Movies

Here’s the perfect example why popularity ratings cannot be used to make Top 10 Lists… or in this case, Top 30 Lists. Yahoo! has released a list of its Top 30 Sci-Fi Movies, according to its user ratings. I can’t be too harsh, though, as there are some surprisingly good entries – but as you’ll see, there are some surprisingly bad ones, too.

Number 30 is a pleasant surprise, as Yahoo! users rated Serenity as such. I didn’t know there were enough people who had seen this awesome flick to get it on such a list, but I guess there are. Serenity is one of the best action sci-fi flicks in recent memory. The list includes the ones you’d expect to be on there, such as E.T., The Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future, etc., but there are some that clearly benefited from their recency, such as:

• X-Men: The Last Stand – this was really not that good of a movie, and certainly not good enough to rank in the top 30
• Deja Vu – a pretty good movie, but top 30 sci-fi films of all time? I don’t think so/
• V for Vendetta – it’s set in the future, but I’d question how “sci-fi” this movie really is. Plus, it’s a bit overrated, and ranks above X-Men 2???
• Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – seriously?
• Transformers – awesome action movie, but it ranks #3 on the list ahead of The Matrix, Aliens and countless other classics. No way, Jose.
• Iron Man – guess what was #1 on the list? Yes, this year’s comic book action movie. As good as it was, there is no way I would list it on the top 30 sci-fi movies of all time. What a way to damage the integrity of your list, Yahoo!

Again, in all fairness, two-thirds of their list probably deserve to be on there, but there are some notable films missing, such as:

• 2001: A Space Oddysey
• A Clockwork Orange
• Children of Men
• Dark City
• Independence Day (if you’re going the popular route)
• Minority Report
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Unbreakable
• Wall-E
• Blade Runner
• The Thing
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (how many remakes has this inspired?)
• The Iron Giant
• Planet of the Apes
• Galaxy Quest
• Total Recall
• Mad Max

And the list goes on… This has inspired me to do my own list, which I will release sometime soon.

In the devastating hole left by the retreat of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Disney’s Bolt and Summit’s Twilight have moved into feast on the potential box office dollars left behind. The movies – both of which aim at younger audiences (Bolt at considerably younger) – had been staying clear of the coveted November 21 release date out of respect – or -fear of the sixth Harry Potter flick. With announcement that that highly anticipated film was being pushed back to summer 2009, the coveted date was scooped up by the two films, which now look to take advantage of Thanksgiving weekend to earn some extra dough.

This is a good opportunity for Twilight, which is based on an allegedly popular book series about a normal girl (the gorgeous Kristin Stewart) who likes to screw around with vampires. OK, to be fair, she’s monogamous and prefers to share her time with just one vampire (Robert Pattison, who actually lays claim to being the first profound death in the Harry Potter franchise), but you get the point. There’s certainly some buzz around the picture, but having known nothing about the story other than what Summit’s marketing reps tell me, I don’t really see the big deal.

Personally, I don’t think Twilight is going to be the massive picture that some expect it to be. It’s definitely going to get a boost from the Thanksgiving weekend, but is it going to be a valid replacement for Harry Potter? No. The “franchise” doesn’t have the same name recognition that made Harry Potter so successful, and while it looks decent, it doesn’t look that much different than a dozen other teeny bopper horror movies that have come before it. General audiences aren’t going to be that motivated to go see this one, except for a lack of other entertainment.

Only time shall tell.

Quentin Tarantino is an interesting fellow. Known for some of the most unique and ambitious films of the last two decades, Tarantino has directed some of the grittiest and most clever movies of recent memory. Word has been buzzing around the recent news of the arrival of Inglorious Bastards, a WWII film that has been floating around for years with no development news, et cetera. But just over the last month or so, it has been announced that Tarantino has completed the script and has recruited a fine bunch of actors – led by Brad Pitt – to helm the project.

Or has he? Word has it that Tarantino has actually not been working on his long anticipated Inglorious Bastards flick, and instead is in charge of the yet-to-be-named Austin Powers 4.Given the so-so results of the last Austin Powers film, and the decline in Mike Myers’ star power, Tarantino was brought on to give the franchise a much needed reimaginin, a la Casino Royale. Mike Myers is signed on once again to star as the dashing British hero, but there’s no word if Dr. Evil will return.

Of course, that last paragraph is bullshit. The real story is that Mike Myers has been cast in a small role for Inglorious Bastards. But that’s just not as interesting.

