Stupidest Movie Endings?

[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.

[TriPolar]

I don't know if it's a stupid ending, or a great one, but I'll throw in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. I think some people cheered at the end of the movie because it was finally over.

[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.

[Krokodil]

Originally Posted by JKilez

I heard that they were setting it up for a sequel. They had a script all set for Monty Python's Second Holy Grail Film, but it was rejected.

OH! League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! I guess everyone involved was genuinely clueless about what a steaming turd it was, and thought fans would clamor for a sequel. No spoiler alert: They killed off Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), buried him, and showed the beginnings of a voodoo ceremony to revive him.

[Diceman]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

Nobody's going to mention 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Oooh, good one!

I've never read the book, but I've gathered that there's something about Dave meeting the aliens who created the Monolith. OK, whatever. Still, if you're not going to film enough of that ending to make sense, then don't try to half-ass it! Just have the movie end with Dave disappearing into the Monolith.

[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

[Gyrate]

Donnie Darko. I know this is a cult fave but the ending was a sloppy mess. The DVD actually had a lengthy text (the book that one woman wrote) as an extra which explained in more detail what all that weird time travel/alternative universe/whatever-you-want-to-call-it stuff was about, and it was STILL stupid.

Which is a pity, because the first two-thirds of the film was good and the general idea of the ending was good. They clearly didn't know how to get to the end in a coherent fashion.

[Sailboat]

Originally Posted by JKilez

I heard that they were setting it up for a sequel. They had a script all set for Monty Python's Second Holy Grail Film, but it was rejected.

"Hauled away by the police" sets up a sequel? Monty Python's Moldy Jail?

[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.

[thelurkinghorror]

Ahh. Disregard the first part of my post. I was thinking of the newer Planet of the Apes which was decent. And you got to see Draco Malfoy get the shit kicked out of him. No joke, I somehow blocked out the Monkey Lincoln movie.

[Ethilrist]

At the end of Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, they

SPOILER:

don't destroy Jared-Syn.

I mean, how hard is that to figure out? At least Penn & Teller got it right.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

I didn't really *get* the ending to no country for old men, but I won't say I didn't like it. It was definitely memorable. If somebody wants to give me a spoilered explanation, that'd be cool. What was the speech at the end all about?

This one?

Alright then. Two of 'em. Both had my father in 'em . It's peculiar. I'm older now then he ever was by twenty years. So in a sense he's the younger man. Anyway, first one I don't remember too well but it was about meeting him in town somewhere, he's gonna give me some money. I think I lost it. The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin' through the mountains of a night. Goin' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin'. Never said nothin' goin' by. He just rode on past... and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. 'Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin' on ahead and he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up...

The first dream is a recap of the plot of the movie. Found some money and lost it.

The second dream is about death. His father has ridden ahead of him, prepared a place ahead for him to join him, and then come back for him.

[Infovore]

I'm amazed we've gotten this far without anyone mentioning the TV-movie version of Stephen King's It. I mean, okay, the ending in the book wasn't great either and I can understand why they couldn't have a bunch of 12-year-olds having group sex in a TV movie, but seriously--the movie was good, and spooky, and a really good adaptation of the story until they brought in the

SPOILER:

laughably bad CGI spider as the final baddie

and then the whole thing just turned into a big joke.

[TriPolar]

Originally Posted by Infovore

I'm amazed we've gotten this far without anyone mentioning the TV-movie version of Stephen King's It. I mean, okay, the ending in the book wasn't great either and I can understand why they couldn't have a bunch of 12-year-olds having group sex in a TV movie, but seriously--the movie was good, and spooky, and a really good adaptation of the story until they brought in the

SPOILER:

laughably bad CGI spider as the final baddie

and then the whole thing just turned into a big joke.

I'm surprised... surprised that anyone finished the book or watched the end of the movie.

[Infovore]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

I'm surprised... surprised that anyone finished the book or watched the end of the movie.

Hey, now. I love "It," both book and movie. It's my favorite Stephen King novel, and I think aside from the ending, the movie did a really good job of translating the creepy to the screen. To each his own, I guess.

[Zebra]

Originally Posted by Diceman

Oooh, good one!

I've never read the book, but I've gathered that there's something about Dave meeting the aliens who created the Monolith. OK, whatever. Still, if you're not going to film enough of that ending to make sense, then don't try to half-ass it! Just have the movie end with Dave disappearing into the Monolith.

