Stupidest Movie Endings?

[Two Many Cats]

Well okay, I don't think any movie can really top Monster a Go Go where the mutated astronaut gets chased down a sewer and disappears. A telegram then says the astronaut was rescued in the ocean completely normal. The end.

But I just watched Travels with My Aunt. Contrived story of a straight laced guy traveling all over Europe with his aunt trying to raise money for his aunt's lover's kidnapping ransom. At the end, after endless bickering over who's lifestyle is better, the straight laced nephew flips a coin in the air to decide whether they should live his aunt's way or his way. The frame freezes on the coin, so you never find out. Dumb.

Or how about the more famous Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Everybody gets arrested. I think they just ran out of movie.

Any others? You can use spoiler tags if you want to. I just thought these examples were too old, too obscure, too famous for anyone to care.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

Two Lane Blacktop has an odd ending for an odd film.

SPOILER:

In the middle of a drag race, it appears as if the film gets stuck in the projector and the film stock catches fire.

[lost4life]

Originally Posted by It's Not Rocket Surgery!

Two Lane Blacktop has an odd ending for an odd film.

SPOILER:

In the middle of a drag race, it appears as if the film gets stuck in the projector and the film stock catches fire.

Come on, considering the film, it was an awesome ending! There are movies that one should watch while stoned...watching this one makes me feel stoned.

[HubZilla]

I've stated this here before, but this one really angered me: Friday Night Lights

Leave before the ending card. You'll then realize you watched the wrong underdog movie.

The next year, the team WINS the State Title. This is more remarkable as they're replacing all the stars on offense and defense from the previous year. Think the 49ers winning it all the year after Montana, Rice, and Lott suddenly retired.

[campp]

The Fifth Element was a nice looking film, but crapped out horribly at the end.

[Pine Fresh Scent]

Some people had issues with the ending* of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. I think the ending's fine; however, the ending for Anderson's Magnolia only confirmed that "yep, I have just wasted three hours waiting for this thing to pay off." Ugh.

*spoof ending in this link.

[gaffa]

The end of the theatrical release of The Abyss was pretty damn stupid. Which was a shame, because the rest of the film was good. The Special Edition ending was a lot better.

[Dr_Doom]

Knowing, with Nicholas Cage was going along quite well, until late in the film, when Mrs_Doom reacted to a scene by blurting out

SPOILER:

"Oh great, it's a fucking alien spaceship!"

Also, Hollow Man, with Elisabeth Shue and Kevin Bacon was pretty enjoyable, right up until

SPOILER:

Shue's character picks up a huge machinegun and says, a la Rambo, "We're gonna take him down."

[CalMeacham]

I'm still annoyed by the end of Blazing Saddles, myself.

But the biggest mess-of-an-ending, how-the-hell-do-we-finish-this-film has to be the 1960s version of Casino Royale. It's noisier and mmessier than Blazing Saddles. George Raft flipping a coin? The Frankenstein monster? Woody Allen with atomic burps?

[cjepson]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

I'm still annoyed by the end of Blazing Saddles, myself.

But the biggest mess-of-an-ending, how-the-hell-do-we-finish-this-film has to be the 1960s version of Casino Royale. It's noisier and mmessier than Blazing Saddles. George Raft flipping a coin? The Frankenstein monster? Woody Allen with atomic burps?

Yeah, I would put Blazing Saddles high on the list.

Regarding Casino Royale... seems like a lot of 60s comedies had moronic endings. Like Around the World in 80 Days (Robert Morley or whoever looking into the camera and saying "This is the end").

[kaylasdad99]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

But the biggest mess-of-an-ending, how-the-hell-do-we-finish-this-film has to be the 1960s version of Casino Royale. It's noisier and mmessier than Blazing Saddles. George Raft flipping a coin? The Frankenstein monster? Woody Allen with atomic burps?

Since it's the only Bond film worth a second look, you're not allowed to say bad things about this movie.

Besides, what the hell else is George Raft supposed to do? Practice throwing playing cards into a hat? 'Cos I'm pretty sure that's Jimmy Cagney's thing.

Maybe Robert Mitchum's.

[hogarth]

Originally Posted by kaylasdad99

Maybe Robert Mitchum's.

Speaking of Robert Mitchum, I'll add Night of the Hunter as a film with a lame ending. It's the only suspense movie I've ever seen that works in reverse -- it starts out very tense and then ratchets down the tension continuously until it ends with a fizzle.

