The Prestige floored me. I loved. The Sixth Sense also really surprised me, as did Unbreakable.

Just for the sake of saying it, the worst I've seen is The Wicker Man.

...and I haven't seen "The Usual Suspects", but I've heard it has an excellent ending. Is this true?

quote:

Originally posted by batspideykong:
...and I haven't seen "The Usual Suspects", but I've heard it has an excellent ending. Is this true?

It's in my top 10 of favorite movies!

quote:

Originally posted by batspideykong:
...and I haven't seen "The Usual Suspects", but I've heard it has an excellent ending. Is this true?

It's an excellent film all around. Even though he'd done a lot of stuff before, it really catapulted Kevin Spacey into stardom. It was also the directorial debut of Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns). I have no problem calling it one of my all time favorite films. The ending of course, is genius. If you like great twist endings, it doesn't get much better.

I should also note that even the presence of Stephen Baldwin can keep this movie down!

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
It's an excellent film all around. Even though he'd done a lot of stuff before, it really catapulted Kevin Spacey into stardom. It was also the directorial debut of Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns). I have no problem calling it one of my all time favorite films. The ending of course, is genius. If you like great twist endings, it doesn't get much better.

I should also note that even the presence of Stephen Baldwin can keep this movie down!

Flipping through channels yesterday, I saw Stephen Baldwin on one of the Christian channels! Good stuff.

The Usual Suspects is a great ending. I think I said somewhere earlier in this thread that a good twist ending is one that after you see it, you think "Oh man! I should've known that!" That upon the second viewing, you see all the clues you missed.

quote:

Originally posted by PRG:
Flipping through channels yesterday, I saw Stephen Baldwin on one of the Christian channels! Good stuff.

Yeah, he found God and is producing Christian skateboard videos or some such shit now. He hasn't quite ascended to the Kirk Cameron level of actor-turned-religious-nutjob yet.

Kirk Cameron was an actor?!

Oldboy and The Game blew me away!

quote:

movielover
Slacker
Posted 20 November 2007 08:40 AM Hide Post
Oldboy and The Game blew me away!

THE GAME was a big shocker for me. I wasn't expecting the ending and it did really hit me hard. OLDBOY which I haven't seen, appears to be a cult film with a big fanbase. Reading some of the reviews, I have an inkling of what the ending might be. It sounds like KILL BILL with a twist of its own.

The Others.
The ending's twist was really unpredictable..

Nothing beats The Usual Suspects IMO when it comes to a twist ending. It definitely earned its Best Original Screenplay award at the Emmy's. I love how the ending is actually a triple-cross and we audiences realize we don't know anything at all in the end.

The Sixth Sense has a pretty cool ending too, yeah.

Anyway, does the ending for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind count as a twist ending? If so, then I'll put it down as well. (by ending I mean more like its entire final act).

quote:

himynameisraymond
Slacker First Class
Posted 21 November 2007 12:04 PM Hide Post
Nothing beats The Usual Suspects IMO when it comes to a twist ending. It definitely earned its Best Original Screenplay award at the Emmy's. I love how the ending is actually a triple-cross and we audiences realize we don't know anything at all in the end.

The Sixth Sense has a pretty cool ending too, yeah.

Anyway, does the ending for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind count as a twist ending? If so, then I'll put it down as well. (by ending I mean more like its entire final act).

Both the USUAL SUSPECTS and THE SIXTH SENSE qualify as definite twisted endings that really slam home!

While Cloverfield is likely my worst movie of 2008 for a variety of reasons, admittedly I feel that the ending (while not exactly a twist) has one of the most powerful and unexpected emotional punches that I've encountered in a movie in quite a long time.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Lucky Number Slevin yet. It's ending is my favorite twist ever.

1. Lucky # Slevin
2. The Usual Suspects
3. Saw
4. The Number 23
5. Sixth Sense
6. The Others
7. Saw II
8. Inside Man
9. Psycho
10. The Game
11. Fight Club

My Twisted Ending Movies

This topic hasn't really attracted a lot of my attention. When I've thought about twists, they can sometimes be the jewel of the movie, or at least one of the most difficult elements of a movie, both in terms of creative writing and also the script, movie editing, and the performance. Following are those movies presented in no particular order:

1. Atonement (2007). A brilliant piece of cinematic art incorporating an exciting, compelling blend of sound effects, set design, along with the creative weaving of alterative realities in this presentation a romantic drama set during World War II.

2. Dogville (2004). Nicole Kidman offers up a superb performance in a script that is super rich in acting, a blend of a movie directed stage production that penetrates into the inner core of the human soul. One of the most powerful portrayals of social and interpersonal interactions on film.

3. Mulholland Drive (2002). David Lynch's eerie and most convoluted venture into mystery, murder, and the unfathomable. IMDb #230.

