Third-act chase and fight antics diffuse film's originality

[From a Wired review of the upcoming 'Splice']

Other films with the same problem?

Sunshine
District 9

Capricorn One

District 9's a good one

No one say Adaptation.

Fight club?

Heat

The Matrix was great and genuinely creepy before its descent into a beat-em-up video game.

Is that wrt to the first film, or the trilogy as a whole?

pretty much every american blockbuster action film ever

nah, had to have originality to start with

xp first film. Sequels unforgivable all round.

i thought the first one held up for the most part, but obviously agree on the sequels.

A good reverse on this thread would be 'Films which turn from good to AMAZING in their third act'.

'Films which turn from good to AMAZING in their third act'.

Wild Things!

nah, had to have originality to start with

ach yes - point taken

xp although if you guys are referring to Jaws, the third act where they go and blow him/her up is definitely beneath the creeping tension of what preceded it.

lotsa 80s comedies: Beverly Hills Cop, National Lampoon's Vacation, and arguably Ferris Beuller's Day Off and Animal House

Ferris? That would be a pretty dumb argument.

Stripes obvy

The Ferris end is so triumphant! Go Cameron!

I want to say Blues Brothers but that car chase is soo epic.

I fucking loved the first hour of 'I Am Legend', loathed what proceeded.

ferris's race is awesome u feeb

xpost

kind of a boring answer but it's true: 'one hour photo'

Running Scared, Fletch...

"Live And Let Die" is just about the only James Bond movie I can stand, yet there's this ginormously boring boat chase scene in the third act. Really dump.

Come on though it's pretty wtf when that guy pops like a balloon.

balls, i like the boat chase

it's after, that, on the island, that dude blows op

diminuendo imo

the chase is the climax

Actually loved Casino Royale pretty much all the way through, but the final setpiece in the drowning house was one too far. Worth it for the closing shot, though.

xpost to me, sorry I can't remember where it took place but I recall Bond fishing someone out.

Yeah, now you mentioned it CR would've been better served by a small-scale tense stand-off at the end.

xpost

Casino Royale goes to shit, pretty much, but I don't think there was any great swoop from great originality or anything, it just got really dumb and wtf in tone.

The Untouchables was supposed to have this, but they couldn't afford a steam train, so instead they shot the baby/stairs scene and it worked out better.

im not cray about the climax of 'collateral'. don't not like it (a doy) but i kind of h8 it that cruise ices the ruff.

All Marx Bros. (except "Duck Soup")

up

wall-e too

Will Toy Story 3 begin with a tear inducing near-silent ten minute montage? We shall see in a few weeks..

... with a reprise of "When She Loved Me" to undescore the whole thing. I'm bringing Kleenex.

up

Always found She Loved Me so syrupy and Toy Story 2 a few notches below the first fwiw. They've definitely figured out how to wring these big emotional beats say Ratatouille onward.

lol, after the bitching on the thread about it I am surprised no one has said "Pineapple Express"

yeah that went a bit big... kind of 'supposed to be unoriginal'

they pulled it together in the coda or whatever

up

― circa1916, Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:25 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

canonical answer

I just saw Splice (really liked it) and I gotta say the so-called chase that some reviewers have complained about toward the end isn't really much of one, and it works completely fine within the movie.

You know whenever I see any kind of genre movie with a monster in it I always wish they would just do something different than a chase or a fight. I mean, Jaws would have so much better if they had talked things over with the shark instead of blowing it up, ya know?

The Matrix was great and genuinely creepy before its descent into a beat-em-up video game.

^this, was really enjoying the matrix until it devolved, hate movies that waste the promise of a good premise

See, the first two movies cited at the top of the thread, Sunshine and District 9, are really good examples of what the thread's about. Sunshine gets forced into being a slasher flick by the end, for no discernible reason. District 9 had the potential to be any kind of weirdo movie it wanted to be, but settles into an action-chase movie groove about halfway through (though It was done well enough it.

The Matrix pretty much sets itself up as an action movie from the start, so I wasn't particularly disappointed that it didn't really use its premise as anything but a fancy backdrop and an excuse to see its characters do impossible Hong Kong-style moves.

sorry that should read settles into an action-chase movie groove about halfway through (though It was done well enough)

yeah I have no problem with where The Matrix goes. never seeing the sequels. LALD boat-chase is awesome obv

The Descent X 1,000,000. I thought it was a genuinely good and unsettling 'real-life phobias' horror movie before the introduction to the albino cave oogy-boogies (although that idea could have been an interesting premise unto itself, if done well).

L.A. Confidential

yeah, definitely.

Iron Man

My Dinner With Andre

hitchcock said any third-act problem is actually a first-act problem. or maybe that was billy wilder. either way, it's kinda true.

anyway. war of the worlds. minority report.

la confidential for SURE.

My Dinner With Andre

you gotta admit, though, Wallace Shawn looked pretty badass' in that mech suit

In Bruges

i have this problem with most comedies, but it's not "chase and fight antics" so much as "being serious and tying up the plot"

Yeah in comedies 'lesson is learned' = 'evil fortress explodes'.

The Descent X 1,000,000. I thought it was a genuinely good and unsettling 'real-life phobias' horror movie before the introduction to the albino cave oogy-boogies (although that idea could have been an interesting premise unto itself, if done well).

― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 7 June 2010 21:02 (Yesterday) Bookmark

OTMFM

Tunnel collapsing / head almost getting stuck = Worst fears committed to celluloid. Chud-esque monsters = snorefest.