[Grestarian]

I was just watching this Jackie Chan flick, Rumble in the Bronx, the other weekend and thought, "Boy, that's a stupid ending!"
Granted, it's a martial arts flick, which means it's primarily focused on the fight scenes. Still, there was no appreciable resolution to a lot of loose ends.

~ ~ ~ ~
Two main subplots are going on

1) A local street gang (teens? they're more like mid-to-late 20's -- why the hell aren't they working for a living?) is shoplifting and vandalizing Keung's Uncle's corner grocery store.
2) Real syndicated criminals stole some diamonds and, while trying to evade the police, hid them inside a wheelchair owned by Keung's young friend.

WTF!?!? Keung (Jackie Chan) eventually goes to the street gang's hang-out and beats about a dozen guys and girls. Then he scolds them. Then he finishes by saying, "I hope next time we meet we'll be drinking tea instead of fighting." Somehow that's just so amazingly touching to the gang leader that he suddenly considers Keung a friend instead of a rival who stole his girlfriend (the wheelchair kid's older sister) and kicked the teeth out of all his henchmen?

Before we can contemplate that question, a gang member bursts in saying, "They killed Tony! They're looking for diamonds and we don't know what the hell they're talking about!"

So Keung realizes where the diamonds are, manages to get them, manages to involve the police, manages to contact the syndicate ringleader, and manages to offer to exchange the diamonds for (I don't remember what) in an attempt to trap the syndicate thugs and their ringleader. Naturally, the exchange goes sour and much action ensues -- it's a Jackie Chan flick, after all -- and ultimately this involves a real hovercraft, which is debilitated in a spectacular way.

Then (just for the extra film footage?), Keung, the grocery store manager, the street gang leader (now a friend?), and the cops take the (semi-restored) hovercraft for a spin, zipping across the golf course where they chase down and overtake the syndicate ringleader, literally running him over and sandblasting his shorts off. The movie ends by freezing Keung and the others grinning in the control room of the hover craft.
~ ~ ~ ~

WHAT!? The cops are right there! What do they do with all the criminals?

At least show the syndicate thugs getting cuffed, at least show the street ruffians handing over a check for damages and lost merchandise. What happens to the kid's wheelchair, and which guy does the kid's fickle sister choose? Having run over the ringleader, do the cops just figure "Well, that's enough punishment for a guy who had a dozen people killed over a handful of diamonds. Let him find some new pants and walk outta here."?

--G!


Everybody's acting tough,
words get spoken
And someone pulls a knife in Bobby's face

He turns away but it's too late,
he's gotta face them on his own

. --Brian Howe (with Bad Company)
. Boys Cry Tough
. Holy Water

[SpyOne]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

I'm still annoyed by the end of Blazing Saddles, myself.

But the biggest mess-of-an-ending, how-the-hell-do-we-finish-this-film has to be the 1960s version of Casino Royale. It's noisier and mmessier than Blazing Saddles. George Raft flipping a coin? The Frankenstein monster? Woody Allen with atomic burps?

I was going to mention this one.
I heard an interview with one of the writers, and he said that one day they suddenly realized that while their writers included some great and funny film writers (Woody Allen, Terry Southern, Billy Wilder, Joseph Heller, and Peter Sellers among them), "Not ONE of us knew how to write an ending!"

[That Don Guy]

Originally Posted by Two Many Cats

Or how about the more famous Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Everybody gets arrested. I think they just ran out of movie.

Close - they just ran out of money. There were going to be reasonably elaborate closing credits, presumably by Terry Gilliam, but the lack of money resulted in the "black screen and organ music for two minutes" ending.

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by That Don Guy

Close - they just ran out of money. There were going to be reasonably elaborate closing credits, presumably by Terry Gilliam, but the lack of money resulted in the "black screen and organ music for two minutes" ending.

Monty Python weren't really known for their endings, anyway. Of the sketches in the TV series, I can only think of a few that really had any sort of a finish to them. Their humor was in the buildup, and not the punchline. Of course, Life of Brian had one of the best endings, ever.


