# Movies that start out seeming like masterpieces but then plummet to earth **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2014, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537 "2014-04-20T10:56:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/41 "2014-04-21T16:56:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Octopussy**. Yes, the James Bond movie. It wasn’t exactly looking like a masterpiece, but it started out much better than you’d think, then descended into awfulness. > > The pre-credits opening was cheesy, I admit, but that was par for the course with those segments, and the mini-jet was pretty cool. After that, the movie gives us the dying agent dressed as a clown and the Soviet general laying out his plan for invasion. Pretty good stuff. The previous Bond movie, **For Your Eyes Only** , had been the best Bond movie in ages, getting rid of the Christopher Wood puerilities, getting Bond back to basics, and even adapting the story directly from three of Fleming’s Bond stories (the titular For Your Eyes Only, the bulk of it from Risico, in the same collection, and with a dash from the novel Live and Let Die). Octopussy looked like it was going the same route – weave a new story out of bits of unused Fleming stories. Aficianados could already see the Faberge Egg was from Property of a Lady (a story in the collection published as Octopussy). Presumably they were going to work bits from the story Octopussy in as well. > > But then it all went stupid, with the Island of Women, Bond in a Tiger Hunt 9and that stupid dog-training joke), Q in a hot air balloon, and the whole circus thing. > > The basic idea of the “Let’s blow up a nuclear device at a US base” ploy was credible – in fact, it was the same plot as in the Frederick Forsyth novel _The Fifth Protocol_ that came out about the same time (and got turned into a movie with future bond Pierce Brosnan). But it was buried in so much awful that nobody cared. The low point had to be Bond dressed and made up as a clown. A couple of other Bond movies are like this. Moonraker had an awesome opening sequence, with Bond and Jaws fighting over a parachute in midair, and a great fight scene in Venice. It also had what is probably one of the best one liners in the series: Bond and Drax are out hunting, and Bond fires. Hugo Drax: You missed, Mr. Bond. [a sniper falls from a tree] James Bond: Did I? I’d rank the first 90 minutes or so up there with the best Bond movie of the '70s, The Spy Who Loved Me. But then the movie goes into space and the last half-hour or so feels like a second-rate knock off of Star Wars. Die Another Day is another that starts out promisingly - Is Bond a double agent? But it quickly falls off the rails. Invisible car, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/42 "2014-04-21T17:07:02Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > A couple of other Bond movies are like this. Moonraker had an awesome opening sequence, with Bond and Jaws fighting over a parachute in midair, and a great fight scene in Venice. It also had what is probably one of the best one liners in the series: > > Bond and Drax are out hunting, and Bond fires. > Hugo Drax: You missed, Mr. Bond. > [a sniper falls from a tree] > James Bond: Did I? +1. And before that, this gem from Drax: “Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/43 "2014-04-21T17:25:45Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > [Also, _Titanic_ would have been a better movie with the middle hour excised. You know what’s funny-check out _History is Made At Night_. It’s basically _Titanic_ without the sinking, or, in other words, the middle hour. “It deals with a love triangle among a possessive shipping magnate, his beautiful wife, and a French headwaiter, with a spectacular ocean liner as a backdrop.” The boat also strikes an iceberg. It’s not that bad, for what it is. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/44 "2014-04-21T18:11:21Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Read the OP a few hours ago but didn’t have time to type this. Exactly what I thought when I first read the OP. Outstanding right up until they make it off Omaha Beach, and then goes steadily downhill from there. But Jesus, what an opening scene! I thought the actual combat scenes were extremely good in the movie- whether we’re talking the initial beach scenes, or the later fighting in the small French town (except for the mortar bomb bit; that was stupid). All the stuff in the middle was kind of forgettable though. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/45 "2014-04-21T18:17:50Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Oh, yes. It’s my personal view that the only Monty Python movie to have an actual ending is **Life of Brian**. The first time I saw it, I was shocked. Pleasantly shocked, but shocked. I agree. I think their work is brilliant, but even their sketches didn’t always have an ending. