# Movies that started off good then fell on their butt
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 10, 2004, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883 "2004-09-10T06:00:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/21 "2004-09-10T14:13:39Z")
**Ghost Ship** had one of the best movie openers I’ve ever seen. Great scene right there in the beginning.
And then things… just sort of … fell apart… right after that.
(I crack myself up sometimes.)
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/22 "2004-09-10T15:04:20Z")
**Alien** started out well, with a couple of false notes (smoking on a spaceship? Evidently air isn’t particularly important to these people). However, after the alien burst out of the chest, the rest was a bunch of complete morons running around finding ways to get themselves killed in the stupidest way possible. Truly a detestable movie.
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### Author:  [@ElectricZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElectricZ)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/23 "2004-09-10T15:19:25Z")
\*Stargate \*for me. It started out with a really interesting premise, good characters, production values and really held a sense of wonder and forboding as the heroes went through the stargate to the alien world. Everything was going fine with the discovery of the pyramid on the alien planet, along with all the humans who lived there as slaves. Up to this point it was a pretty thoughtful semi-hard sci-fi outing. And right when things get interesting, setting up the arrival of the bad guy “gods”… It turns out there are maybe six of them and they’re lead by the “guy” from The Crying Game. From there it just went downhill with a by the numbers, illogical action movie plot about revolution against an idiodic despot
complete with a TV-sitcom-everybody’s-smiling happy ending.]
Blech!
EZ
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/24 "2004-09-10T15:32:20Z")
I vote for **Jeepers Creepers**.
This movie started out very strong. Some good character development (much better than you’d expect in this sort of film). Nice job of building tension. Nice camera work. For the first 30 or 40 minutes I thought I was going to get a really well-made slasher movie…
…and then it turned into a really stupid and annoying monster movie, riddled with plot holes and crappy dialogue. Just went straight to hell.
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### Author:  [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/25 "2004-09-10T15:41:14Z")
_AI_ I had such high hopes for this movie. Kubrick was definitely working on something very special. On the other hand, Spielberg took it and turned it into another version of Pinocchio.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/26 "2004-09-10T16:10:55Z")
> [@supervenusfreak](#):
>
> _AI_ I had such high hopes for this movie. Kubrick was definitely working on something very special. On the other hand, Spielberg took it and turned it into another version of Pinocchio.
Good call. I think you still have a decent movie if you stop it in the right place, without the stupid ending. Someday I hope there’s a DVD version that will let you press a button, end the movie and roll the credits at the right point. The button will also give Spielberg an electrical shock as punishment.
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### Author:  [@Psycho\_Pirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Psycho_Pirate)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/27 "2004-09-10T16:24:56Z")
_Stripes_, people…_Stripes_.
The movie wanders aimlessly into oblivion.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/28 "2004-09-10T16:25:49Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#):
>
> Full Metal Jacket.
>
> What do I win?
That was actually two good (the first one being superior, granted) movies inexplicably welded into one uneven one.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/29 "2004-09-10T16:59:57Z")
_Training Day_ had great first and second acts, and then they put it on Action Movie Autopilot. Which is really sad, because it started out a really smart, thoughtful, ballsy movie. Then yaaaawn.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/30 "2004-09-10T17:19:34Z")
_Apocalypse Now_–mesmerizing for the first two hours, then Marlon Brando shows up and the whole thing collapses like a house of cards.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/31 "2004-09-10T17:39:54Z")
a lot of reviews of Demonlover said it fell apart halfway through – I disagree, I thought it was good through and through.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/32 "2004-09-10T17:42:19Z")
I was dragged into the theatre to see this one, as I usually hate these sorts of cheap horror flicks. But it started off alright. A bunch of people get lured to this house by a millionaire who wants to play a game. As the sun starts to go down, the doors and windows all bolt shut. They have to make it through the night in order to win the money.
Okay, that part sucked. But consider the setting. It was a mental institution in which all the patients had gone psycho and killed the doctors and then themselves. They had the ghost doctor who was doing that crazy headshake thing. I started thinking that this may have the potential to not suck.
Suddenly, it’s as if the following dialouge happened in the writers room while they were still making the script.
**Producer** : So, how much longer do you guys need?
**Writers** : We’re almost done. We just need another week or so.
**Producer** : You have 30 minutes.
We go from crazy psycho ghost doctors to a big, black, inky…something that sucks you up. It literally came out of nowhere. It sucked big time.