I'll add Le Salaire de la Peur (Wages of Fear in the U.S.). Four men with nothing to live for are offered a fortune to deliver unstable explosives over dangerous roads to an oil well fire. Only one completes the trip. Finally safe, he is driving back to collect his reward, happily swerving back and forth on a mountain road, when he goes through the guardrail and is killed. I know someone will say how existential and French it was, "doo not to tempt zee fates, yes?", but it just came out of nowhere. I prefer the American remake, Sorcerer. The ending is equally bleak, but it is the character's past catching up with him, not just a deus ex michelin.

[NDP]

The OP mentions the film adaptation of Travels With My Aunt which is based on a novel by Graham Greene. I've read a lot of Graham Greene but I somehow missed "Travels With My Aunt" so I don't know if the film's ending is the same as the book's. Perhaps another Doper can fill us in.

Originally Posted by Robot Arm

I'll add Le Salaire de la Peur (Wages of Fear in the U.S.). Four men with nothing to live for are offered a fortune to deliver unstable explosives over dangerous roads to an oil well fire. Only one completes the trip. Finally safe, he is driving back to collect his reward, happily swerving back and forth on a mountain road, when he goes through the guardrail and is killed. I know someone will say how existential and French it was, "doo not to tempt zee fates, yes?", but it just came out of nowhere. I prefer the American remake, Sorcerer. The ending is equally bleak, but it is the character's past catching up with him, not just a deus ex michelin.

Don't forget that we also see the girlfriend of the driver suddenly drop dead while she's dancing in the cafe. I realize they were going for a downer ending but, viewing it from today's perspective, so much random tragedy is piled on that it seems like a parody.

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by NDP

Don't forget that we also see the girlfriend of the driver suddenly drop dead while she's dancing in the cafe. I realize they were going for a downer ending but, viewing it from today's perspective, so much random tragedy is piled on that it seems like a parody.

Yeah, I found the scene on youtube to refresh my memory before writing my post. (I couldn't remember if it was a rock slide or a tire blowout that forced Mario off the road. Neither one, actually; he was just being an idiot.) It's not absolutely clear she's dead; may have just fainted for some reason. However, she's rather too well-dressed and made-up, consider the location and circumstances. The remake made the town so much more bleak and depressing; where you'd wind up if you really had to disappear.

[Diceman]

Originally Posted by Two Many Cats

Or how about the more famous Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Everybody gets arrested. I think they just ran out of movie.

I'll second this. I don't care how quintessentially British the humor is, or whatever other lame excuse you care to use. It's like they just got bored with the movie and said "Screw it! Let's wrap this thing up so we can go home."

[RealityChuck]

Originally Posted by Diceman

I'll second this. I don't care how quintessentially British the humor is, or whatever other lame excuse you care to use. It's like they just got bored with the movie and said "Screw it! Let's wrap this thing up so we can go home."

So you haven't actually seen the movie, have you? Because if you had, you would have noticed that the ending was set up by several scenes all throughout (the professor being killed by the knight, the police investigating their murder). There were additional scenes not shot that would have further continued that line, too, so the entire thing was planned from the beginning (something that should be obvious to anyone paying attention). If the ending was dictated by running out of money, how was it they had enough money to shoot all those extra scenes?

The ending is one of the funniest in film.

[TreacherousCretin]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

So you haven't actually seen the movie, have you? Because if you had, you would have noticed that the ending was set up by several scenes all throughout (the professor being killed by the knight, the police investigating their murder). There were additional scenes not shot that would have further continued that line, too, so the entire thing was planned from the beginning (something that should be obvious to anyone paying attention). If the ending was dictated by running out of money, how was it they had enough money to shoot all those extra scenes?

The ending is one of the funniest in film.

Couldn't agree more.

.

[Latimera]

Originally Posted by TreacherousCretin

Couldn't agree more.

.

Regarding Monty Python and the Holy Grail: I saw the movie in the theatre when it first came out, along with a bunch of other rabid Monty Python fans. The ending was pretty much what we expected and completely fit with the kind of endings to their skits on the TV series. We all loved it.

I can see that if you didn't grow up watching the series, and weren't used to their particular form of editing, the ending might have been annoying.

But it made sense in a Monte Python kind of way. And back then I didn't hear anyone complain about the movie ending. It was Monty Python after all!

[Miller]

Originally Posted by Latimera

Regarding Monty Python and the Holy Grail: I saw the movie in the theatre when it first came out, along with a bunch of other rabid Monty Python fans. The ending was pretty much what we expected and completely fit with the kind of endings to their skits on the TV series. We all loved it.