Just kidding… Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will not be delayed that much, but to the horror of Harry Potter fans around the world, it was announced today that the movie would indeed be shifted from its November 2008 release date to Summer 2009 – July 17, 2009 to be exact.

Warner Brothers said it moved the film to take full advantage of its box office capabilities by releasing it in the summer, though frankly I’ve always regarded the November releases to be more successful. I can’t back that up with statistics, but according to today’s release, the last Harry Potter movie – which, in my opinion, was by far the worst of the franchise – was the second highest grosser, and it was released in the summer.

Reading between the lines, though, this release date push probably signifies production delays, perhaps from the various strikes and de facto strikes that have ravaged Hollywood over the last year. I can’t imagine that Warner Brothers would simply sit on a finished Harry Potter movie for eight months, as not only would it be denying them hundreds of millions of dollars, but would also be asking for piracy.

As a Harry Potter fan, however, I am hugely disappointed that the movie has been pushed back to 2009, especially since Warner Brothers had just started to whet our appetites with teaser trailers and the like. Word is that the planned November 2010 release of Part One of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has not been affected by this delay.

George Lucas, who doesn’t inspire much confidence these days after three so-so Star Wars prequels and an Indiana Jones movie that could have, should have, could have so easily been so much better, is on my good side for the day. While Indiana Jones 5 is still just an idea bouncing around in his head (who blames him, after the movie made $300 million), he had these words to say on the MTV Movie Blog:

“Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be ‘Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis’ or something.”

Personally, I think Indiana Jones 5 is a good idea. Yes, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was not all that great, but it seems like it would be pretty easy – if Lucas actually looked at his original films and made something a little more realistic, a little more down to earth – to do a good Indiana Jones movie. And, considering that the last one wasn’t terrific, I’m actually hoping they do another one to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.

Of course, all of that is said with the condition that Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. No one wants to see Shia LaBeouf’s character take over; that’d just be stupid. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones, and if he won’t do another one, don’t do another movie. Twenty years down the line, I’m sure they’ll remake the films or something, but keep the main character Indiana Jones, not his bastard child (named Mutt of all things).

As for Indiana Jones 5, Lucas would only say, “We are looking for something for him to go after. They are very hard to find. It’s like archeology. It takes a huge amount of research to come up with something that will fit.” How about something not involving aliens.

It’s been a long, long, long, long time since I saw the original Lost Boys, the Kiefer Sutherland/Corey Haim/Corey Feldman-starring vampire cult classic. I recall enjoying it and that it took place in Santa Clara, but considering that I was five when it was originally released, I never quite got on the Lost Boys bandwagon, or the “two Coreys” bandwagon for that matter. Nevertheless, Lost Boys: The Tribe arrived in stores last week with much more excitement than the typical direct-to-DVD release.

Lost Boys: The Tribe was speculated to mark the reunion of the two Coreys, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, but due to scheduling restrictions/green card problems/falsified egos, Corey Haim never quite made it to set. Instead, we get a vampire sequel not distracted by two actors whose careers ended years ago, and for a direct-to-DVD release, it isn’t bad at all. In fact, with some improved special effects and a few tweaks here and there, the movie could have worked at the theatrical level.

Lost Boys: The Tribe is about two newcomers to south California, Chris and Nicole (Tad Hilgenbrink and Autumn Reeser), who have moved in with their aunt. Quickly lured in by the excitement of the area, Nicole finds herself seduced by a local surfer named Shane (Kiefer’s younger brother, Angus Sutherland) and Chris by a sexy vixen (Moneca Delain). Little do they know – at first – that both are vampires, and Shane the head vampire. With Nicole under his spell – but not completely cursed to a vampiric life until she kills her first victim – Chris finds it up to him and his newfound friend, Edgar the Vampire Hunter (Corey Feldman), to take down Shane and his band of goons. But to do so, he’ll have to risk his own humanity to get close enough.

The movie is littered with the little things that make up a direct-to-DVD release, including TV actors, washed up child stars, poor computer graphics and gimmicks like the casting of younger brothers of well-known actors whose careers were made in the original. That being said, all of those problems are rather minor. The stars of the movie are pretty good; nothing fabulous but much better than those found in typical releases such as this. While the computer effects are pretty weak, they only show up in a few places – and for the most part director P.J. Pesce relies on good old fashioned blood and guts, of which there is plenty. Where the film lacks in visuals, it makes up for in gore – a scene where a vampire’s entrails spill out onto a pool deck comes to mind.

