Films you like half of

[Gary Joyce]

So there are films that are poor, from beginning to end. And there are films that are ok. And there are classics which entertain you for the duration.

But there's a few films that I have found myself loving, when all of a sudden it loses its edge and suddenly it becomes completely tedious, or at least, nowhere near as good as the beginning. If you have any films like this, fire away and tell us what you think happened to make the film lose its shine.

Full Metal Jacket - The second half isnt bad by any means, but compared to the brilliance of the boot camp, it's hard to match it.

Collateral - Really nice, tense, clever film that builds up to something interesting and then has a last half an hour that is pretty stupid really, with Tom Cruise swaggering around playing Terminator.

Click - It starts as a comedy and then is not really funny at all in the 2nd half and goes all preachy, dramatic and boring.

[Agent Helix]

The Dark Knight - The performances (save for Bale's batvoice) and most of the direction ranges from good to excellent, but the script is pretty dumb, and pretty much everything past the hospital scene is utterly stupid.

[jesse_custer]

Full Metal Jacket is essentially a classic example of this, even though the boot camp sequence isn't quite half the film.

Superbad - First hour I was laughing throughout. Second hour I was baffled at how stupid almost everything was.

Pineapple Express - Almost the same as Superbad. Funny first hour, really stupid and violent second hour.

[Paradox]

Sadly, I can't count the number of films I've seen that had nice setup, interesting characterization, nice pacing and then slapped on whatever ending happened to be lying around. It's epidemic.

[G. Wayne]

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Chris Kattan should never ever be in a horror movie. The movie meanders around until all the characters arrive at the house. Once things hit the fan, it's a pretty good horror movie, up until the big Black Blob of Doom shows up, and then the movie goes downhill, fast. And Chris Kattan should never ever be in a horror movie.

[Black Atom]

Hancock epitomizes this. The movie Sunshine as well.

Are there any movies that start bad, but actually have really strong endings?

[jesse_custer]

Yes. A Tale of Two Sisters, a South Korean horror/drama flick, is incredibly boring for the first 50 minutes. But it's hard to take your eyes off the screen during the last half.

I would also say the same thing about Jane Campion's The Piano.

[BYC]

Office Space. Once they started doing the computer program that steals, the movie went to shit.

[Davideaux]

Die Another Day is a great Bond movie until he gets to that Arctic palace.

[Chiasm]

From Dusk til Dawn

Its a great crime flick drama til it turns into a bad vampire movie.

[the goddamn batman]

The movie Sunshine as well.


Yeah, for me, it's a brilliant movie except, like, the last 20 minutes.

[StoneGold]

From Dusk til Dawn

Its a great crime flick drama til it turns into a bad vampire movie.

It's not that great a crime drama.

[Athena Bast]

A.I.

Everything after the Blue Fairy just comes off as horribly tacked on.

[Christopher Cross Is God]

It's not that great a crime drama.

Wasn't a great crime drama, but it was entertaining as hell for the first half of the movie.

I'd agree with others on Full Metal Jacket, as well........Second half wasn't bad, but paled in comparison to the first half of the movie.

Stargate wasn't that great a film, but I remember the first half being a little better than the second half (Which seemed like a rushed Star Wars-knockoff).

[howyadoin]

It's not that great a crime drama.It's definitely a better crime drama than a vampire movie.

[Jared]

It's definitely a better crime drama than a vampire movie.

Ditto this.

Die Another Day turns crappy the moment the invisible car is introduced .


Superman Returns was ok until Supes takes another man's fiance out for a romantic flight...after quasi-stalking her with X-Ray vision. Granted, the giant rocks and the kid tend to stick out more as problems, but for me, that was the scene where it was clear this was not my kind of Superman movie.

[StoneGold]

I thought of a movie with a great ending but a lousy opening - A Better Tomorrow 2. It's only at the end, when Chow Yun Fat as his own twin brother starts killing everyone, that the movie gets good.