I can see that if you didn't grow up watching the series, and weren't used to their particular form of editing, the ending might have been annoying.

But it made sense in a Monte Python kind of way. And back then I didn't hear anyone complain about the movie ending. It was Monty Python after all!

I, too, grew up watching Python, and was a big fan of the show before I saw the movie. I still don't like the way the movie ends. Yes, I have no doubt it was written that way in the script before they started shooting. It still feels like a cop-out.

On TV, they'd have a series of nameless, ill-defined characters who would only be seen for maybe five minutes, tops, and then vanish entirely, never to be seen again. And that worked great, for that format. In Holy Grail, you have a set of distinct, recognizable protagonists with a clearly defined goal. While the intent of the movie was pretty clearly, "Let's do a bunch of loosely connected sketches on the theme of medievalism and Arthurian myth," by connecting the sketches with an identifiable story, it's hard not to become invested in that story to some degree. When the story goes nowhere, and entirely lacks any sort of climax, there's an inevitable let down.

I think the problem really becomes apparent when you compare it to other Monty Python movies. Life of Brian has the classic Python comedy aesthetic, but tied it to a story that was genuinely compelling, and built to a satisfying conclusion. Even The Meaning of Life, while lacking consistent protagonists or central plot, still has a structure that builds towards a strong conclusion. Knowing that they could do Python comedy within the framework of a functional narrative, it makes Holy Grail feel a bit of a missed opportunity. I would have loved to see an Arthurian movie, with the Python humor, that actually delivered on the story.

[Miller]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

So you haven't actually seen the movie, have you? Because if you had, you would have noticed that the ending was set up by several scenes all throughout (the professor being killed by the knight, the police investigating their murder). There were additional scenes not shot that would have further continued that line, too, so the entire thing was planned from the beginning (something that should be obvious to anyone paying attention). If the ending was dictated by running out of money, how was it they had enough money to shoot all those extra scenes?

This is a really devastating argument. Because as we all know, there no physical way for footage shot later to be inserted at an earlier point in the film. Someday, perhaps, the technology might exist to allow us to shoot a film out of order, and then assemble it so that scenes shot late in the production might show up early in the film. Of course, most people dismiss that as a pipe dream, but with sufficient technological progress, who knows what we might achieve?

The ending is one of the funniest in film.

Not seem many films, have you?

[DMark]

The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie - actually quite a beautiful film, and up to the ending, entertaining enough.

But seriously, what a stupid, bogus, bullshit, unbelievable ending!
The audience at the screening I was at groaned out loud at how lame it was - some even laughing at the ridiculousness.

When I heard that this was a re-make of a French film, and that the reviewers of the original French film all hated that dumbass ending, I thought, "And they decided to re-make this film and keep the same exact ending people loathed the first time around?!"

[Lochdale]

Originally Posted by Miller

Not seem many films, have you?

You're totally right. The ending was a real cop out.

[Diceman]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

So you haven't actually seen the movie, have you? Because if you had, you would have noticed that the ending was set up by several scenes all throughout (the professor being killed by the knight, the police investigating their murder). There were additional scenes not shot that would have further continued that line, too, so the entire thing was planned from the beginning (something that should be obvious to anyone paying attention). If the ending was dictated by running out of money, how was it they had enough money to shoot all those extra scenes?

The ending is one of the funniest in film.

Sorry, but having the editors splice in a couple of 2-second scenes doesn't mean that that the ending is properly set up. Or that it isn't lame.

[Sauron]

RE: Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

Originally Posted by Diceman

Sorry, but having the editors splice in a couple of 2-second scenes doesn't mean that that the ending is properly set up. Or that it isn't lame.

The whole MOVIE is a series of spliced-together scenes. Seriously, do you think Lancelot's attack on the wedding, or Tim the Sorcerer and the battle with the rabbit, or King Arthur's encounter with the Knights Who Say Ni, or Sir Robin's minstrels, or King Arthur's battle with the Black Knight, or Sir Galahad's adventure after wicked, naughty, evil Zoot turned on the Grail light, were in any way necessary to advance the overall plot of searching for the Holy Grail?

It's Python humor. It's what they did. I understand it's a matter of taste, but to try to argue they didn't intend for the movie to end the way it did, even after being told the script was shot as written, is sorta silly.