Overall, Lost Boys: The Tribe is pretty entertaining, with some good action and hot women. Reeser looks great, and there is also a decent amount of nudity and sex. Hilgenbrink holds his own and makes a pretty good lead. As far as direct-to-DVD releases go, this is the cream of the crop.

The one problem I had with the movie? Corey Feldman. If there was anyone more out of place in a movie, it is Corey Feldman in Lost Boys: The Tribe. His acting is terrible here, as he attempts to play a withered old vampire slayer will still possessing the face of a 10-year old – and a froggy, gutteral voice. His performance just doesn’t fit with the rest of the movie.

Aside from a few flaws typical of a direct-to-DVD sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe is a lot of fun. Recommended to those who want a different kind of vampire movie – or to relive The Lost Boys.

The Associated Press is reporting that due to Shia LaBeouf’s recent stint with the law – and another car – the blockbuster sequel Transformers 2 may actually write his injury into the script. LaBeouf’s truck was struck a few days ago while taking a left turn, causing him and the others in the car – including fellow Transformers 2 star Isabel Lucas – to be transported to the hospital. LaBeouf’s hand was “crushed,” according to his lawyer.

With at least two fingers out of commission, the possibility has arisen that Transformers 2 – which is currently in filming – may need to be modified. On “Access Hollywood,” director Michael Bay mentioned that the injury might be serious enough to modify the screenplay. Granted, there’s no better movie to work in a hand injury than this movie – or any Michael Bay movie for that matter. Just have Optimus Prime step on his hand in the heat of battle, and we’re good to go.

While the other driver has been cited as “at fault,” there are reports that LaBeouf was drunk at the time of the incident. Whether he was or not, this is the latest in a series of scrapes the actor has gotten into. He might want to think about cleaning up his act before he becomes a paparazzi dream for all the wrong reasons.

In other news, I found out that his name is pronounced “LeBuff” not “LeBoof” today.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe opened to a disastrous $10.2 million over its opening weekend, begging the question of how a movie based on one of the most successful movies of all time could do so poorly at the box office, even against the likes of The Dark Knight. While some box office analysts have mused that it was simply too long of a wait since the end of the TV show and that audiences had moved on to bigger and better things, I don’t think that has anything to do with anything. However, I believe the following are a few reasons why The X-Files: I Want to Believe failed to deliver:

1. The marketing was disastrous. While Warner Brothers was out promoting The Dark Knight feverishly, hitting up websites, movie theaters, TV and every other medium with advertisements, previews, images, posters and more, Fox was… well, not doing much at all. I didn’t get a single email from them asking to promote the film; there weren’t a slew of character posters or compelling images; there wasn’t much sign that the movie was coming to theaters at all. Furthermore, the news hardly talked about it all; PR failed miserably.
2. The movie trailers were bad. I didn’t think they were terrible, but then again, I’m an “X-Files” fan who was just excited that the film was coming to theaters. The movie was supposed to appeal to fans and non-fans alike, but the trailers, which lacked any kind of excitement or power, offered nothing of value to bite on.
3. Chris Carter kept the story under wraps. It’s understandable that 20th Century Fox and Carter wanted to keep the plot secret, but whereas Cloverfield, Indiana Jones and even The Dark Knight used this to their advantage to build hype and excitement, Fox did nothing more than lead fans down a few false paths.
4. The title is horrible. I mean really, really horrible. What were they thinking? I Want to Believe? What a dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb title.
5. Fox decided to release this movie a week after The Dark Knight. Sure, they couldn’t have known that Batman was going to be that big, but ever since the first pictures of The Joker appeared online – and especially since Heath Ledger died – the buzz was obvious. Fox should have moved The X-Files: I Want to Believe to another weekend within seconds.
6. There were no marathons or promotion of the show. For the last year, Fox should have been released special DVD sets, running marathons on TV and launching clips online. X-Files should have been everywhere, and it was nowhere.
7. The movie isn’t very good. Ultimately, good reviews would have given this film a bit of a boost, and it just wasn’t good enough to get them. The movie is a bit dull, the story unimaginative. While the marketing group should have done a lot better, admittedly, they didn’t have much to work with. (read my X-Files 2 movie review here)

The Dark Knight is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Fandango is reporting that so many midnight showings have sold out that theaters are having to add 3am and 6am showings (although I just went and bought tickets for a midnight showing at the best theater in town without any problem). More importantly, though, employers should expect a worker shortage on Friday, July 18th, or at least a lack in productivity among their employees.

