I was inspired by the "twist" endings thread and the fact I recently was underwhelmed by House of Flying Daggers. Any movies you've seen that stay pretty strong throughout and just collapse at the end?

"Swimming Pool" and "HoFD" come to mind. and anyone seen "North" (although that movie is consistently bad throughout)?

I've always hated the ending to "Taxi Driver".

The thing about endings is, at least for the majority of movies, they are your final impression of the film so they mean a great deal. If the majority of the films was astounding but the ending was horrible, than, you will probably leave with the feeling the movie wasnt very good. I cant really think of any terrible endings at the moment though.

Did I even add anything to this discussion?

I just watched King Arthur this week, which is by no means a good movie, but it is consistent throughout until the ending, which was very weak. It was obviously a problem for the writer/directors because there was an alternate ending in the bonus features that was just as lame.
I didn't have a major problem with the end to HOFD, but I have a copy at home and I'll watch it again this weekend and see what I think on second viewing. Sometimes my first impressions of wuxia films can be a bit skewed due to my love for the old-school chop sockys! The buddy I got HOFD from hated the ending to Hero, but had no problems with HOFD. Bizarre.

Stepford Wives had one of the worst endings I've ever seen - actually the beginning and middle weren't that great either.

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Originally posted by Jasper:
Stepford Wives had one of the worst endings I've ever seen - actually the beginning and middle weren't that great either.

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Yes, that's the first one mentioned so far that I can truly agree with.

I really liked "House of Flying Daggers" and thought it was better than "Hero." The ending wasn't perfect, but it didn't bother me too much.

I was VERY disappointed in the ending of Matrix Revolutions. Actually it was the whole movie, but particularly the ending. "What do you think I am, human?" Dog s*#t!

LOL! Yeah, that was poo on a stick.

Anyway, I think the worst ending has to be The War Of The Worlds, the original of course.
I mean, what the hell was that all about! The film just starts to get interesting when suddenly all the aliens die and a crappy voice over goes: "And....they died....for some reason...." Apparently, the aliens couldn't stand water and when it rained it killed them all: O-Kaaaaaaaaaaaay....

That last one amounts to a spoiler, but the way I remember the ending of the 1953 film is that the Martians had no immunity to microbes, so that's what killed them. It was presented as something in God's plan, which killed the invaders. That crummy voiceover was narrated by Sir Cedric Hardwicke, who had one of the most distinctive and distinguished voices ever. That is all.

"Signs" had a horrible ending. I appreciate what they went for with the kid having asthma. That was kind of a cool thing. But the aliens dieing by water was absurd. Why in Heavens name invade a planet that is 2/3 water then?

"Collateral" had a bad ending to. It should have happen the other way around.

Without mentioning movies which are just poor, period (Signs being one example), I'd say that I found Return of the King's multiple "non-endings", so to speak, quite annoying.

I have to agree with Biggles on "ROTK". If it wasn't for the ending it would have been even better then Two Towers. Pity PJ didn't cut the ending and leave it for the extended DVD.

Another recent crappy ending for a half-decent movie is Castaway.

Opinions, opinions. Everybody has a legit one. I love the ending(s) to "The Return of the King", and I don't know whether they're in the novel or not. They work for the film and the trilogy. Golly Gee, opinions!!!

oh my god I thought that movie (rotk) would never end... for like 45 minutes too long.

I was sorely dissapointed by the ending of The Matrix Revolutions. After the outstanding first Matrix film, the sequels were no ware near as good as i would have hoped.

Ya Stepford Wifes was just bad throughout the whole movie!! Biggest waste of good actors and actresses. Bad movie in general!!

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Stepford Wives had one of the worst endings I've ever seen - actually the beginning and middle weren't that great either.

Another Kidman movie with a horrific ending: Far and Away, which is the first to have, well, the "Far and Away Ending," which we see again in the first Matrix, an ending which, not coincidentally, is also guitly of patronizing the audience.

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I have to agree with Biggles on "ROTK". If it wasn't for the ending it would have been even better then Two Towers.

I prefer Return of the King. The ending didn't bother me; it was, if anything, overlong, but not unbearable or insulting. Two Towers is my least favorite of the trilogy; the ending is too choppy, a flaw greatly magnified in the extended addition.

I'll agree that although I liked "House of Flying Daggers" more than "Hero", I too didn't care for the ending, which was just ridiculous.

If anyone remembers, "The Eagle Has Landed" awhile ago about the plot to assassinate Winston Churchill, that had an absurd "twist" ending. That came almost immediately to my mind when I saw the Topic board.

More recently, I would have to say that "Limbo," done by John Sayles a few years ago, may be the absolute worst ending I've ever seen. A great idea in theory, it stunk when they actually did it.

And why did they have to have the ship sink at the end of "Titanic"? (kidding)

I'm guessing none of you have seen Basic because none of the titles you all mentioned come close to Basic's horrible ending. What's worse is that the movie was decent up to that point.

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Originally posted by mark f:
I've always hated the ending to "Taxi Driver".

As you know, that's one ending I love.