And I only liked about half of Tom Yong Goong - the half with the fighting. Anything else you could skip past.

[ultramandingo]

Superman Returns was ok until Supes takes another man's fiance out for a romantic flight...after quasi-stalking her with X-Ray vision. Granted, the giant rocks and the kid tend to stick out more as problems, but for me, that was the scene where it was clear this was not my kind of Superman movie.

.........other funnybook moives - batman returns , xmens 1-2 , ang lees hulk , hell boys 1-2 , v for vendetta - start off good - then get too " comicbooky "

[Sabrina_Fried]

Wall-E. There. I said it.

I loved the first half of the movie where Wall-E was just adventuring around the abandoned Earth. I even liked the parts where we finally found out why the cruise liner/ark of humanity stayed away from Earth for so long. But as soon as they got to the obligatory chase scene featuring a motley assortment of diverse sidekicks that were reviled because they are misunderstood, I just lost interest.

Sabrina

[Maxwell Edison]

Batman Returns.
Penguins with rockets. Need I say more?

[Black Atom]

.........other funnybook moives - batman returns , xmens 1-2 , ang lees hulk , hell boys 1-2 , v for vendetta - start off good - then get too " comicbooky "

Seems like a lot of comics movies try to pack too much in in the last hour and the movie starts to lose coherence. The first Spider-Man and Batman Begins come to mind.

[suttercain]

The Dark Knight - The performances (save for Bale's batvoice) and most of the direction ranges from good to excellent, but the script is pretty dumb, and pretty much everything past the hospital scene is utterly stupid.

Very good selection. I agree. It felt like two movies almost.

The most recent one I can think of is Hancock. I liked the first half. Hated the second.

[Deep_Sleeper]

Hancock
I Am Legend

[J. Robb]

Wall-E. There. I said it.

I loved the first half of the movie where Wall-E was just adventuring around the abandoned Earth. I even liked the parts where we finally found out why the cruise liner/ark of humanity stayed away from Earth for so long. But as soon as they got to the obligatory chase scene featuring a motley assortment of diverse sidekicks that were reviled because they are misunderstood, I just lost interest.
I liked the whole movie but I agree the first half is much, much better than the second.

[Wolf-Man]

Return of the Jedi. Its good up until they get to ewok world. Even then you have the Luke part which is good, but the ewok world is a fast-forward section.

Come to think of it, same with Empire when he's on dagobah. I fast-forward that until they get to Bespin.

[Paradox]

StoneGold disses Quentin:

It's not that great a crime drama.

I thought both halves were stupid fun, but, yeah, "good" I wouldn't apply to it.

[Athena Bast]

Two Towers

I love everything that doesn't involve Frodo, Sam or Gollum.

[TheMagneticSteve]

The Island - the first half ticked all the bases for me; story, character development, Scarlett Johannson... but at about the half-way point it just turned into a typical "Michael Bay: Car chases and explosions" film.

[Splatt]

Hancock epitomizes this.

Yup.

Drunk Hancock = Awesome

Sober Hancock = Not awesome

[ultramandingo]

Return of the Jedi. Its good up until they get to ewok world.

.........same deal with ' mad max beyond the thunderdome ' - once he spins the wheel and the hippie kids show up

[stealthwise]

Matchstick Men. It was actually decent until it started building up to that implausibly retarded ending.

I agree about Hancock, etc.

I don't think that it's fair to judge something like Wall-E or Office Space or Full Metal Jacket on the first half, because damn, those are brilliant openings to films. The latter halves aren't as good, but still really enjoyable.

[Jared]

Two Towers

I love everything that doesn't involve Frodo, Sam or Gollum.

The book was even worse in that regard. And that was actually tougher to deal with, because it's divided into separate halves. Frodo's journey doesn't get interesting until the very end, with Shelob.


