3rd Act Flops

[solidified gruel merchant]

From Dusk Til Dawn. Whaweretharrabout???

[neveragain]

Threads, totally loses it after the fast forward to the future, although it seems like they were hampered by the ambition of what they were trying to do on such a low budget.

Totally disagree. I think it's remarkable how much worse the situation becomes, and I love the look of it, especially considering the low budget.

[Brundle-Fly]

I nominate Kevin Smith's Red State (2011).

This film starts with such promise. We are blind sided by a goofy millennials 'teen rites of passage' movie that descends into

Spoiler alert

Westboro Church type cult

[close]

territory.

I thought it had it all, an admirably well paced build up to intense peril, a quite unexpected

Spoiler alert

political

[close]

plot turn, some excellent performances by all (particularly by the ever reliable, Michael Parks). and with quite possibly, the greatest WTFucking F denouement of any film I have ever seen....

Spoiler alert

....only to be ruined by quite possibly the greatest WTFucking F boring cop out Scooby Doo denouement bollocks exposition speech I have ever seen.

[close]

Gutting.

MASSIVE Spoiler NOW:

I wanted to experience the sheer audacity of Kevin Smith

Spoiler alert

depicting The Rapture actually taking place

[close]

as the finale. Would never had seen that coming.

[mothman]

You wanted to see something that you didn't see coming? Does not compute.

[Hollow]

Totally disagree. I think it's remarkable how much worse the situation becomes, and I love the look of it, especially considering the low budget.

There should be a more gradual move to it, it's just bang, future.

[clingfilm portent]

With all due respect, you're having a fucking bubble.

[The Region Legion]

Star Trek Into Darkness. The first 2/3rds are flawed but solid - the final act (once Khan takes control of the other ship) falls apart faster than you can say "this has turned shit rather quickly hasn't it?".

[Kelvin]

I nominate Kevin Smith's Red State (2011).

This film starts with such promise. We are blind sided by a goofy millennials 'teen rites of passage' movie that descends into

Spoiler alert

Westboro Church type cult

[close]

territory.

I thought it had it all, an admirably well paced build up to intense peril, a quite unexpected

Spoiler alert

political

[close]

plot turn, some excellent performances by all (particularly by the ever reliable, Michael Parks). and with quite possibly, the greatest WTFucking F denouement of any film I have ever seen....

Spoiler alert

....only to be ruined by quite possibly the greatest WTFucking F boring cop out Scooby Doo denouement bollocks exposition speech I have ever seen.

[close]

Gutting.

MASSIVE Spoiler NOW:

I wanted to experience the sheer audacity of Kevin Smith

Spoiler alert

depicting The Rapture actually taking place

[close]

as the finale. Would never had seen that coming.

You probably know this already, but the original ending did feature the

Spoiler alert

actual Rapture taking place, and an appearance from the four horsemen.

[close]

It was later changed to the dull, expository ending you see in the final cut.

[Bingo Fury]

Training Day fell apart for me after about the half-way mark (not strictly the third act, I know). I loved the first hour: it felt like a film from the '70s with all its moral ambiguity and characters painted in varying shades of grey. Massive let-down when it just turned into good cop vs bad cop.

[Paaaaul]

You can buy Red State on Google Play for £1.00 over the next few days. Still a bit too expensive for me.

[Steven]

You can buy Red State on Google Play for £1.00 over the next few days. Still a bit too expensive for me.

Ralph Garman is a mute in it and doesn't do any impressions. Isn't that worth it's weight in gold?

[Brundle-Fly]

You probably know this already, but the original ending did feature the

Spoiler alert

actual Rapture taking place, and an appearance from the four horsemen.

[close]

It was later changed to the dull, expository ending you see in the final cut.

No, I didn't know that. That would have been an astonishing, albeit completely crackpot, finale.

[monolith]

Knowing. Thought the first half or so was quite an interesting set up but I've never seen a film implode so badly. At one point a woman actually screams "We have to think of the children!" or similar, completely straight and without irony.

It just gets worse and worse and just when you think it can't get any worse,

Spoiler alert

Christian aliens arrive

[close]

.

It's magical in how bad it gets, from a first half that was quite tense and had some great scenes.

[Custard]

28 Days Later. Luckily the first two thirds are so good, that they kinda make up for the rest. But wow, what a weird direction that went in

[Hollow]

I know it's not the final third but can you remember how Return of The King just wouldn't end?

I just wanted to get out of there when the hobbit did the thing, but no.

[QDRPHNC]

Fantastic Mr Fox. Beautiful, wonderful film, and the third act has some great moments, but it's just so confused about how to go about it.

The whole movie we see Ash trying to win his dad's acceptance by being a good athlete, but he's not, and doesn't. At the end of the second act, his dad finally learns to appreciate his family and accepts his son for who he is.