After all, a Fandango survey of 3,000 customers (presumably 3,000 of their customers that like to pay their high fees over and over again) revealed that a whopping 37% of people are planning to go see the new Batman film late Thursday night, and that 38% plan to take some or all of Friday off to recupurate.

You can read more at my original employee productivity post.

I just Hancock, the superhero action-comedy starring Will Smith as a drunken bastard of a superhero. While the guy stops crime and saves people, he does so with complete disregard for his reputation and city property, often causing millions of dollars in damage every time he shows up to save the day.

The movie is pretty good and always entertaining, with lots of laughs and some good action. That being said, the movie isn’t without its flaws, and while I was able to look past them for the most part, there are some people that are not going to like the direction the movie takes at all. For a spoiler-free movie review of Hancock, click here. For a list of what I would have done differently to make Hancock one of the most solid films of the summer, read on.

Note, this list does contain major SPOILERS, as there is a pretty surprising twist in the movie that you won’t see coming.

Here are five ways Hancock could have been better:

1. Keep the laughs going in the second half in the movie, or deliver some major action.
   After the big twist is revealed, the movie loses a lot of its laughs and it focuses more on character back story. This is fine – if there were some giant, Transformers-size action sequences waiting for us. There are some good action scenes, but not explosive ones; Peter Berg and his writers seemed to have forgotten that they were making an action-comedy.
2. Have a central villain.
   The movie doesn’t have one. Enough said.
3. Improve the special effects.
   While not great, they really didn’t detract from the film too much. Still, when the tornadoes show up and Will Smith and Charlize Theron start wailing on each other, things don’t look very realistic; nor do they make much sense. Why are there tornadoes again?
4. Drop the back story.
   The back story for Hancock isn’t terrible, but isn’t necessary. I would have sacrificed an explanation of where he came from and how he got his powers a killer villain or an onslaught of huge action sequences. Learning that Hancock has been alive for thousands of years and blah blah blah is interesting and unique, but hardly necessary for a film like this.
5. Make Charlize Theron the main bad guy.
   If you’re going to have the super hot Charlize Theron be a super-powered being as well – which in itself is a questionable move on the writers’ part – at least make her the villain. Have it revealed that she killed off everyone else like them so she could be a God, or something like that. Either way, make her one crazy bitch.

People love twist endings. Anyone who says otherwise is full of crap. But there are good twist endings and there are bad twist endings, and sometimes it’s a fine line between the two. Having looked at other “Best Twist Ending” lists and pulling from my own memory, I have compiled this list of the best twist endings in movie history – and the worst. Of course, there are some movies I haven’t seen and others I just plain forgot about, but these are the ones you have to see – or avoid.

NOTE: Major spoiler alerts.