I won't argue that it was good. But Alien vs. Predator was quite watchable up until two of the three Predators get killed in the first encounter between the title characters. This leaves the last Predator with no choice but to team up with Blade's mom and eviscerate my childhood.

[Treqqor]

Surprised there's been no mention of Sunshine yet. Brilliant start, horrible ending.

[spoon_jenkins]

I like all of 28 Days Later, but I like the half before they meet the army guys a lot more than the latter portion.

And I agree about Full Metal Jacket.

[Tobias March]

A.I.

Everything after the Blue Fairy just comes off as horribly tacked on.

The definitive example.

[the goddamn batman]

Surprised there's been no mention of Sunshine yet. Brilliant start, horrible ending.

First page.

[2-4-5_Trioxin]

Most mainstream movies made in the past 8 years fall into this realm really. They start off and really interest me and then they just go to shit.

The worst are the ones that are completetly ruined by the last 10 minutes, like they just said "ok were out of time, money and ideas so lets just wrap this up before lunch".

[Paradox]

Definitely agree (as noted in post #4). I don't get it. Invest all that time and money making a good story and nice film and for the ending, we're going to shit in our hand and throw it at the screen. WTF?

[Kirayoshi]

Always had a problem with Jungle Fever. The press for the movie indicated that it would show an unbiased view of an interracial romance. Except that Wesley Snipes' character was married, so Spike Lee cheated from the start by making it an extramarital affair as well. As a result, I felt manipulated into disliking the couple in question(the fact that Snipes and Annabella Sciorra had zero chemistry, IMO, didn't help.)

On the other hand, Samuel L. Jackson's drug addict subplot was dark, harrowing and well done. Lee should have jettisoned the Snipes/Sciorra affair altogether and made his movie about Sam Jackson's descent as an unrepentant addict. That would have been a movie!

[josh straightedge]

Hancock. Only the first half is good. When you find out he's more than just a superhuman, it sucks balls.

[Treqqor]

First page.

Haha, so it was (and more than once!). My bad. :)

A.I.

Everything after the Blue Fairy just comes off as horribly tacked on.

Disagreed.
This wouldn't be a Pinocchio update (and it did not hide that that is exactly what it set out to be) without the ending given.

[Black Atom]

I like all of 28 Days Later, but I like the half before they meet the army guys a lot more than the latter portion.


Same guy who did Sunshine, which was mention thrice in the thread. Coincidence?

On the other hand, he just won an ass-load of Golden Globes and will probably clean up at the oscars for Slumdog Millionaire, so who am I to say anything.

[mgs]

Click - It starts as a comedy and then is not really funny at all in the 2nd half and goes all preachy, dramatic and boring.
I found that turn of events to be incredibly weird and out of place.

It's definitely a better crime drama than a vampire movie.
true dat.

Batman Returns.
Penguins with rockets. Need I say more?
Yes, that fact that he merely tears off his mask like it was a fruit rollup was very stupid as well.

[the goddamn batman]

I absolutely agree with Click. Though, while I think the concept itself is wonderful, the entirety of the execution was awful. Imagine Gondry and Kauffman doing that concept. Without Adam Sandler. Without being "funny."

Brilliant.

If I were an indie film maker, I'd remake Click...

Sunshine and 28 Days Later were both written by Alex Garland, so I think some of the blame should fall at his feet, and not specifically Boyle's. But maybe I'm wrong... Boyle did seem to adore the ending of Sunshine... and he did do The Beach and A Life Less Ordinary. But, he also did Trainspotting. So maybe he's just hit and miss.

[Weapon Ick]

Boogie Nights
This is a fantastic film from beginning to end. There is nothing wrong with the second half of the movie but I just don't like to watch it. I have a lot of fun with the movie while everything is going well and everyone is having sex, doing drugs and having a great time. Then things go bad and I just get depressed watching it.

Art School Confidential
It starts out as a kinda cute and funny comedy but then turns in to some weird suspense or something. The nude modeling scene in the first half induced one of the lengthiest laughs I have ever had from a movie. I thought the movie was gonna keep being funny but it just stopped. I don't get it.

