Movies that are ruined by their endings

Inception (insert any movie without a definite ending, good or bad)

Braveheart - what a shitty way to end an epic movie with pussy ass Robert the Bruce leading a charge

Sebudai_sl said:

We're in the minority. Almost everyone I've talked to about it disliked the ending. Dunno why.

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It was just too disjointed.

I look at Sunshine like I look at AI. The first half and the second half are really 2 different movies that are thematically connected. Both halves are good half movies, but it's too stark a tonal contrast. You could analyze your way into integrating them, but it really takes some extra effort long after the movie is over. And you don't really gain a deeper understanding of the story doing it (I do think they were going for something deeper), you gain cohesion. I really do think if they'd given less focus to Captain Sunburn they could have strengthened the cohesion of their tone and the impact of their theme/story/whatever.

Basically it was just distracting.

But I actually like AI for that irreconcilable distraction (on the 2nd viewing. 1st viewing it was jarring) where I find it a fault with Sunshine. I don't think it's a terrible movie, but it does fall into that category of "the ending really sort of fucks it up". Of course with Sunshine it's kinda the entire 3rd act.

Grimmlokk_sl said:

Spoiler

The movie is about rats. Cop rats, mob rats, FBI rats. The last shot after 2 hours of that is a lingering shot of an implausibly placed actual rat. No subtlety whatsoever. Cheesy as fuck and clumsy.

I've seen people try to explain it as "Jacobean" where after the final bloodbath a clown would come out to take the edge off for crowds or some shit. But I think Ralph Wiggum summed it up best.

"The rat symbolizes obviousness"

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If he was like me he didn't see the rat in the picture. Thanks for the explanation.

The contrast was the movie, though. They spend the whole first half of the movie in awe of the sun as they movie closer, and then encounter the sun's avatar in Capt Crispy. Really, I don't remember him having a huge focus, more like the focus was on the crew's reaction to him and attempt to fulfill the mission. I haven't watched the movie in a few years, though.

Iannis_sl said:

It was just too disjointed.

I look at Sunshine like I look at AI. The first half and the second half are really 2 different movies that are thematically connected. Both halves are good half movies, but it's too stark a tonal contrast. You could analyze your way into integrating them, but it really takes some extra effort long after the movie is over. And you don't really gain a deeper understanding of the story doing it (I do think they were going for something deeper), you gain cohesion. I really do think if they'd given less focus to Captain Sunburn they could have strengthened the cohesion of their tone and the impact of their theme/story/whatever.

Basically it was just distracting.

But I actually like AI for that irreconcilable distraction (on the 2nd viewing. 1st viewing it was jarring) where I find it a fault with Sunshine. I don't think it's a terrible movie, but it does fall into that category of "the ending really sort of fucks it up". Of course with Sunshine it's kinda the entire 3rd act.

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I guess I can understand complaints about it seeming disjointed (although I disagree). To me, the first half connects just fine to the second half. The whole "what happened to the other crew?" question is prevalent throughout the film, so I don't feel like showing us the answer to that plot point comes out of nowhere at all. Furthermore, the captain is directly tied to one of the major themes of the story.

Disp_sl said:

So the 3 seconds the rat was on screen ruined the movie for you? Ok...

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Nope. I didn't mention the movie in the first place, just pointed out the stupid part. You see me a couple posts ago saying it's a good movie someone should watch.

OK???

supertouch_sl said:

I don't know if the director intended the ending to be ambiguous, but many of the shots and filming techniques suggest the storm is real. There are no dreamlike qualities to the final scene. If it were indeed a dream, the shot of the wife in the kitchen is completely pointless considering a dream would only be seen from Curtis' perspective. The daughter is also the first to notice the storm and the camera focuses on the wife's hand as the rain falls, both of which make no sense in a dream.

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It's not a dream, though. If you take "the storm" as a metaphor for the schizophrenia he's been holding at bay his whole life-- then throughout the movie he has episodes where it behind overwhelming him and in these scenes "the storm" becomes real. However, no one around him KNOWS about his illness, so they can't see it, all they see is the effects of it.

In thefinalscene, after he sees doctors and the family is educated on the diseases, he's having another episode where the schizophrenia is overwhelming him; except THIS time, the wife can see it because she understands it. The daughter could be pointing out something odd her father is doing; but you can see on the wife's face, she is the one who understands what the "storm" is. That's why they show the oily drop on HER hand. Because she's stepped out of the allegorical cave and can now see his disease, his "storm", for what it is; a real, honest threat to him and not just some abstract, make believe, thing. That's why the last shot used didn't make it seem like a dream; because realism was a metaphor for her understanding. The disease (The storm) was now "as real" to her as it was to him.