The end of 2001 was many things but it was not half assed.

[TriPolar]

Originally Posted by Infovore

Hey, now. I love "It," both book and movie. It's my favorite Stephen King novel, and I think aside from the ending, the movie did a really good job of translating the creepy to the screen. To each his own, I guess.

S'ok. We all have our likes and dislikes. Some King books, and most movies based on them get on my nerves. Sometimes I get into the characters and their running internal dialogue, and sometimes not.

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by Ethilrist

At the end of Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, they

SPOILER:

don't destroy Jared-Syn.

I thought

SPOILER:

it referred to the destruction he caused himself, not that he would be destroyed. It's still a shitty title.

[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.

[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.

[Pine Fresh Scent]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

I didn't really *get* the ending to no country for old men, but I won't say I didn't like it. It was definitely memorable. If somebody wants to give me a spoilered explanation, that'd be cool. What was the speech at the end all about?

Originally Posted by KneadToKnow

This one?

Alright then. Two of 'em. Both had my father in 'em . It's peculiar. I'm older now then he ever was by twenty years. So in a sense he's the younger man. Anyway, first one I don't remember too well but it was about meeting him in town somewhere, he's gonna give me some money. I think I lost it. The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin' through the mountains of a night. Goin' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin'. Never said nothin' goin' by. He just rode on past... and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. 'Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin' on ahead and he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up...

The first dream is a recap of the plot of the movie. Found some money and lost it.

The second dream is about death. His father has ridden ahead of him, prepared a place ahead for him to join him, and then come back for him.

My long, rambling discussion of the end follows. That's awesome about the first dream being a recap of the plot, KneadToKnow!

SPOILER:

From a few posts back (slight edits):

Originally Posted by Pine Fresh Scent

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 entire movie really 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 about his bewilderment at the murder-for-evil's-sake), but it sure wasn't what I was expecting based on the action-filled cat and mouse between Moss and Chigurh.

Again, the ending makes sense, but isn't what I was expecting, nor was it as satisfying as an Al Pacino Scarface-type sendoff for Chigurh. Stupid ending, bad ending? I don't think so, but not one the movie was leading up to, IMO.

Slight hijack: Reading the text of Sheriff Bell's dream above, It just now clicked for me that No County's author, Cormac McCarthy, again uses the concept (and exact words) "carrying the fire" in The Road to represent people who are trying to live good lives in evil worlds*. In No Country, Sheriff Bell must decide between continuing to fight evil men like Chugurh, the murderer in Bell's opening story, and the killer in the story Bell's uncle tells him from his wheelchair, or to retire.

Anyway, taking all that aboard, the true climax of the movie is when Bell returns to Llewelyn's room at night, not knowing if Chigurh is inside waiting to kill him. The Cohens do a great job of placing us in Bell's mind - is Chugurh really in the room, or is he in another place entirely? Bell might very well be dead in a few seconds, but his duties demand he open that door. I can totally understand why the stress of the job takes a toll on him and he "wakes up", realizes he's an old man like his father in a very rough country and retires.

*Several times in the book and movie The Road, the Man and the Boy tell each other they're "carrying the fire" i.e. they're still good people in a cold, dark world like the one in Sheriff Bell's dream of his father. The Boy also asks someone else at the end of the story if that person and his family "carry the fire" as a way of confirming their trustworthiness.

[Pine Fresh Scent]

Sorry, not to put too fine a point on it, but this scene made a lot more sense once I was told who the movie was really about. The first time I saw it I was confused why the Cohens/McCarthy put it there, but it pretty much sums up the points I was trying to make above.

Sheriff Bell goes to visit his shut-in uncle, the one with all the cats.
"I feel overmatched."
"What you got ain't nothin' new. This country's hard on people. You can't stop what's comin' - it ain't all waitin' on you. That's vanity."

[MaxTheVool]

Minnie Driver starred in an indie film called The Governess many years ago. The plot is that she's Jewish and applies for a job as a governess for a wealthy family, but has to pretend she's not Jewish to do so. She does so, much angsting ensues, all the members of the family have art-film quirks, etc., etc.