[StoneGold]

SPL is another one of those "only good at the end" movies. The two fight scenes at the end are some of the best filmed in the last decade, but the whole thing is just tacked on to the tail end.

[Stony]

Bruce Almighty.

Genuinely funny film that became this horrible weepy thing with Aniston that you just wanted to hurry up and finish with

[the_big_billbowski]

Hancock
I Am Legend

Totally agree with I Am Legend. I really enjoyed all the early scenes with Will Smith and his German Shepard. I could have watched a whole movie with just them too and they creatures in the background. Once the dog died though, the movie went down hill. Plus I wasn't very impressed the with the CGI.

[StoneGold]

Totally agree with I Am Legend. I really enjoyed all the early scenes with Will Smith and his German Shepard. I could have watched a whole movie with just them too and they creatures in the background. Once the dog died though, the movie went down hill. Plus I wasn't very impressed the with the CGI.

You know, I think the same can be said for The Omega Man. The movie got less interesting after Heston ditches the apartment.

[Maxwell Edison]

The thing I dont like about the first Spiderman is that after killing all the Oscorp execs, the Green Goblin has no clear goal

[Kirayoshi]

The thing I dont like about the first Spiderman is that after killing all the Oscorp execs, the Green Goblin has no clear goal
Y'see, that was my main problem with Spider-Man 3.(I had others, but...) What was Harry Osborn's big plan to avenge his father's death?

Step 1) Break up Peter and MJ.
Step 2) Make Peter think that MJ was having an affair with Harry.
Step 3) Uh, you didn't have a step 3, did you, Harry?

What were you doing, Harry, winging it? You can't ad-lib a revenge plan, you have to think it through! That's why it's called a "plan"!

[Wannabe]

Revenge of the Sith started out like like a new Star Wars film, but ended with the quality of an old Star Wars film.

[Wannabe]

Y'see, that was my main problem with Spider-Man 3.(I had others, but...) What was Harry Osborn's big plan to avenge his father's death?

Step 1) Break up Peter and MJ.
Step 2) Make Peter think that MJ was having an affair with Harry.
Step 3) Uh, you didn't have a step 3, did you, Harry?

What were you doing, Harry, winging it? You can't ad-lib a revenge plan, you have to think it through! That's why it's called a "plan"!

His plan should have just been to have sex with MJ, film it, and show it to Pete. He's a rich, good looking dude, it's not like he couldn't do it.

[StoneGold]

His plan should have just been to have sex with MJ, film it, and show it to Pete. He's a rich, good looking dude, it's not like he couldn't do it.

Impregnate her, then raise her artificially aged children to attack Pete when...



Nah, never work.

[SlightlyMad]

Cube Zero started off well (especially afer the atrocious Cube 2: Hypercube), but went downhill as soon as the pantomime villain Mr. Jax appears. This IMDB review puts it brilliantly:

The worst thing of all is the character of Mr Jax who is a ridiculous parody of a Nazi commanding officer mixed with Mr Bean and Basil Fawlty. This character is impossible to take seriously but is also completely unfunny. I actually found myself grimacing when he was on screen and half expected him to come out with lines like 'vee have vays of making you talk!' Absolutely dire - it practically ruined the movie. At first I thought it was the British comedian Rik Mayall with a joke plastic eye stuck to his face. That would have been preferable.

[jesse_custer]

I thought both halves were stupid fun, but, yeah, "good" I wouldn't apply to it.

Your "disses Quentin" thing was true in that Tarantino wrote the script, but Rodriguez directed.

And I agree that good doesn't describe the film.

[Toku King]

"No Country For Old Men" is the first thing that comes to mind.

[GRANT!]

Revenge of the Sith started out like like a new Star Wars film, but ended with the quality of an old Star Wars film.

