Movies that are great...until the final reel screws them up (1 Viewer)

[JQuintana]

Titanic. It all fell apart in the end.

 

[Will Krupp]

WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942)

The original ending was scrapped so that Kate Hepburn would not appear able to "have it all." The out-of-place slapstick "ruining breakfast because she can't do what a REAL woman can do in the kitchen" ending was substituted in to make audiences feel better via her humiliation. Both Hepburn and director George Stevens hated it.

 

[JQuintana]

Two very different films:
Psycho — What follows after the shocker (and the struggle in the shadows that follows it) is that boring sequence that tells us Norman Bates is a loony. Gee, do you think so?
Jingle All the Way — a funny Schwarzegger comedy about two dads (the other is Sinbad) after the last popular toy (Great poster: "Two dads. One toy. No prisoners.") is very funny until the final 20 minutes, when it gets the most overblown, repetitive ending imaginable.

This was one I thought started off poorly and never recovered. I didn't find it funny at all.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Casablanca (just kidding!)

The Woman in the Window

 

[Worth]

Superman ('78), Signs, No Country for Old Men, Sunshine (2007), A.I., High Tension, Shutter Island, Blow-Up.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Sunshine - A really strong SF film until the horror elements are introduced. I'm okay with SF / horror hybrids (love the original Alien) but here the horror simply felt out of place. I didn't feel like the film setup the storyline for the introduction for those types of elements.

L.A. Confidential - I only mention it because I have seen this criticism leveled at the film before. Not sure I completely agree; maybe (???)

- Walter.

Agreed about Sunshine. Great film but the murder mystery did not belong in the film.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I agree about L.A. Confidential- I usually shut off the film at the point of the ambush at the motel.
I also am not a fan of the ending of Gone Girl.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) - The entire film is this beautiful moody and atmospheric sort of Kubrick influenced twisted mind-bender science fiction/horror/thriller...and then the last reel seems spliced in from some other film that has nothing to do with what you have been watching.

 

[KPmusmag]

I need to see it again, but A Ghost Story was kinda like that. Love the surreal, TZ feel... but the ending left me scratching hairs. It's like I'd say... Forget somethin? Still loved the movie though.

What they forgot was the whole second half of the very good book. After loving the book, I couldn't believe how the movie just sort of stopped.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Gone Girl I have never had a more unpleasant reaction to a movie than this one. Not even the final reel, more like the final 100 seconds. It made me even more angry because I absolutely love every thing David Fincher does, and since this movie made me hate it so much, I didn't want it in my library, meaning my DF collection will never be complete.

It wasn't so much the fact that

Spoiler

She gets away with it, that's perfectly fine

but that

Spoiler

He ends up staying with her

that really pissed me off.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I think you're right about the Ninth Gate. I thought that at the time when I saw it. I think the problem with it was that it essentially was a remake of Angel Heart and Polanski didn't want to give it the same ending, but couldn't think of a new one. You're also right that there are a lot of movies that have problems with the conclusion. I felt that about Nice Guys, which was wonderfully creative until it got to the nonsensical ending. Thankfully, the film makers had the wisdom to know that there conclusion stunk so that the spent as little time on it as possible.

 

[Arthur Powell]

Another film that comes to mind is The Wind (1928). The original ending was quite bleak, but given the film's equally bleak nature it would have been a fitting conclusion. However, MGM demanded a contrived, happy ending that Lillian Gish hated until her dying day.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Glass (2019)
Superman Returns

 

[B-ROLL]

Titanic. It all fell apart in the end.

It's that sinking feeling ...

 

[JQuintana]

Yep, it was all washed up,

 

[bujaki]

The Shawshank Redemption. Those last few minutes on the beach were so unnecessary. Perfect till then. Scissors, anyone?

 

[Gary Seven]

The Abyss.

I thought the same thing, particularly when I saw it in the theater. The ending was a big WTF moment. But the later release of the LD with the expanded ending I thought redeemed it.

 

[Worth]

Spielberg often has trouble with his endings, feeling compelled to tack on happy endings to otherwise darker stories.

-Schindler's List
-Saving Private Ryan
-A.I.
-Minority Report
-War of the Worlds

 

[Worth]

I thought the same thing, particularly when I saw it in the theater. The ending was a big WTF moment. But the later release of the LD with the expanded ending I thought redeemed it.

I still think The Abyss would have made a much better film if the aliens had been completely cut out of it - just make it a tense, underwater thriller.

 

[RichMurphy]

Spielberg often has trouble with his endings, feeling compelled to tack on happy endings to otherwise darker stories.

-Schindler's List
-Saving Private Ryan
-A.I.
-Minority Report
-War of the Worlds

While I agree in general, I thought having the stars of the original WAR OF THE WORLDS appear at the end made for an entertaining finish to a mediocre movie. And the ending of A.I., along with John Williams's beautiful exit music, I found to be very moving (and depressing).