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/33 "2004-09-10T18:15:05Z")
_Triple X_ with Vin Diesel. I thought the movie started off great, new twist on the secret agent movie with younger grittier guys instead of the tired old, suave secret agent. (they even acknowledged this in the opening scene when the old school agent was offed at a rave). But about half-way through it devolved into the hackneyed “guy intent on destoying the world” crap with that ridiculous boat/bomb stuff. Ruined the entire movie…
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### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/34 "2004-09-10T18:40:34Z")
I think exactly the opposite is true with Alien vs. Predator. The entire setup was bad. Really bad. Painfully, insultingly stupid.
Once the movie stopped insisting on explaining every damn thing in exhaustive detail, (bear in mind that the detail made absolutely no sense and was deeply stupid on O, so many levels) and the extraneous characters who were the source of the exhaustive, stupid detail finally got cleared out of the way, it settled down into a bland but inoffensive movie about butt-kicking, which is all it really should have been in the first place.
What this movie really needs is for somebody to chop off the first 45 minutes to get rid of the insultingly moronic backstory and the completely ineffective attempt to build tension, and replace it, preferably with more butt-kicking.
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### Author:  [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/35 "2004-09-10T19:05:14Z")
“The Hidden” starring Kyle Machlachlan. It starts with one of the greatest action scenes ever, establishes an interesting premise, has lots of weird humor, but ends with a humdrum, so-so rooftop shoot-out that looked cribbed from a “Miami Vice” episode.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/36 "2004-09-10T19:37:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> “The Hidden” starring Kyle Machlachlan. It starts with one of the greatest action scenes ever, establishes an interesting premise, has lots of weird humor, but ends with a humdrum, so-so rooftop shoot-out that looked cribbed from a “Miami Vice” episode.
Are you sure you saw the whole movie? The rooftop shoot-out occurs about halfway through. There’s a _lot_ more movie after that. (There’s a flamethrower at the end – there’s no way you can forget that!)
For my money **The Hidden** is an untrumpeted gem – one of the best SF films ever – even if it _did_ steal its premise without attribution from Hal Clement’s classic novel **Needle**.
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### Author:  [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/37 "2004-09-10T19:45:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Are you sure you saw the whole movie? The rooftop shoot-out occurs about halfway through. There’s a _lot_ more movie after that. (There’s a flamethrower at the end – there’s no way you can forget that!)
>
> For my money **The Hidden** is an untrumpeted gem – one of the best SF films ever – even if it _did_ steal its premise without attribution from Hal Clement’s classic novel **Needle**.
Well, hmmn, it _has_ been years since I’ve seen it. Perhaps I’m remembering it wrong. But I do recall thinking (and most of my friends who saw it agreed) that it started out awesomely, then got ended just kind of _meh_.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/38 "2004-09-10T19:59:42Z")
> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> _Training Day_ had great first and second acts, and then they put it on Action Movie Autopilot. Which is really sad, because it started out a really smart, thoughtful, ballsy movie. Then yaaaawn.
Yeah, that’s a good one as well. I thought “ooh, NICE” when I expected it to end after Denzel offed the drug dealer. I was thinking it did a good job of posing some difficult questions (and Snoop’s cameo was a plus). Then it got incredibly stupid. I get the feeling somebody got nervous about what would happen if the movie ended on such an ambiguous note and told the writer “wrap this thing up in half an hour in the most cliche, stupid Hollywood fashion you possibly can. Don’t leave any questions and make sure the wimpy white guy is actually a real tough hero.” Blech.
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### Author:  [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/39 "2004-09-10T20:20:11Z")
**A.I.** (Spoilers, I guess…)
If only it had stopped with David looking up at the Blue Fairy. It would have ended on a very haunting note. Instead it had to go on with the advanced robots. It was an excellent movie up until then.
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### Author:  [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-started-off-good-then-fell-on-their-butt/263883/40 "2004-09-10T20:26:16Z")
**supervenusfreak** nailed it in one and **Marley23** just added the icing on the cake (to mix my metaphors). I loved this movie, IF it had ended with the damn blue fairy. But _nooooo_, he just HAD to go on and tack that extra 20 minutes on that turned it from a really interesting, well-thought hypothesis into some goofy sci-fi flick. Oh, how I hated him for doing that, I wanted to shout at the screen. Unfortunately, I was restrained and not thrown out of the theatre, thereby being forced to sit through that crap until the very end.
::: groan :::
On preview, I see that **Agrippina** shares our pain. Perhaps we should start a hate club?
The first rule of Hate Club is… Ah, forget it. Too easy.
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