In response to that, all I'm going to say is... (http://darthno.ytmnd.com/)

[Omega Alpha]

Michael Clayton: I like 2/3 of it, but in the last one, it just becomes another John Grishamnesque flick.

A.I: Until the Blue Fairy, it's one of Spielberg's best; sucks after it.

[W.Y.B.A.]

Maybe this doesn't count because it was pretty much a diabolical film all round, but the one that springs to my mind is 'The Day After Tomorrow'.

There was some visually interesting stuff going on with the weather for a lot of the first half (maybe less) then when Dennis Quaid is trying to get to his son and all that all I could think was I didn't care if these people lived or died. Let the wolves eat them I thought, let the boring bastards freeze to death for all I care! They're making me suffer this tepid nonsence, they deserve it.

[jesse_custer]

Diabolical ...

I think the word you're looking for is ignominious.

[BYC]

Y'see, that was my main problem with Spider-Man 3.(I had others, but...) What was Harry Osborn's big plan to avenge his father's death?

Step 1) Break up Peter and MJ.
Step 2) Make Peter think that MJ was having an affair with Harry.
Step 3) Uh, you didn't have a step 3, did you, Harry?

What were you doing, Harry, winging it? You can't ad-lib a revenge plan, you have to think it through! That's why it's called a "plan"!
I think Harry was following Norman's advice of "attack the heart". I don't know if Harry wanted Peter dead, or if Peter losing his girl for good and leaving him alive would be a fate worse than death.

Either way, Harry's plan went to shit when the symibote made Peter act out of character, something Harry wasn't aware of. I seriously doubt he thought Peter would come after him with more power than before. I think it was an acceptable plan, but obviously the movie had other flaws.

[Black Atom]

Y'see, that was my main problem with Spider-Man 3.(I had others, but...) What was Harry Osborn's big plan to avenge his father's death?

Step 1) Break up Peter and MJ.
Step 2) Make Peter think that MJ was having an affair with Harry.
Step 3) Uh, you didn't have a step 3, did you, Harry?

What were you doing, Harry, winging it? You can't ad-lib a revenge plan, you have to think it through! That's why it's called a "plan"!

I think his plan was to demoralize Peter, then when he was at his weakest, confront and kill him. I don't think he planned on Peter having an evil costume that actually fed off his negative feelings, making him more powerful.

[GRANT!]

Michael Clayton: I like 2/3 of it, but in the last one, it just becomes another John Grishamnesque flick.

The ending was kind of bullshitty. It's like the character did a complete 180 and became Danny Ocean. The Tilda Swinton breakdown is pretty amazing though.

[G. Wayne]

Revenge of the Sith started out like like a new Star Wars film, but ended with the quality of an old Star Wars film.

For me, that whole dying of a "broken heart" or whatever silliness was supposed to have happened to Padme brought any of the momentum of Yoda vs Sidious and Anakin vs Obi-Wan to a screeeeeeching halt.

[Jared]

I think his plan was to demoralize Peter, then when he was at his weakest, confront and kill him. I don't think he planned on Peter having an evil costume that actually fed off his negative feelings, making him more powerful.

Did the costume actually make him more powerful? It's not like Peter he even needed it to, considering Harry got KOed in their first fight, even though he ambushed Peter in his civvies.

[I]No Country for Old Men was amazing for more than half of it, more like 2/3 or even 3/4.

[Sean Walsh]

All of Javier Bardem's scenes in No Country were fantastic. The rest of the movie, though, was not.

INDEPENDENCE DAY was quite good until the initial invasion ended with the dog leaping to safety in the tunnel. At that moment, it became $#!+...

[SlightlyMad]

INDEPENDENCE DAY was quite good until the initial invasion ended with the dog leaping to safety in the tunnel. At that moment, it became $#!+...

moviecliches.com (http://www.moviecliches.com/) has a whole separate section just for Independence Day (http://www.moviecliches.com/cliche2.html#id4).