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/46 "2014-04-21T18:27:19Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I agree. I think their work is brilliant, but even their sketches didn’t always have an ending. In fact, they developed their format in part so they didn’t have to provide a punchline for every sketch. Instead the sketch would veer off on a tangent and then segue into “something completely different.” ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/47 "2014-04-21T21:46:24Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > I was going to say the first Matrix. Oh, it’s a great movie, but I remember watching it and feeling disappointment that a science fiction film with such an original point of view, and so many good ideas, culminated in a John Woo-style shoot-'em-up. Actually, the final subway fight was an homage to Jet Li’s Fist of Legend. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/48 "2014-04-21T22:03:44Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Nope, it seems to solely be the work of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland. > > [Sunshine (2007 film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_%282007_film%29#Production) Huh. There’s this though, from that article: > [@](#): > > Producer Andrew Macdonald, working with Boyle and Garland, pitched the script to 20th Century Fox, who were reluctant to finance the film based on its similarities to the 2002 remake Solaris, which performed dismally for the studio. Makes me wonder if they preemptively added the slasher element before their next pitch meeting to make it less like \*Solaris \*and more marketable. > [@BlueOhio](#): > > I thought the beginning scene in the farmhouse of The Inglorious Basterds was fantastic, but didn’t really care for the rest of the movie. Yeah, good call. The rest of it was okay but not at the level of that opening bit, agreed. > [@PeacePlease](#): > > There was a reason that ‘Shakespeare in Love’ won the Oscar (very well deserved). I didn’t think any of the nominees that year were very good (unless you count the foreign film nominees: _Central Station_, which won, was excellent). Yet it wasn’t actually a bad year in cinema. The movies released in 1998 that I’d consider better than any of the Oscar nominees include: _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Your Friends & Neighbors Happiness Last Night Central Station Deep Impact Out of Sight Pleasantville There’s Something About Mary The Truman Show Pi Rounders American History X The Big Lebowski Rushmore High Art Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels_ ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/49 "2014-04-21T23:22:25Z")
These aren’t classics, but they could have been much better than they were. The beginning half of Cloverfield was terrific. It was the first movie that I had seen with such a great viral marketing scheme that blurred the lines between real and fake (I never watched Blair Witch so I never got into that whole thing). In retrospect, once the bugs and the monster came out, it was just another shakey-cam monster movie. It would have been much better if they never showed the monster at all. I also felt that the mood set with the first half of the horror movie Chernobyl Diaries was great, but starts feeling like a typical slasher movie once they find the mutants. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/50 "2014-04-21T23:31:55Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Huh. There’s this though, from that article: > > > [@](#): > > > > Producer Andrew Macdonald, working with Boyle and Garland, pitched the script to 20th Century Fox, who were reluctant to finance the film based on its similarities to the 2002 remake Solaris, which performed dismally for the studio. > > Makes me wonder if they preemptively added the slasher element before their next pitch meeting to make it less like \*Solaris \*and more marketable. If they did, they forgot to actually market the slasher part. I don’t remember it appearing in any of the trailers (if I remember right, they emphasize the space madness part) and was pretty surprised just how slasher-y it got. Still liked it, though. ---
**Author:** ![chicagowhitesox1173](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/46a35a/32.png) [@chicagowhitesox1173](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chicagowhitesox1173)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/51 "2014-04-22T00:53:53Z")
Dawn the Dead the 2003 version started out great and then went nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/52 "2014-04-22T10:50:43Z")
> [@BlueOhio](#): > > I thought the beginning scene in the farmhouse of The Inglorious Basterds was fantastic, but didn’t really care for the rest of the movie. This seems to be something that Tarantino movies has been suffering from recently. The opening scenes of Django Unchained are also excellent, but the overall movie seems a bit underwhelming ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/53 "2014-04-22T11:20:09Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > I found the ending of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” sort of disappointing. Oh, and Sir Lancelot the Brave’s rescue of Sir Galahad the Chaste from great peril. That was very disappointing. Sir Not Appearing In This Film’s role was given far too much emphasis in early foreshadowing, I thought. 😉 I’ll agree with the suggesions of _Full Metal Jacket_ and the Matrix sequels, too. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/54 "2014-04-22T14:17:15Z")
