Basically, there’s this demon going around possessing people and having fun by making them into killers. Denzel’s character, John Hobbes, figures out that the only way to kill the demon is to let himself be possessed, then kill himself in an isolated area so that the demon can’t jump to a new person. So Hobbes chain smokes a bunch of poisoned cigarettes out in the woods and lures the demon out there to possess him. The demon realizes he’s been tricked pretty quickly, and tries to get Hobbes back to civilization, but it’s too late. Only, a raccoon or something happens along and the demon possesses it at the last minute. If they were going to use a stupid deus ex machina, they could at least have used some hikers instead of a damn wild animal.
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It’s not a raccoon or wild animal. It’s a housecat. They set this plot point up earlier with a scene where the demon briefly possesses a cat, then hops to a human, then back to the cat, then back to a human. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Apparently in this movie world, demons can possess humans and cats, hence the superstition that cats are “evil.” That may or may not improve the ending for you.
[spoiler] the final battle scene was a total overblown mess,the whole concept of the kid having to save the world was absurd even for an action flick, and Megatron’s death was telegraphed more often than the Titanic’s SOS!
But all the Pepto-Bismol in the world couldn’t prepare me for that last glurge speech by Optimus. GAWWWWD!
And then , we are treated to Shia LeBouef and Megan Fox making kissy-face on top of Bumblebee with the other perv robots watching them!
EWWWWWWW![/spoiler]
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While I didn’t hate the movie, both my friend and I looked at each other after we walked out of the theater and said, “Man, that Optimus Prime was a pretenious fuck, wasn’t he?” I also thought that it was weird that the transformers all moved (in their robotic forms) like chimps. And while I’m at it:
WTF was the deal with them keeping Megatron in an open room and spraying something on him to keep him frozen? Why not simply stick the bastard in a giant block of ice and leave him that way? And how much money and energy would it take to keep him frozen and the rest of that giant room a “shirtsleeve” environment for us mammals?
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan]
Both, really. The film starts out like one of Cage’s typical odd-ball character films, you know, where his heart’s in the right place, even if he’s doing the wrong thing and then when Ian Holm gets shot the whole thing takes a hard left turn, and you’re wondering why Cage’s character is doing what he’s doing. The lighter tone of the first part of the film evaporates, and then some really implausible things start to happen (at least as far as Cage’s character goes), and then you get this seemingly tacked on ending, followed by the lecturing comments I mentioned in my first post. It would have made more senseFor Cage’s character to quit when either Ian Holm got killed or his brother was murdered. The film could have wrapped up in a more logical manner, and you could have gotten the “message” the final comments were trying to make, and it wouldn’t have seemed so damned bizarre. Up until Ian Holm gets killed, the film has a whole black comedy feel, like Dr. Strangelove, but once Ian Holm buys it, the sense of black comedy evaporates, and you just end up with crap, IMHO.
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Cage’s whole life was sort of a black comedy. He joked all the time even after being shot, when his ship was boarded, or when he got caught flying through Africa. Why? Because none of those were really negative consequences to his actions. However, when his brother dies he loses his brother (duh) and his wife and child, and is disowned by his family everything comes crashing down on him.
I just saw Zodiac for the first time last night. It does a decent, if slow-paced job setting up the story, with marvelously realistic depictions. At the height of the scare (when schoolchildren are threatened) it simply ends, abruptly.
Sure, perhaps the actual case went that way. Most of us know going in that there is no clear suspect, but I thought there’d be a little bit more than that; perhaps even a theory. Or a closer following of the detective’s life, or of someone else affected by it. Instead, just a title card, and an indication that the killer was waiting for a movie … which makes it a little disgusting. Since there’s little else of a point to the movie, it almost does seem like fulfilling a request.
Side note : One thing that is good about the movie - for something set in 1969, in the Bay Area, no less, there is almost no nostalgic stereotypical depiction of the 1960s counterculture as if it were as popular as it is today. Instead, it actually (to me, I wasn’t there) looks like 1969.
[QUOTE=BJMoose]
That’s the one. The ending is easy to forget because it isn’t an ending. It’s an interesting slice-of-life thing, but they took “slice” a little too literally.
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I agree with you to a point. There’s certainly no big climax and resolution. But I think the upshot is this:Peter Dinklage became friends with the other two kind of against his will, and this was a huge step for him, as he’d really rather just shut himself off from humanity. Then their friendship was broken. At the end, not only are they back together, comfortable as friends again, but they are talking about him asking out the librarian girl, another big step for him into some kind of happy, normal life.But again, I agree you’re watching it, and you’re fully prepared for another half hour of plot, and woops, no it’s over.
[spoiler]It ends with Steve Carell losing his virginity by getting married and having sex with the woman he’s loved and had a deep relationship with. The final scene was him dancing around with a bunch of people, after being “deflowered”, and singing Let the Sun Shine In
I guess I was disappointed because I thought he’d lose his virginity out of developing his macking skills, rather than through marriage.[/spoiler]
I think the ending came about for two reasons.
The writer ran out of ideas.
The writer realized the movie was just exceeding 2 hours, and needed a way to end it quickly.
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One of the major points of the 40 Year Old Virgin was that all that macking advice Andy was getting from his friends ending up being pretty shitty advice in general, whereas a stereotypical move about this subject would have ended with Carell’s character listening to it and becoming Super Cool Guy.
Andy deliberately stayed away from everything he was being told, and followed his heart instead, which ended up being the right thing for him. Of course, his three pals do come around at the end and save him from making a big mistake with Beth.
Oh, and how could you possibly be complaining about the song and dance number at the end? When they broke into that it officially sealed the movie as one of my favorites of all time.
It has no ending. One moment the main characters are chatting about something inconsequential, then boom - the end titles roll by.
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The Station Agent is one of my favorite movies, and it most certainly DOES have an ending. One of the main themes in the movie is how Finn loses both his only real friend and his hobby/job of working in the train collectables store, and must adjust to a new life. He spends most of the movie worrying about fitting in, afraid that nobody in this new town is going to respect him, and being bloody miserable. The final scene shows him being happy for the first time since the opening scene, now that he finally feels accepted again.
As for Blair Witch (which I also thought sucked royally all the way through), I thought the relevant thing about the legend was that the witch would take kids to the cellar in twos, put one facing the corner, and murder the other while he listened. So when Our Heroine rushes into the basement and sees her buddy standing facing the corner, it is a little creepy. The effect is spoiled when one has spent the previous 60 minutes rooting for the witch, however.
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Blair Witch was one of the stupidest movies I’ve ever seen, and the ending is the stupidest part. I mean, death by standing in the corner? That sounds like a nightmare for a 5 year old who wouldn’t put his toys away. I saw that ending coming from a mile away, just for the record.
Return of the Jedi. What’s not to hate? Darth Vader is forgiven for murdering whole planets full of people because he saves Luke. Princess Leia turns out to be the only other one besides Luke who can save the Universe because…they’ve got the same bloodlines, that’s what. Nevermind that Luke has spent a great deal of time and put a great deal of himself into becoming a Jedi - Leia just kinda steps into it, because she’s got the same ancestry. What crap.