[CalMeacham]

Reportedly nobody liked the ending of the 1975 film Lucky Lady, so they re-filmed it multiple times (spoilers, but who cares? Who even saw this movie?):

The original ending had Kibby Womack and Walker Ellis gunned down by government agents with Claire watching, and was followed by scenes ten years later of Claire, now married to her wealthy but dull boyfriend and with a son, reminiscing about her romantic youth. Director Stanley Donen felt the finished film was too comedic in tone for such a downbeat ending so Donen, Hackman and Reynolds went to Rome where Minnelli was shooting A Matter of Time and filmed a new ending. The trio were shown with "old age" make-up still together in bed at age 70. This ending wasn't satisfactory to the actors involved, so footage shot earlier of the threesome young and happy was substituted instead. Some of the unused ending footage ended up on the syndicated Fox TV show That's Hollywood.

I've heard about yet another filmed ending, besides these.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073317/trivia

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Sauron

RE: Monty Python and the Holy Grail:



The whole MOVIE is a series of spliced-together scenes. Seriously, do you think Lancelot's attack on the wedding, or Tim the Sorcerer and the battle with the rabbit, or King Arthur's encounter with the Knights Who Say Ni, or Sir Robin's minstrels, or King Arthur's battle with the Black Knight, or Sir Galahad's adventure after wicked, naughty, evil Zoot turned on the Grail light, were in any way necessary to advance the overall plot of searching for the Holy Grail?

It's Python humor. It's what they did. I understand it's a matter of taste, but to try to argue they didn't intend for the movie to end the way it did, even after being told the script was shot as written, is sorta silly.

Isn't that the usual structure for chivalry novels, including the Arturic cycle(s)? A bunch of short stories, some with the same protagonists and some with different ones, told in an order which may or may not be entirely chronological and more-or-less pulled together by a main story. It's not even "Python humor", it's the genre they were spoofing!

[lisiate]

The Mainland China ending of Infernal Affairs (the movie remade in the US as The Departed) has to be up there. In the original ending the triad mole in the police force gets away clean. This couldn't be shown under the Mainland Chinese equivalent of the Hayes Code, which prohibited films ending with criminals unpunished, so an extremely unconvincing scene was grafted on to the end where the mole meekly surrenders to hordes of uniformed police when he steps out of the elevator.

[Grumman]

Originally Posted by lisiate

The Mainland China ending of Infernal Affairs (the movie remade in the US as The Departed) has to be up there. In the original ending the triad mole in the police force gets away clean. This couldn't be shown under the Mainland Chinese equivalent of the Hayes Code, which prohibited films ending with criminals unpunished, so an extremely unconvincing scene was grafted on to the end where the mole meekly surrenders to hordes of uniformed police when he steps out of the elevator.

The creators of The Departed pulled the same bullshit. The mole gets shot at the end of that one, instead of the superior ending you mention.

Originally Posted by MPB in Salt Lake

In a thread like this, I think a big part of the criteria depends on whether the movie is more or less realistic or not, which is why a movie like Holy Grail should get a pass, (clearly Monty Python wasn't going for an accurate historical drama) when films like The Pelican Brief (featuring one of the most eye-rolling endings I can ever remember) should not.

Speaking of which, there's my old thread about John Grisham's bad endings.

[Hottius Maximus]

After watching "Burn After Reading" I just asked myself WHAT THE HELL was THAT all about!? Totally senseless!

I agree about "Magnolia" and I'll add that neither the beginning nor the ending made any sense and had NOTHING to do with the rest of the movie. The in-between parts were good though.


"No Country For Old Men" yeah that made no sense to me either.

And i forget the title here, but the David Lynch film with Robert Blake; I think it was called "Lost Highway" but I'm sure somebody here will correct me if I'm wrong.

[tellyworth]

Originally Posted by Hottius Maximus

And i forget the title here, but the David Lynch film with Robert Blake; I think it was called "Lost Highway" but I'm sure somebody here will correct me if I'm wrong.

Lost Highway, yes. It doesn't have an ending. It loops.

[Uncle Jocko]

Originally Posted by Hottius Maximus

After watching "Burn After Reading" I just asked myself WHAT THE HELL was THAT all about!? Totally senseless!

Yeah, but JK Simmons' scene at the end almost made it all worthwhile.

JK Simmons is awesome.

