FORGET the roses and chocolates, yesterday was more about whips, chains and ball-gags.

Valentine's Day replaced cute with kink across Scotland as romantic couples and groups of young women, middle aged women and old women - fascinated by months of hype - queued up at cinemas across Scotland for a Mills and Boon tale tinged with sadomasochism and bondage.

The media phenomenon, Fifty Shades of Grey, is sure to be the biggest Valentine's Day weekend release in history and women, in particular, couldn't wait to get a glimpse of hunk du jour Northern Irish actor Jamie Dornan, who plays cable tie loving billionaire Christian Grey.

Every cinema in the country was sold out yesterday for the hotly-anticipated big screen adaptation of the X-rated best selling book of all time by author EL James which heavily features BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Sadism and Masochism).

The sex scenes, which led the book to be dubbed "mummy porn", had to be tamped down for the blockbuster but watching Dornan give his co-star Dakota Johnston, who plays his virginal student lover Anastasia Steele, a good lashing with whips and a riding crop still brought tears to eyes of viewers.

Over the past few days we've heard shocking tales of firefighters having to free copulating couples from a variety of sex toys gone awry, B&Q reporting an increase in demand for rope and duct tape, and Ann Summers doing a roaring trade in kinky underwear and nipple clamps as Fifty Shades mania hit fever pitch this week with the movie launch.

The Sunday Herald spoke to a cross-section of cinema-goers in Glasgow yesterday to ask what attracted them to the film and what they thought of it afterwards. Is it really this generation's Last Tango in Paris or Nine and Half Weeks? Or just a rather naff movie for folk who have bad sex?

From grandparents to teenagers, they turned up in their droves yesterday to spend Valentine's night in front of the big screen for a taste of bondage, spanking, and male domination.

One couple Steve, 57, and Anne Arcus, 53, from Blairgowrie, Perthshire, who are grandparents said they were "curious" because of all the hype but hadn't read the book.

Anne said: "I've heard and read so much about it in the newspapers it has made me very curious so I'm interested in finding out if everything I've read about it is true."

Steve added: "I read that [the film] is not as risky as the book or as everyone says it is so I'd be curious to see what it is like."

Young couple Katie Dickson, 18, from Belfast, and her boyfriend of one month Rory McLean, 19, from Inverness, travelled to Glasgow to watch the film but were left a little limp after the showing as it did nothing to spice up their date night.

Katie said: "I wanted to see it because of all the hype surrounding the film but I wasn't impressed at all. I was expecting it to be a lot better than it actually was.

"I didn't like it and I thought the acting wasn't very believable and Dakota wasn't very convincing. Her acting wasn't up to scratch."

However, Rory thought "it was tastefully done" but "hated the first half an hour".

Students Rachel Doran, 19, from Auchterarder, Perthshire, Gemma Close, 19, from the Isle of Bute, and Fiona Bramley, 19, from France, were also unimpressed and found part of it a tad disturbing.

Far from delivering an enjoyable climax, they said the film got worse towards the end and the last half an hour was punishing in the literal sense.

They said it was an unusual film for them to choose, knowing it was about torture and sex dungeons, but admitted it was the months of hype that got them going.

Rachel said: "I was expecting it to be bad but it wasn't as bad as I thought, although some of the violence and the whipping part left me feeling uncomfortable and Anastasia actually looked in pain and upset by it.

"I had to hide behind my scarf most of the time near the end when the violence was pretty bad, I couldn't bear to watch it and I was squirming in my chair."

Gemma said she found "some parts really awkward".

She added: "I would never normally go and see something like that but all the hype made me curious."

Fiona said: "It wasn't as violent as I was expecting but it was still pretty shocking. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable at times but it was good apart from the violence."

Pensioner Linda McCord, 64, from Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, and her close friend Florence Gunning, 59, from Bangor, County Down, said they were looking forward to seeing the film after reading the sexually explicit trilogy.

Linda said: "I have read all the books but it didn't change me in any way. I didn't make me want to do any of the things in the book or change my opinion about that kind of stuff."

Florence said she enjoyed the book but it was boring in parts, however, she was keen to see fellow countryman Dornan in the movie.

She said: "The book didn't make me want to get out my late husband's cable ties or anything like that. It didn't have that effect on me at all."