Eventually she returns home, and discovers that, with absolutely no relevance, warning or foreshadowing:

SPOILER:

Her family has all died of cholera

[Rollo Tomasi]

I'll throw in a vote for this year's Savages, based on a pretty good pulp novel by Don Winslow. The ending was pretty dark:

SPOILER:

One of the main characters dies of a gunshot wound, and the other two commit suicide

But the movie turned it into a ridiculously off-key happy ending, complete with a character rewinding the action from within the movie.

When people scornfully talk about a good book getting Hollywood-ized, this is exactly the kind of thing they're talking about.

[Maserschmidt]

There was this movie called "Identity" with John Cuasack and Ray Liotta, but I can't bring myself to describe the ending. Suffice to say it was like "Shutter Island" meets "Murder on the Orient Express," but less believable than either.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by Maserschmidt

There was this movie called "Identity" with John Cuasack and Ray Liotta, but I can't bring myself to describe the ending. Suffice to say it was like "Shutter Island" meets "Murder on the Orient Express," but less believable than either.

Actually, it had a lot more in common with the script proposed by Charlie Kaufmann's brother in Adaptation.

[NetTrekker]

Thelma and Louise.

[Askance]

The original cinema ending to Bladerunner was frickin' horrible. Suddenly the entire aesthetic of the movie vanishes and we're flying over a brilliant green forest on the way to a lovey-dovey dream home somewhere? Like the (probably apocryphal) tale that Harrison Ford's voice-over was deliberately bad, to underscore his and Scott's hatred for what they were forced to do to the movie, I often suspected the ending was deliberately jarring to try to make the studio reconsider. Fat chance.

[Sticks and Scones]

Originally Posted by Robot Arm

I'll add Le Salaire de la Peur (Wages of Fear in the U.S.).

I have nothing to add except that I first read this as Wangs of Fear.

[Bryan Ekers]

Originally Posted by Askance

The original cinema ending to Bladerunner was frickin' horrible. Suddenly the entire aesthetic of the movie vanishes and we're flying over a brilliant green forest on the way to a lovey-dovey dream home somewhere?

It never struck me as out-of-place. It's alluded to earlier in the film, and when I saw the director's cut which chopped the forest ending and left nothing in its place, I was somewhat taken aback.

[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.

[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.

[Boyo Jim]

Originally Posted by NetTrekker

Thelma and Louise.

Excellent choice! What a couple of maroons. Shit, at least they could have thrown in some lesbian action.

[don't ask]

Originally Posted by Boyo Jim

Excellent choice! What a couple of maroons. Shit, at least they could have thrown in some lesbian action.

What two women going down not lesbian enough?

[Boyo Jim]

Originally Posted by don't ask

What two women going down not lesbian enough?

Ya' know, allegorical lesbian scenes never did much for me.

[Diceman]

Originally Posted by Zebra

The end of 2001 was many things but it was not half assed.

Actually, yes it was. It would seem that Kubrick was trying to hint at the aliens, but he doesn't give the audience enough information to form any kind of reasonable conclusion, resulting in a confusing acid-trip of an ending. Conclusion: it was a poorly-directed ending.

[j_sum1]

Originally Posted by thelurkinghorror

Though I do hate the "I can't kill the bad guy, but it's ok when he falls off a cliff accidentally" moral meme.

Can't handle Disney's Beauty and the Beast either?

[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.

[Hoopy Frood]

Originally Posted by Askance

The original cinema ending to Bladerunner was frickin' horrible. Suddenly the entire aesthetic of the movie vanishes and we're flying over a brilliant green forest on the way to a lovey-dovey dream home somewhere? Like the (probably apocryphal) tale that Harrison Ford's voice-over was deliberately bad, to underscore his and Scott's hatred for what they were forced to do to the movie, I often suspected the ending was deliberately jarring to try to make the studio reconsider. Fat chance.

Yeah, I was going to mention that one. The whole green forest thing is actually stock footage from the cutting room floor of Kubrick's The Shining. And the movie was meant to end at the elevator from the beginning. Scott was pretty much forced to add that ending from what I understand.

Another movie with a stupid ending: Pay It Forward.

Yeah, let's kill Osment's character at the end of the movie. Why? Umm...well, really no good reason. The murder doesn't fit with the overall theme. And it doesn't add anything poignant. And there wasn't any comeuppance effect. (Cf. American History X.) It seems they decided that they just wanted the audience to really feel something coming out of the movie because ending it on a happy note would be just too Hollywood.

