Hey Stranger, thanks for the spoiler warning. I wanted to see the Abyss, too. I was going to contribute to this thread, but am no longer in the mood.
The original theatre release of Blade Runner should have ended with the elevator doors closing.
IE where the director ended it.
Die Hard: With a Vengeance is a fun and clever send-up of the first two films. Much like Star Trek IV and Gremlins 2 it takes a more-or-less serious franchise and has fun with it.
Unfortunately it just goes on way too long. Lots of scenes should have been cut. Evacuating the school was particularly unnecessary. Driving the truck through the tunnel didn’t add much. A lot of stuff on the freighter could go too.
It might take some creative editing to get rid of those scenes and still have the ending make sense, but since the whole thing was already so goofy I don’t think it would be that hard.
It’s a 17 year old movie. Nobody is spoilering Forrest Gump or Mystic River, and they’re both far more recent. Plus, you have plenty of time–nearly the first paragraph before any significant detail is admitted–to decide that you don’t want the movie spoiled and stop reading. Get a grip.
Stranger
Full Metal Jacket. Should have ended at the completion of the Boot Camp scenes - the Vietnam scenes are not nearly so interesting. Having said that, for all I know it might have the most amazing ending ever - I’ll never know because I’ve always given up on it long before I get there.
agreed. the only thing worth watching after boot camp is over is the whole “me so horny” bit, and even that ain’t all that great.
Boogie Nights - should have ended on the cut to black after Julianne Moore and Heather Graham are doing coke in the bedroom and one of them says (words to the effect of) “I never want to come out of this room again”. The rest of the film is just pointless.
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Psycho is a great picture, but it’s got a completely unnecessary expository scene at the end with Simon Oakland as a shrink who explains Norman Bate’s screwed-up head and double identity to us. (Several good Hitchcock movies have annoying, clumsy exposition, most notably Vertigo.) Psycho should have either ended with the great climax in the attic, or cut from there directly to Norman in the nuthatch, with the internal monologue in his mother’s voice.
This is true, but he did manage to finally complete it, which is now called the Abyss - the Special Edition.
I think it actually makes a lot more sense then the bastardised version that was shown in cinemas that made no sense whatsoever.
But I do agree that is a bit hackneyed, although I absolutely love that movie.
Armagedon was not terribly bad until they took off. We could have skipped the whole silly toy commercial and just do with about 15 more minutes to let us know that they had some sort of success and call it that.
Bad Santa should have ended with BIlly Bob laying shot on the front porch.
Instead, this otherwise “brave” movie goes to the most stupid, out of character ending when he sends the boy letters from jail. If ever an ending felt tacked on because some focus group didn’t like the downer aspect of it, it was this.
It almost felt like if Titanic ended and then she met Jack on a rescue ship, “I made it, Rose, I made it!”
I opened this thread intending to nominate The Abyss, not realizing it’s what prompted the thread. It has nothing to do with the Special Edition stuff. Even in the as-reloeased version, the film feels too damned long, and it’s not structured well – it has too many climaxes. My wife has taken to calling it “The Abysmal”. I like it myself, but not anywhere near as much as I would if it were considerably shorn. (By the way, I prefer , as in all Cameron movies, the Special Edition. His director’s cuts of Aliens and Terminator 2 were much better and more complete than the released versions.)
Marie Antoinette should have ended at the balcony scene.
Chasing Amy should have ended after the scene in the pickup truck in the rain. What comes after that isn’t nearly as good or interesting as what came before.
I used to agree with you, but now I think that scene is an (extremely) straight-faced joke on Hitchcock’s part.
But it does bring things to a screeching halt.
A joke? I don’t get it.
That one with Tom Hanks stranded on the island became a bore once he was rescued.
For entirely opposite reasons (read: there’s a hopeless romantic underneath this gruff heartless exterior), I always, like Willow, stop the DVD of Moulin Rouge! at Chapter 32 so it has a happy ending. 
Darn right.
I know there are many other reasons to hate it but I think the ending to “Revenge of the Sith” would have been much stronger if they had stopped right after they stood Darth Vader up. (pause) Roll credits.
Did we really need a recap of what just happened five minutes ago? And I think the world would be a better place without NOOOOOOOOO!!!