Fifty Shades Darker

It's time to dust off those handcuffs, as Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson reprise their roles as pervy, controlling billionaire Christian Grey and besotted but feisty ingénue Anastasia in a second dollop of soft-core kinkiness, here in a version that features around 12 minutes more footage then the theatrical cut. This time, though, creepy Christian's baggage not only includes personal demons, but also a deranged, gun-toting ex. No rules, no punishments, no secrets, Anastasia insists early on. So less steamy stuff, you may think. Not really, because although Darker is still superficial, glossily gigglesome and lacking in tension, it's actually a slightly better, rather raunchier film than the 2015 original, possibly thanks to a different director in James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross, TV's House of Cards). But, for all its contrived edginess and kinkiness, it's still essentially fifty shades greyer.