4. Carnival of Souls (Original 1962 Version). A haunting, twilight zone film.

5. Brazil (1985). A strange sci fi retro movie. IMDb #205.

6. The Usual Suspects (1995). One of the best twists in film-making. IMDb #16.

7. The Crying Game (1993). A great surprise ending.

8. Gone Baby Gone (2007). One of the top ten movies of the year, this mystery-thriller written and directed by Ben Affleck, starring Casey Affleck is a blunt, hard-talking movie about a private investigator looking for a missing child and eventually evolves into twists and turns with tension filled drama and unsettling emotions with no really definitive answers except as to what happened. An easy Oscar nomination and perhaps win for Ben Affleck for best screenplay.

9. Twelve Monkeys (1996). A wrenching, sci-fi movie about time travel.

10. The Matador (2005). Pierce Brosnan stars in this dark comedy action thriller drama about an assassin who begins having panic attacks and his unusual relationship with a businessman played by Greg Kinnear. This is a well-balanced, well-performed movie that has a fine triple twist ending along with a rarely strong comedic element in such a dark movie.

11. The Sixth Sense (1999). Probably one of the best surprise endings in movie history.

12. A Beautiful Mind (2001). A compelling and fascinating dramatization of John Forbes Nash, a schizophrenic mathematician with a shocking twist.

13. Planet of the Apes (1968). One of the greatest twists in sci fi history bringing a new a respectability to the genre.

14. Matchstick Men (2003). A Nicholas Cage vehicle with a strong, powerful twisted ended. This is a story of double-cross and deceit.

15. The Bourne Supremacy (2004). The new James Bond of the new century. This less special effects and fly by the seat of your pants spy thriller uses a more personal and emotional approach to the typical espionage movie. Nearly perfect in its execution - it presents the chase in its more human aspect though not as stark and raw as Spartan.

16. Se7en (1995). Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman directed by David Fincher offer an intense murder detective mystery with a slam dunk ending that will be etched in the memory forever.

17. Confidence (2003). A well written, tight con game movie with fascinating twists, good acting, (Dustin Hoffmann playing off-type).

18. Psycho (1960).

19. I Know Who Killed Me (2007). A fascinatingly creepy movie that incorporates off-balance visual sequences, a nice twist in this mystery thriller starring Lindsay Lohan. This is a nice blending use of creative cinematography to deliver a movie that has intensity, emotion, and a soul searching final scene that leads directly back to Lohan's own real life challenge.

I liked Se7en, it had a great ending.

quote:

TjL30 Slacker
Posted 08 February 2Se7en008 05:39 PM

I liked Se7en, it had a great ending.

Now that you made me think about the ending of Seven (1995) some more, it made me think of the entire movie and looked it up again and discovered that it won a multitude of minor film awards. When I think back about the compelling, dramatic story telling, the storyline, the twist, the emotional, rippling intensity and compare it to No Country for Old Men (2007), I still have a hard time understanding why this current movie is any better. While Se7en is so much story crime-thriller that is graphic, in your face but with style and connects as a piece of literature on film, No Country for Old Men seems to have more of a random, hit and miss affair that stumbles around with curious views, expressions, hoping to capture some intermitent tension moments. Se7en just reveals to me how much more is missing in No Country for Old Men. With no twisted ending, there is no competition in terms of what movie has been ripped into memory instead of walked out of memory.

The problem with Shymalan as a director is you are waiting for the twist the Village I guessed less than half way through, if you think about it... it's obvious.

1. Lost Highway.... The way it loops back on its self...

2. Matchstick Men

3. Usual Suspects

4. Old Boy - a brilliant twist on revenge triller

5. Fight Club

6. Narc... hard to tell who was dirty cop by the end of it.

7. Tale of two sisters

8. Maltese Falcon

9. Dark City

10. L.A. Confidential
I know someone counted Brazil but when you have read the book it was inspired by the ending is pretty much the same.

quote:

tomwaits4noman
Participant
Posted 09 February 2008 01:44 PM

The problem with Shymalan as a director is you are waiting for the twist the Village I guessed less than half way through, if you think about it... it's obvious.

1. Lost Highway.... The way it loops back on its self...

2. Matchstick Men

3. Usual Suspects

4. Old Boy - a brilliant twist on revenge triller

5. Fight Club

6. Narc... hard to tell who was dirty cop by the end of it.

7. Tale of two sisters

8. Maltese Falcon

9. Dark City

10. L.A. Confidential
I know someone counted Brazil but when you have read the book it was inspired by the ending is pretty much the same.

quote:

Shymalan

has been unfairly placed into a singular box of twisted-ending movie expectations like no other director I know of. The Village was more of a moral message movie surrounded with horror trappings. As such, it's ok that this movie didn't have the same twisted impact because it wasn't necessary as such for what the director really was attempting to do. This was a soft-twisted ended.

The Matchstick Men was special because of the nature of the movie and the nature of the twist that really had a compelling introspective human element to it. The twist had more than just a satisfying dramatic theatrical and intellectual impact but it had a singular emotional human element as well.

As for Brazil, whether or not its source material, a book, spoiled the twist, it wasn't the books fault and shouldn't diminish the twist for the movie and make the movie any less the problem. For me, I didn't read the book and thus felt that the movie qualifies on its own as a great twisted ending movie.

I loved the twist in The Usual Suspects..but before I even saw it someone told me about it so it kinda ruined the effect.