"the conversation" (coppola)--throughout the entire movie, hackman is a calm, in-control spy. at the end of the movie, he suddently unravels, forgetting that his telephone could be used as a bug against him. he proceeds to tear apart his apartment in one of the least convincing acts of meltdown ever. i actually laughed aloud (at the movie and not with it) when i saw this ending.

Good point about "The Last Samurai" ending...

Yeah, I kept waiting for a climactic Tom Cruise death scene (like just about every other brave samurai in this battle!), and then the filmmakers let him live against any possible, realistic odds.

Just so he can go back to the Japanese countryside and get involved with the samurai's widow [the warrior Cruise was fortunate to kill earlier in the movie, as he himself would have died otherwise]. Though THE LAST SAMURAI is a great HD DVD [enjoyed the documentary].

-Love Hendrix!

love hendrix,

man, i really dig "the last samurai" because it gets so much right, but that ending made me cringe. i wasn't even upset that the white guy lived while the japanese guys did--i was upset that anyone (white or asian) lived!!! :@

("the last samurai" is something that i would be inclined to buy on hd-dvd, but as john wrote, warner's first three hd-dvds have their audio mastered at low volume levels. this means that i'll wait for the next hd-dvd edition of "the last samurai"...which leaves me with "the bourne supremacy" as the ONLY hd-dvd so far that i would buy, lol.)

eddie

"...one of my favorites... WOODSTOCK, with the amazing Jimi Hendrix version of 'The Star Spangled Banner.'" --Love Hendrix!

And all this time I thought your name was Hendrix and you were wishing us all love!

Speaking of great endings, I would nominate that long walk that concludes "The Third Man." Will she stop or won't she? You wouldn't think a simple walk could generate such suspense.

And I'm with Tim on "The Devil's Advocate." Loved the ending.

John

Tim said previously... "I liked the endings to "Jacob's Ladder" and "The Devil's Advocate"...

So, with the "liked" comment, well forgive me for following your lead! :o

And I will nominate THE DUKES OF HAZZARD [recent HD DVD rental] as a truly bad ending, to an overall dumb movie... well, at least the car action and car jokes almost rated a "10" [along with Jessica Simpson's bod, which is a "10"].

And speaking of "10", Warner should release this funny comedy/drama on HD DVD soon! ;) LOL

-Love Hendrix!

I thought this thread was about bad endings? :o

Tim :x

A couple of memorable "great endings" are the final reels of both GODFATHER films [Coppola]. And speaking of Francis Ford Coppola, how about that great review Dean posted yesterday for "The Complete Dossier" version of the latest APOCOLYPSE NOW SpEd DVD set!

Dean, like you, I'm waiting for Paramount to add the incredible (related) documentary HEART OF DARKNESS to HD DVD, so I can retire my LaserDisc of it.

Like Dean, I am a big fan of APOCALYPSE NOW [also THE DEER HUNTER], as my collection for this film is: Full-Frame LD, Letterbox Dolby Surround LD [remastered], Letterbox Dolby Digital 5.1 LD [remastered], both previous Region 1 anamorphic DVDs [remastered], and the 2-disc LP of the soundtrack. I'll pick up "Complete Dossier" when it goes on sale later, or if it's added to Paramount's HD DVD lineup in the future.

Back to "great endings," how about those seen in... DOT THE I [independent film from a few years ago], and classics like: THE STING, THE WIZARD OF OZ, SPARTACUS, 2001-A SPACE ODYSSEY, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, Brian DePalma's CARRIE, Al Pacino in ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, and many others, including one of my favorites... WOODSTOCK, with the amazing Jimi Hendrix version of "The Star Spangled Banner" [unmatched to this day!]. ;)

-Love Hendrix!

I liked the endings to "Jacob's Ladder" and "The Devil's Advocate". To me the ending was the main accomplishment of both films. The whole idea was to give you a slap-in-the-face ending, and that's exactly what they delivered. Works for me. ;)

Tim :)

i got the feeling that lucas was going for some sort of reference to "frankenstein", but he didn't pull it off with panache.

"the matrix revolutions"--the whole movie--is a bad ending.

Let's face it, episodes 1, 2 & 3 chalk up to about 7 1/2hrs of the worst moment in film history. ;)