Or you could look at it as the world's ending. And yeah, that's valid because because his main intent with the last shot was only to say "they all can seeITnow"---but it's up to you, the audience member, to decide what "it" is. If you thought he really was a prophet than "it", is something like the Armageddon. If you thought he was experiencing schizophrenia; then "it" is him having an episode, and now the wife can translate the signs of it (Even if it's only the daughter saying "dad did X strange thing" IE "it's raining")

supertouch_sl said:

Ok, if it's one of this hallucinations then the points I made still stand. Nearly all the shots in the final scene make no sense in that context.

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They make perfect sense. It's not "just" his hallucination; its a metaphor for how mental illness is interpreted by those who have it, those who don't AND lastly those who don't have it BUT understand it well enough to help those who do.

The shot of the wife was only supposed to illustrate that she understands his condition well enough now that she knows "the storm" is real; as real as any real disaster for anyone else. It's not something he can just will away because it's just his imagination, it IS a force of nature, and she now understands that. The realism? Her experience? Are all just metaphors for understanding how "real" mental illness is (And it's a great metaphor too; because most people still view mental illness as being someone who can't control their imagination or something exceedingly trivial.)

Edit: And the daughter seeing "the storm". Notice her saying "a storm" was still in HIS perspective; he was noticing that she was observing his his odd behavior and he realized through her, an impartial observer, the "storm" was coming back and so he looks at his wife. Then you flash to the wife's perspective and we see that she sees he's slipping into an episode, and for her it's real too, that's why she can physically see what he sees; because the illness is no longer just an abstract she doesn't understand.

The Book of Eli

Disp_sl said:

So the 3 seconds the rat was on screen ruined the movie for you? Ok...

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Forrealz. The Departed is awesome and that little scene is negligible to me. Not like it changes the story or it's some deus ex machina.

I'm going with Merlin. Astro is probably just lazy and only half paid attention to the movie. Merlin actively misunderstood that scene to a tragic level.

(It's about Sunshine ending)

When I first watched Sunshine on an empty theather, I was genuinely amazed. Call it Alien nostalgia (when film's first part is setting up ambiance while second part is chaos), call it cool cinematography / score, I don't know. I totally get the "then it becomes a random Hollywood slasher" critics when that guy came settling some score about society / mankind / madness. Sunshine's second part triggered something inside me, like "whenever there's a fuckup, it's human related" stuff. Sunshine ain't The Godfather and it had mesmerizing moments (Kaneda what do you see) but I totally undestand how the film's second part bothered people. When I saw it I thought of Alien, mostly about space loneliness. I wouldn't say it ruined the movie though, even if was awkward, it didn't ruin anything else beforehand, in my opinion.

i am lazy, but only to a point, that movie does a very good job of showing 2 opposing points of views, it just doesnt know when to fucking stop. best scene of the movie is the basketball scene and the director still cant resist fucking with it.

Maester Chuk_sl said:

i am lazy, but only to a point, that movie does a very good job of showing 2 opposing points of views, it just doesnt know when to fucking stop. best scene of the movie is the basketball scene and the director still cant resist fucking with it.

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What's so great about the basketball scene. The fact that the white guys are allowed to double dribble?

The Descent.

The Ancient_sl said:

What's so great about the basketball scene. The fact that the white guys are allowed to double dribble?

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i dunno, just the over the top musical score when they win at the end. its a lot of fun watching them celebrate a worthless victory like they just won world war 2

Casablanca
Titanic (Fuck the old Lady and her necklace)
Clue (original theater run only. As a marketing gimmick they made like 3 endings and gave different theaters different endings without letting anyone know about it. The cable version with all the endings back to back to back was great.)
Wild Wild West (Giant robot spider wtf?)

Maester Chuk_sl said:

i hope you guys, or at least some of you can recognize satire. i seen american history x like twice. i only remember it vaguely, the basketball scene was cool. the rodney king scene was interesting til they went all overboard with the anti semitism and sister abuse, the worst was the supermarket raid on the mexicans, yes it was worse than the curb stomping because those people were just working there even if they were a bunch of border jumpers that "took our jobs!" that shit was so over the top i really had a hard time taking that movie seriously. so when i say i didnt get their message, i did mean it, why make such a silly unrealistic film about a subject that is quite real? the liberal agenda part was my jokeses.

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jesus fuck chuk.i agree with you on many subjects but here you are totally wrong.i can tell you the supermarket scene is totally believable.many times these skinheads/nazis/whatever just randomly attack foreigners because they think their presence is destroying the country and its values and culture.
well at least on this side of the Atlantic, that shit happens time to time