[Hottius Maximus]

Originally Posted by Uncle Jocko

Yeah, but JK Simmons' scene at the end almost made it all worthwhile.

JK Simmons is awesome.

I Agree. JK Simmons is an awesome character actor; the best kind, in my opinion.

[AClockworkMelon]

Originally Posted by Hottius Maximus

After watching "Burn After Reading" I just asked myself WHAT THE HELL was THAT all about!? Totally senseless!

You aren't very familiar with the Coen brothers, are you? I thought it was amazing.

[Hottius Maximus]

Originally Posted by AClockworkMelon

You aren't very familiar with the Coen brothers, are you? I thought it was amazing.

Actually I have seen most of their films. Some I enjoyed (Fargo, Blood Simple, even Barton Fink, as slow as it was). I thought Big Lebowski SUCKED BIG TIME! And I actually was enjoying Burn After Reading until the ending.

[msmith537]

Originally Posted by Hottius Maximus

After watching "Burn After Reading" I just asked myself WHAT THE HELL was THAT all about!? Totally senseless!

Well...They will just have to learn their lesson and not do...whatever it was they did.



How about the ending of Wicker Man starring Nicholas Cage? AHHHH!! THE BEES!!!

[thelurkinghorror]

Originally Posted by Bakhesh

yeah, that's what I came here to add. It annoyed me so much, I don't think I've seen another Tim Burton movie since

Besides being a blatant sequel grab, it was okay. And really, after the same Hot Topic pseudogoth film being made 12 times, this is the straw that broke the monkey's back?

Originally Posted by msmith537

How about the ending of Wicker Man starring Nicholas Cage? AHHHH!! THE BEES!!!

Common mistake. That wasn't a movie; it was a trailer for many youtube parodies.

[Boyo Jim]

Originally Posted by msmith537

Well...They will just have to learn their lesson and not do...whatever it was they did.



How about the ending of Wicker Man starring Nicholas Cage? AHHHH!! THE BEES!!!

I got the impression that all the beehives spontaneously appeared on the island in the middle of the film. But IMHO for most people the ending doesn't matter because they will be able to control their retching long enough to get to it. But I'm weird -- I thought it was so awful that it turned the corner into being hysterically funny.

And BTW, I LOVED Burn After Reading, and I imagine that about 80% of domestic intelligence work is pretty much just like it.

[Labtrash]

The Mist.

Fucking Hollywood.

[Ibn Warraq]

Originally Posted by Labtrash

The Mist.

Fucking Hollywood.

Really?

I thought that ending was great.

For that matter, so did Stephen King who IIRC, said he wished he'd thought of it first.

[Wesley Clark]

The mist had a great ending. Well, not 'great' but a very memorable one.

The movie Vanishing on 7th Street had a good plot and ending to me, but a lot of people didn't like it because it left things unresolved. To me that was a big part of the appeal.

On an unrelated note, Ink had one of the best endings I've seen.

[Greekfreak]

"Sliver" wins, hands down.

Voyeur runs a building, there's a murderer we're not quite sure is him, Sharon finds out about his CCTV fetish, points a remote control to the camera (his perspective) and says "Get a life". Roll credits.

I was never more embarrassed for a director. The soundtrack was wicked, though.

Later on, Joe Esterhas the screenwriter explained that the original ending was she finds out the voyeur is the killer but she doesn't care, she loves him anyway. Sharon Stone apparently added the "Get a life" line.

[MPB in Salt Lake]

In a thread like this, I think a big part of the criteria depends on whether the movie is more or less realistic or not, which is why a movie like Holy Grail should get a pass, (clearly Monty Python wasn't going for an accurate historical drama) when films like The Pelican Brief (featuring one of the most eye-rolling endings I can ever remember) should not.
---------------------------------------------
I recently saw a thriller called The Lookout, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt that was actually quite good, right all the way up until the laughably, insultingly ridiculous ending had me looking for something to throw thru the TV screen.

JGL played a rich kid who suffered a traumatic brain injury due to a car accident. He gets a job as a janitor in a small town bank, but he is bitter that he can't rise above his menial position. He is befriended by a group of criminals who persuade him to help them rob his bank, which he reluctantly agrees to participate in. Of course the robbery goes bad, several people are killed (including a cop) but apparently when all is said and done, he is let off scot free to continue his life, instead of being locked up for the rest of his life on accessory to murder charges....