I remember as a kid watching on TV the 1950s classic _The Giant Claw_. Great opening - Planes Being Knocked out of the Sky! Mysterious Shadows Hurtling across the Clouds! Whole World Gripped By Unknown Terror! It was really quite well done and suspenseful. Then, eventually, they had to show the Monster. And it was the 1950s. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hOj0nXpRqX8/hqdefault.jpg "The Giant Claw movie trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOj0nXpRqX8) Somehow, after spending 10 minutes rolling on the floor laughing, the movie had lost some of it’s tension… ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/55 "2014-04-22T14:31:42Z")
Phantom of the Opera started with the auction scene and a great visual treat as the chandelier rose and we’re transported back to the opera house in all its glory, great rehearsal scene, Emmy Rossum charms our socks off, the girl playing Meg Giry does a great job with the opening of Angel of Music (besides being gorgeous), the candles blow out and then… and then… Gerard Butler starts to sing. Which he can’t. Then the movie goes way off the original script and we see Mme. Giry’s background with the Phantom from way back, a totally unneeded tangent. The movie with such great promise comes up flat, due to a bloated script and the worst casting of a title role in history. Dittos for the Private Ryan comments. The Normandy Beach scene was just masterful. Then it turns into an ordinary melodrama. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/56 "2014-04-22T15:13:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Phantom of the Opera started with the auction scene and a great visual treat as the chandelier rose and we’re transported back to the opera house in all its glory, great rehearsal scene, Emmy Rossum charms our socks off, the girl playing Meg Giry does a great job with the opening of Angel of Music (besides being gorgeous), the candles blow out and then… and then… Gerard Butler starts to sing. Which he can’t. Then the movie goes way off the original script and we see Mme. Giry’s background with the Phantom from way back, a totally unneeded tangent. The movie with such great promise comes up flat, due to a bloated script and the worst casting of a title role in history. > > . I agree all the way, except that I’m not quite as hard on Butler’s singing as you are. He _can_ sing. He can’t sing well. He certainly can’t sing well enough to play this role. He’s more THIS … IS … PARIS!! And another item was his makeup – his phantom has to be the LEAST scary of any Phantom of the Opera (including Herbert Lom’s in the 1961 version). He looks like he has a bad case of Rosacea, at most. When they were exhibiting him as a kid (during the flashback sequences) what were they billing him as? The Kid With The Bad Sunburn? I also take issue with the “worst casting of a title role in history”. There are plenty of other contenders. Even if you confine yourself to Bad Singing in A Movie Musical, Peter O’Toole as Miguel Cervantes/Alonso Quijana/ Don Quixote in **Man of la Mancha** beats Butler hands down. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/57 "2014-04-22T15:17:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I agree all the way, except that I’m not quite as hard on Butler’s singing as you are. He _can_ sing. He can’t sing well. He certainly can’t sing well enough to play this role. He’s more THIS … IS … PARIS!! > > And another item was his makeup – his phantom has to be the LEAST scary of any Phantom of the Opera (including Herbert Lom’s in the 1961 version). He looks like he has a bad case of Rosacea, at most. When they were exhibiting him as a kid (during the flashback sequences) what were they billing him as? The Kid With The Bad Sunburn? > I also take issue with the “worst casting of a title role in history”. There are plenty of other contenders. Even if you confine yourself to Bad Singing in A Movie Musical, Peter O’Toole as Miguel Cervantes/Alonso Quijana/ Don Quixote in **Man of la Mancha** beats Butler hands down. Maybe I am a bit to hard on Gerry. Thanks for mentioning the makeup. Come on, the studio must have somebody that could make a realistically horrifying deformity. Oh, if they only had given the role to Antonio Banderas. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/58 "2014-04-22T15:37:22Z")
Eyes Wide Shut. Seriously, da fuck? ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537/59 "2014-04-22T17:26:49Z")
M. Night Shamalamadingdong-orwhatever’s **The Village**. Wait, it didn’t start like a masterpice. But I started out liking it. Then it nosedived into ( **Darth Panda** put it very well) > [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > Seriously, da fuck? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-start-out-seeming-like-masterpieces-but-then-plummet-to-earth/686537.md?page=2)