting talked about, but I was really impressed with his acting in Foxcatcher. Even his walk is like a wrestler, and he has a hunkered down shyness in all his scenes.

I'm still reeling from watching the incredible Polish film, Ida. It's nominated for best foreign film, and is so incredibly beautifully shot in black and white. It's on Netflix streaming, and is shown in a box shape, like a film from the 1960's in which the movie take place.

Young novice Anna learns that she has an aunt she has never met. Her mother superior tells her she must visit her before she takes her vows.

Anna's aunt Wanda is the polar opposite of Anna, hard drinking, smoker and promiscuous. When they meet for the first time, Wanda informs her that she is actually Ida, and is Jewish.

They embark on a journey to find out what happened to Ida's parents and to find their graves.

I could rhapsodize forever about the black and white cinematography. There are so many interesting framing of shots. It's truly a stunning film, and so compact. It's only a tight 80 minutes.

Just see this film. Truly one of the best films of the year.

Very cute romantic triangle with Katrina Kaif playing a headstrong London girl. Her father marries her off to a Punjabi boy while the family is visiting India. She wants to marry a white boy from back in London. She doesn't view the Indian wedding ceremony as real, but her Indian groom, played by Ashkay Kumar does, and refuses to give up on their marriage becoming real. Ashkay is very sweet in this.

Has some cute moments as Raj and Priya fall in love, and I enjoyed the songs. There are some scratch your head things about the first half romance. How DOES one drive from Mykonos to Athens?

This humble guy wins the heart of the rich girl as he follows her to Greece where she is to be engaged to a childhood friend. (I did get a kick out of the street guy singing The Brave-hearted wins the Bride!) But the movie doesn't stop at the near fairy tale wedding.

The second half maybe gets a little too real, as the couple from different sides of the proverbial tracks have a rocky bickering marriage at their first anniversary.

Raj acts like a jerk, screams, yells, and is full of arrogant pride as his business falls apart. Priya makes a mistake trying to solve his business woes, and his meltdown separates them.

Of course there's a nappy ending -- at least for now. One of Raj's last lines is "I shout because that's how I show you I love you."

Welp, at least they didn't end it by having her be pregnant.

This was my least favorite narrative film of the Sundance film festival. It was worth it to attend the premiere to see "The Eli Roth show" of a Q and A, and Keanu Reeves was also there. I talked to one industry exec who walked out in the middle of the film. The crowd before the movie was whooping and hollering for Eli, and at the end of the film were quiet and subdued. That's not the reaction you want. What I learned in the Q and A is that Eli Roth's brand new wife was one of the lead actresses in the film. Yeah, that pretty much says it all.

As Keanu said after the movie, "It's a cautionary tale." Keanu Reeves plays a loving father of two young children, with a beautiful wife who is an accomplished artist. Keanu is an architect, and their house is filled with his wife's sculptures and work. My husband thought that Keanu and the actress who was playing his wife were not at all believable as parents. It was a little awkward -- and in the Q and A we learned neither are parents "As far as we KNOW".

The wife and kiddies leave Keanu alone in the house and head off to the beach, leaving him to finish up a work project at home. Knock, Knock and there are two dripping wet young women at the door, lost. Keanu lets them in and orders them an Uber car. While they wait, the girls make him increasingly uncomfortable as they get closer and closer to him, touching him while he keeps moving around the room to new seats to get away from them. This was the best part of the movie watching him squirm.

Well, you can guess what happens. Keanu succumbs -- to both at once. Wakes up and those pesky girls Just. Won't. Leave. They start wrecking the place, having a food fight in the kitchen and on and on. They tell him they are underage and threaten that he will go to jail. They tie him up and then things get really nasty and weird.

It's just not clear what is the POINT with these girls. Why are they playing this game with him? I won't spoil the ending, but the cautionary tale involves social media -- every cheater's nightmare, I guess.

I wasn't every actually scared. It's more a dark comedy than a real thriller. There isn't the splatter that Eli Roth is evidently known for -- just one moment involving a fork that made me gasp audibly.

It just wasn't very good. Before the film, Eli Roth promised us that this would be a transformative role for Keanu Reeves -- like Clint Eastwood's later work. Yeah, no. I didn't think Keanu was as bad as my husband did, but this is not going to "transform" his career by any means.

Funny story about the house that Eli told in Q and A. The girls in the film wreck the house -- which they did with set dressing. The real house was one they rented from a family in Chile where the movie was filmed. The lady of the house came home early and saw the house trashed -- fake trashed -- but I guess it looked so real that she FLIPPED out and kicked them out of the house. They had to finish some exterior shots by using a drone camera from a next door golf course and then digitally removing her coming out of the house yelling!!

Like I said, the Q and A was the most entertaining thing about it.