I have obviously glossed over a ton of stuff, but overall it was a pretty tight little movie up until the VERY end, at which point it made me feel like I had been roundly told to "Fuck Off, Sucker!" by the entire cast & crew.

[don't ask]

Originally Posted by MPB in Salt Lake

I recently saw a thriller called The Lookout, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt that was actually quite good, right all the way up until the laughably, insultingly ridiculous ending had me looking for something to throw thru the TV screen.

JGL played a rich kid who suffered a traumatic brain injury due to a car accident. He gets a job as a janitor in a small town bank, but he is bitter that he can't rise above his menial position. He is befriended by a group of criminals who persuade him to help them rob his bank, which he reluctantly agrees to participate in. Of course the robbery goes bad, several people are killed (including a cop) but apparently when all is said and done, he is let off scot free to continue his life, instead of being locked up for the rest of his life on accessory to murder charges....

I have obviously glossed over a ton of stuff, but overall it was a pretty tight little movie up until the VERY end, at which point it made me feel like I had been roundly told to "Fuck Off, Sucker!" by the entire cast & crew.

Oh I don't know -

SPOILER:

rich kid, brain damage, saved Lewis's life, forced at gunpoint to participate (all on video).

I can see a prosecutor thinking, "why bother." Great little lesser known movie too.

I hated Extremeties a pretty good setup that turns to shit. Farrah Fawcett plays (very well) a woman who is almost raped in her own home. She manages to capture and imprison the rapist who tells her that he has set things up so that he will be able to convince the cops that she is a nut not a victim. He will be set free and will get her. She believes him and thinks she should kill him and bury him in the yard. Her housemates return and they argue to and fro about this moral dilemma - if they call the police he will get off, to be safe she must kill him. So with no warning at all

SPOILER:

he confesses to being a serial killer so that if they call the police he'll be jailed for life

The end.

As for Python they had already used the police device in episode 29 The Money Programme which features The Argument Sketch . The entire history of the Holy Grail script is available online without much effort. The original rejected script was called Monty Python's Second Film. The shooting script for the movie, with annotated differences, is also available. It indicates that the ending is entirely as written.

[Pine Fresh Scent]

Originally Posted by Ibn Warraq

The Mist.

Fucking Hollywood.

Really?

I thought that ending was great.

For that matter, so did Stephen King who IIRC, said he wished he'd thought of it first.

I prefer the novella's end and found this re-edited ending for the movie that matches it. When I think about the film, this is the ending I play in my mind.

Hottius Maximus, I was also "left hanging" by the ending for No Country until someone explained that Tommy Lee Jones' character is the protagonist, not Chigurh or Llewelyn, making the story about Sheriff Bell's decision to engage in the ultra-violent contemporary world, or to retire and live in the past for the rest of his days. In that light, his dream story about his father makes an appropriate ending (as does his narrative story at the beginning), but it sure wasn't what I was expecting based on the cat and mouse between Moss and Chigurh.

[Labtrash]

Originally Posted by Pine Fresh Scent

I prefer the novella's end and found this re-edited ending for the movie that matches it. When I think about the film, this is the ending I play in my mind.

Re: the Mist's crappy ending:

I've never seen that clip until today - it will now play in my head if I ever watch it again - I'll just change the channel after the walkover.

Thank you for that.

[Hamlet]

Originally Posted by Labtrash

Re: the Mist's crappy ending:

I've never seen that clip until today - it will now play in my head if I ever watch it again - I'll just change the channel after the walkover.

Thank you for that.

I had waited over 20 fucking years for one of my favorite short stories to be turned into a movie. Having seen too many movies fuck over books that I loved (I'm looking at you animated Lord of the Rings and Maximum Overdrive), I was incredibly leery of watching it, but as the film went on I became more and more enthralled with it. It won me over completely (especially the nutjob performance by Marcia Gay Harden) and I turned off my disconnect, suspended my disbelief, and learned to love the movie.

Then BAM!, that piece of fetid garbage passing as an ending. Words can barely express how much I hated that ending, from the rampant stupidity of once intelligent characters to the ultimate "we're just fucking with you now" by the filmmakers when the "reveal" was revealed. It wasn't just different from the book, it was stupid, nonsensical, and changed the characters to fit some kind of dumbass twist ending.

I hated it then. I hate it now. Sure it's no Santa Sangre, but that ending was absolutely horrible.