All good. Then it seems as though Anderson needed a gimmick to sell the finale, so there's a scene where Fox realizes, out of nowhere, that it's the differences between the animals that make them special. This theme then immediately goes away.

Then, during the final jailbreak, Ash suddenly becomes very athletic and his dad praises him for it.... So Ash won his dad's love by suddenly becoming a different person even after his dad had accepted him for who he was? what's the lesson there?

And finally, the final scene, which brings in an idea of survival being the key to life..... Which is true, but largely unhinted at and unexplored through out the rest of the film.

Anderson is great at touching, enigmatic scenes that doesn't necessary have a logical place in the story but feel right anyway (the wolf). Then you can see him sweating bullets over scenes which struggle for meaning and poignancy, but are actually empty (Fox's last speech).

Anyway, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

[QDRPHNC]

From Dusk Til Dawn. Whaweretharrabout???

I've never seen the end of From Dusk til Dawn. I try, but Salma Hayek appears and I wake up 8 hours later on the floor, in a cold pool of my own fluid and the tape's only gone and rewound itself.

[QDRPHNC]

Can't say I agree with Sunshine and Ex Machina, there is some misdirection in those films that seems to annoy people but really the groundwork for the 3rd act has clearly be layed in both cases.

I've never seen Ex Machina, but I think Sunshine had actually earned much better 3rd act than it settled for you. It brilliantly builds up some super creepy shit, then it just ends up being an angry man with severe sunburn.

[QDRPHNC]

Frozen - A huge amount of fun with some great songs throughout the first two acts, but then it forgets it's a musical and becomes fairly by the numbers and disappointing.

Really? I'm ashamed to say Frozen completely subverted my own expectations by

Spoiler alert

making it about a love between sisters rather than a male hero saving the day

[close]

.

[greenman]

I've never seen Ex Machina, but I think Sunshine had actually earned much better 3rd act than it settled for you. It brilliantly builds up some super creepy shit, then it just ends up being an angry man with severe sunburn.

That I can understand although I do think some of the scenes with him such as the "last man" one were very effective.  To watch that film and think its just going to be about overcoming technical issues on the way to finishing the mission though seems a bit strange to me given the setup.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Really? I'm ashamed to say Frozen completely subverted my own expectations by

Spoiler alert

making it about a love between sisters rather than a male hero saving the day

[close]

.

I do like that aspect of it a lot, and perhaps it's my love of musicals in general that spoilt it for me, but given how great the songs in the first half were I really missed them in the final third.

[DukeDeMondo]

It's one of my All Time Top 5 Bestest Favourites, but there's no doubt Amityville II: The Possession goes off the boil something shocking in the last act. It's like everyone was so exhausted after putting together the fucking astonishing first hour of the thing that they all just collapsed in the car park immediately after and the last 30 minutes were handled by some other crew entirely, none of them armed with anything more than the rough plot synopsis off IMDB and a review of The Exorcist out, I dunno, Look-In.

[thecuriousorange]

A recent one that fits the bill is Trainwreck.
I loved the first two thirds before

Spoiler alert

it turned shit.

[close]

[Entropy Balsmalch]

Every single film directed by Danny Boyle.

Many of them have flopping first and second acts too - but the third act - Danny proper knows how to fuck it up there.

[Hollow]

Every single film directed by Danny Boyle.

Many of them have flopping first and second acts too - but the third act - Danny proper knows how to fuck it up there.

Shallow Grave is good, as is Trainspotting.

Let's say any film after and including A Life Less Ordinary.

[Entropy Balsmalch]

Shallow Grave is good, as is Trainspotting.

Let's say any film after and including A Life Less Ordinary.

I've only seen Shallow Grave once, so I can't remember much other than thinking "Tales of the Unexpected" and being underwhelmed.

And while I loved Trainspotting at the time, I find it's dated terribly. The dialogue is painful at times.

Again, it's probably ten years since I saw it last, so I can't remember a third act abomination specifically.

The purest example of his third act fucking is Sunshine of course. Closely followed by "no pubes".

And he's a needle-dropping lazy trumpet.

[kidsick5000]

Every single film directed by Danny Boyle.

Many of them have flopping first and second acts too - but the third act - Danny proper knows how to fuck it up there.

You've not seen Trance then. That's bad from the off. Then there's that awkward close-up...

[Entropy Balsmalch]

You've not seen Trance then. That's bad from the off. Then there's that awkward close-up...

I did make oblique reference.

But yes, it was an incredible feat that he managed to fuck the third act of a film that was fucked from the start.

But he did it.

[monkfromhavana]

I remember, years ago, really loving The Abyss until the last hour of it when it went all mad.

It's always stuck with me, but it;s been so long since I actually watched it I can't give you any further details.

[pliable oftentimes]

No Country For Old Men and its distant cousin, Sicario.