Except the attempted emotional manipulation was so blatantly obvious that the only emotion it elicited from me was eye-rolling.

Of course, the theatrical ending of Dodge Ball was actually the better of the proposed endings. Apparently the director wanted to end it with Vince Vaughan's character losing to Ben Stiller's, because life isn't all about happy endings and we don't always achieve our dreams.

Maybe true...but in a movie that is meant to be ridiculous and pulls it off pretty well, trying to add some deep meaning at the end just seems out of place. In a rare instance, the production company changing the ending was a good thing. Leave poignancy for poignant movies.

I'm still torn as to which of the Army of Darkness endings was better.

[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.

[Max Torque]

Originally Posted by Quimby

The recent alien invasion movie Skyline. I don't have to spoiler anything because it has no ending. The movie just stops. And yes, I am still bitter about that $8.50 I spent on that turd.

That happens also in Penny Dreadful, one of the "8 Films To Die For" shown at the first After Dark Horrorfest. I guess I'll spoilerbox it, but it's really lame:

SPOILER:

Killer stalks and just generally mentally tortures a girl for the whole movie. She finally gets away, the killer gets hit by a car on the highway. Yay, she escaped, killer's dead. Except, of course, HUGE musical sting, and the killer sits up very suddenly and she screams. And the screen goes black and the credits roll. HUH? The movie just stopped right in the middle of the conclusion! That's not an ending! ugh....

[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

[Deeg]

For understandable (but not good) reasons the end of the animated Lord of the Rings was awful. Right in the middle of a battle Gandalf throws up his sword and declares victory. Movie over.

[Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems]

Not exactly a bad ending technically, because it was only fifteen minutes into the film, but Shutter Island was over for me when I figured out the stunningly obvious gimmick the entire waste-of-time plot was built upon.

[Chronos]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was disappointed by the end of Blazing Saddles. Fourth-wall-breaking can be funny, but it has to be incorporated into the work as a whole: Woven in, rather than sewn on, as it were. When you have an entire movie in its self-contained world, and then suddenly the ending is all wall-breaking, it's jarring.

And not exactly a film (though I'm sure it's been filmed at some point) is Shakespeare's Love's Labour Lost. Right up until the last scene, it's your fairly standard light Shakespearean comedy, with stupid people falling madly in love at first sight and hijinks ensuing, and then all of a sudden the princess gets a message that her father has just died out of the blue and she and her entourage have to go home for the funeral, so they can't have the inevitable weddings. Where did that come from? And why?

[Two Many Cats]

Originally Posted by j_sum1

Can't handle Disney's Beauty and the Beast either?

Yeah, what's with Disney? The queen in Snow White falls off a cliff too.

[thelurkinghorror]

Originally Posted by Deeg

For understandable (but not good) reasons the end of the animated Lord of the Rings was awful. Right in the middle of a battle Gandalf throws up his sword and declares victory. Movie over.

Wasn't that due to a lack of money, time, or studio support? Looong time since I've seen it, but I remember liking it and the sequel, but still disappointed.

Originally Posted by Two Many Cats

Yeah, what's with Disney? The queen in Snow White falls off a cliff too.

It would be better if they all did the Goofy "aah-hoo-hoo-hooey" sound.

[SciFiSam]

Originally Posted by Chronos

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was disappointed by the end of Blazing Saddles. Fourth-wall-breaking can be funny, but it has to be incorporated into the work as a whole: Woven in, rather than sewn on, as it were. When you have an entire movie in its self-contained world, and then suddenly the ending is all wall-breaking, it's jarring.

And not exactly a film (though I'm sure it's been filmed at some point) is Shakespeare's Love's Labour Lost. Right up until the last scene, it's your fairly standard light Shakespearean comedy, with stupid people falling madly in love at first sight and hijinks ensuing, and then all of a sudden the princess gets a message that her father has just died out of the blue and she and her entourage have to go home for the funeral, so they can't have the inevitable weddings. Where did that come from? And why?

It was probably one of two plays. There is contemporary mention of a play called Love's Labours Won.

Although the Wiki article on it mentions other theories for what that could refer to, I find it blindingly obvious that there was a Shakespeare play called Love's Labours Won which carried on from Love's Labours Lost, and either the folio and other records of it were lost or it was simply so bad that early compilers ignored it, much like many people would like to with current film sequels.