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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
 Posted - 03/20/2006 : 3:35:14 PM
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I have noticed a little trait that appears in some motion pictures and have lovingly dubbed it the Moreau effect. Those who had seen the 1996 version of Island of Doctor Moreau starring Marlon Brando, or at least read the [url="http://www.Jabootu.com/islandmoreau.htm"]review,[/url] know that the end of the movie is filled with pointless explosions, guys is animal make-up running all this way and that, with nothing making sense. Essentially, the fill degenerates into chaos. This makes sense for the film thematicaly if you think about it. This is precisely why it does not work. You have to think about it.
In any case, I have noticed this trait in some other films to varying degrees. A recent and rather blanant example was Casanova (2006) starring Heath Ledger.
I should warn the reader that what follows is indeed **SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS** But, the spoilers are unlikely to make much sense if you have not seen the movie. This is not a review so much as an example to illustrate. However, I cannot recommend running out and seeing this movie as it is neither especially good nor especially bad. It kind of lies in that mid-range of merely mediocre. Or so I think, anyway.
What happens at the end of this movie is Heath and his girlfriend escape from the clutches of Jeremy Irons (note how I'm using the actor's and not the character's names). They all decide to escape by making their way to the river where Oliver Platt's boat awaits. So we have the character racing to get to the boat, and escape. Along the way, they battle soldiers trying to stop them. Everyone is suddenly proficient with a sword, including the virgin (?!?) Finally they reach the boat and bit hasty farewells to the ones who elect to stay behind so as to not weigh the boat down (What drama!)and they sail off to freedom, sweet, bubbling freedom!
What's wrong with the scene is it is completely out of place with the rest of the movie, which was largely a farce of mistaken identities by accident and design. What's with this silly chase/fight scene? I figure it's one of two things: lazy writing or a last minute idea (or a reshoot). It could be in the script. I mean, swordfights are dangerous and time time to properly coreograph. It seems unlikely they would risk injury with a half-baked idea like this. However, the insanely madcap feel of the whole thing makes it seem like an added-in idea. Like how the movie originally ended was kind of a downer so they were made to punch it up a bit. Hence why most, if not all of the cast is racing toward the docks.
In both cases, the idea is to artificially instill excitement in the final act of the film by having lots of activity. Runnging! Jumping! Swordplay! Pants! This is like John Frankenheimer's tactic of having the actors move around during expositional dialog scenes. Like we won't notice that the activity here is confusing and makes little sense, particularly why some characters are even involved in the whole thing. (Like the virgin, who really had no business being there and had no skill with a sword until this very moment)
I'll wager, there are other movies that similarly degenerate into lots of fast moving, lound, and confusing activity right at the end to give the film an artificially "exciting" ending. |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 6:15:31 PM
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| Well, Fatal Attraction is a famous example of this. It spends most of its time as a more psychological thriller, only to end with a crazy-woman-in-the-house finale. And it was a reshot ending; the original ending was more in keeping with the rest of the story. |
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RockerD
Archdeacon of Jabootu
12 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2006 : 06:28:52 AM
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| Try a good number of 80's comedy movies, mostclosed with a shoot-out and chase scene, complete with gun toting villain usually being disposed of in a "humorous" way. Armed and Dangerous, Twins, Dragnet, The Police Academy movies, ect. |
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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2006 : 08:10:04 AM
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| Yeah! Yeah! Goonies as well, now that you mention it. |
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RockerD
Archdeacon of Jabootu
12 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 01:08:57 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by jackspencerjr
Yeah! Yeah! Goonies as well, now that you mention it.
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RockerD
Archdeacon of Jabootu
12 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 01:18:03 AM
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Oops, I'm not familiar with this board's format.
Anyway, I don't think the Goonies counts. The climax on the pirate ship is consistant with the tone of the movie. Even as the kids are being threatened with swords and guns, there's still an undercurrent of humor present (Mouth hiding the loot in his mouth, Sloth riding the sails down Errol Flynn style, his superman shirt, The ring a round the rosey fight, ect.).
I was referring to comedies that suddenly turned into thrillers in the last act. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 02:22:32 AM
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Firstborn
Speaking as one of the few admirers of this largely forgotten '80s drama, even I am forced to admit that this film comes off the rails during the last twenty minutes. The climactic car chase and fistfight are completely out of the synch with the previous 80 minutes of the film.
A Little Princess (Alfonso Cuaron version)
Again, this had me until the last twenty minutes or so. What started out as a pleasing drama about a plucky young orphan girl in WWI America first a) turns into a fantasy film, for no rhyme and reason, then b) turns into a mindless Perils of Pauline meets the Little Rascals type "cliffhanger" that was so mindless and stupid that it practically ruined the movie for me.
From Dusk to Dawn
Need it be said that vampires-on-the-loose last act has NOTHING to do thematically with the first two thirds? Quentin Tarentino has got to be one of the most overrated screenwriters of our time. |
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Juniper
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
616 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 4:27:43 PM
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I disagree about A Little Princess, granted the finale was ramped up to the point of parody but it was keeping in line with the film's sharply observed Victorian time period. As for switching into Fantasy I thought it was done perfectly and what made it so special. Taking the character being raised in India and using the myths to compliment the story.
"The Devil Made this Movie for You!" |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 4:35:47 PM
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| And regardless of whether it works or not, that was fully the intention with From Dusk Till Dawn. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2006 : 9:26:21 PM
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| A disjointed movie on purpose is still a disjointed movie. |
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ArrBirch
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
164 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2006 : 9:44:19 PM
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Tango and Cash has a bizarre final act. After being a standard L.A. cop anti-buddy movie with a redneck Kurt Russel and slick yuppie Sylvester Stallone hunting for some generic bad guy (given that it was made in the 80s it was probably foreign drug dealers).
Well, after setting things up for a routine climax, in a truly "what the hell?" moment a 'Q' character who works for the police department (and who we never saw at any other point in the movie) appears and gives them an armoured monster truck with mounted machine guns.
The remainder of the climax is bug truck driving and shooting while I sat in the cinema going, "What, what?" |
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