The Best Twist Endings

1. The Sixth Sense
   These top several twists are hard to rank in any clean order, but I still remember the day I sat in theaters watching M. Night Shyalaman’s masterpiece. The movie was pretty decent but didn’t have much of a plot, and I was wondering where the movie was going to go. And then – bam! Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time. Not only is it an amazingly good twist ending, but it also saves the movie from being just a decent ghost story – and, on a second viewing, Shyalaman throws the truth in your face repeatedly.
2. Primal Fear
   Ed Norton jumped into his career in a big way with this courtroom thriller, where Richard Gere comes to the defense of a seemingly innocent and kind altar boy accused of brutally murdering a priest. Not only is the movie extremely good and offers a first glimpse at the exceptional acting talent stored within Norton, but as it turns out, Norton’s character was faking split personality the entire time.
3. The Usual Suspects
   Considered the best twist ending by many people, it was hard to put this so far down at #3. I’ve seen a couple people put this crime thriller starring Kevin Spacey on “Worst Twist Endings” lists, but those people are just idiots wanting to sound smarter and more sophisticated than everyone else.
4. Oldboy
   Probably the best f-ed up twist ending on the list, this film starts out with a guy waking up in a suitcase on a rooftop after years of mysterious captivity. As he seeks out the truth, he teams up and falls in love with a younger woman. He has sex with her. Then, as we learn, he’s been hypnotized to fall in love with his own daughter – and thus he has unwillingly had sex with her. A second twist comes when the guy decides to erase his memories so he can continue to love and have sex with his daughter.
5. Seven
   This exciting and intriguing thriller has a great cast and a creepy villain, who remains elusive through most of the movie until he conveniently decides to show up for one of the most disturbing twist endings ever. Spacey, the killer, leads the detectives (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) out into the middle of nowhere to find the final victim, only to reveal that he is the one who will be killed by Pitt. Why? Because Spacey killed Pitt’s wife, played by Gwenyth Paltrow, to drive him over the deep end. Nice!
6. Angel Heart
   OK, Oldboy is pretty screwed up, but this one isn’t exactly innocent, either. In this movie, a much younger Mickey Rourke starts investigating murders in New Orleans, only to discover that he himself made a deal with the Devil himself and is responsible for much of what has happened. Wow. [this entry has been edited since the original post]
7. The Prestige
   The inspiration for writing this post, the Christopher Nolan drama about magicians has several small twist endings that aren’t fully appreciated until repeated viewings. For one, Christian Bale’s character tricks Hugh Jackman into thinking that he got a hold of his journal full of secrets – until Jackman reads that it was all planned. Jackman pulls a similar trick on Bale, revealing to his adversary that he intended to frame him. Then, it is revealed that Jackman’s character is still alive, a result of cloning himself and murdering himself every night. If that’s not f-ed up enough, Bale actually has a twin brother and the two having been living a single life, sharing both a wife and a mistress.
8. Les Diaboliques [this film was added after the original post]
   In this 1955 French thriller, a wife conspires with her husband’s mistress to murder the husband. They devise an intelligent plan to make the murder look like an accident, but then the body disappears. The wife begins to freak out as more and more clues seem to suggest that either the husband is alive or that someone else knows and is toying with them, to the point where she starts having panic attacks. Ultimately, she ends up dying of a heart attack when the truth is revealed… but since the director actually asks us before the credits to not reveal the ending, I won’t say what the cause is.
9. The Others
   An elegantly simple and creepy ghost story turns out to be a lot more when it is revealed that Nicole Kidman and her two children, who are allergic to sunlight, have in fact been dead the entire movie, and the ghosts they’ve been seeing are living people attempting to drive them out of the house.
10. Unbreakable
    This is a love-it-or-hate-it film, but M. Night Shyalaman’s follow-up to The Sixth Sense, which also stars Bruce Willis, is one of my favorite movies. There’s not a lot of plot to the film, but once again Shyalaman throws a zinger at us by revealing that Samuel L. Jackson, who has befriended Willis and helped him realize his potential, is in fact a psychopathic killer who has been committing mass murder just to find someone who is “unbreakable.”
11. Arlington Road
    This fast-paced suburban thriller has Jeffrey Bridges suspecting that his neighbor (Tim Robbins) is a domestic terrorist. As it turns out, he’s right, but he unfortunately drives the bomb into the federal building himself, and is ultimately blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people.
12. The Devil’s Advocate
    The title isn’t as metaphorical as one would suspect: Al Pacino really is the Devil, and he wants Keanu Reeves to have sex with what turns out to be his sister to have a Devil grandbaby. When Reeves refuses, the Devil just starts trying all over again.
13. The Game
    This movie is full of coincidences and conveniences, but there are so many little twists in the film that it’s hard not to be entertained. Is everything a game, or is it reality? Sure, it’s pretty unbelievable that Michael Douglas would choose to commit suicide through the exact window (and avoid all of the rafters) where a big balloon is waiting to catch him for his birthday party, but you didn’t see it coming, did you?
14. Scream
    A lot of slasher films have “twists” in regards to who the villains are, but few have pulled it off as well as Wes Craven’s classic. I remember sitting in the theater (sadly, with my mom) when Skeet Ulrich – who had been sliced up quite heavily a few minutes before, hence proving his innocence – licks his fingers and declares that his blood is in fact corn syrup. And there’s not one killer, but two.
15. Psycho (1960)
    I knew the ending before I ever saw the film, so the impact of the big twist was rather lessened, but you still have to respect the fact that Norman Bates dresses up like his mother to kill unsuspecting innocents. That’s just disturbing. Oh, and the “star” of the movie, Janet Leigh, gets killed off early on in the infamous shower scene. [this entry has been edited since the original post]
16. Planet of the Apes (1968)
    Another movie where I had seen shots of the ending before I actually saw the movie, the realization that Charlton Heston was never going to make it back home because… he’s already on Earth!
17. American Psycho
    I still don’t fully understand the ending, but I believe Christian Bale’s psychopathic tendencies are all, actually, in his mind. The great thing about this movie is that even if the entire film may “be a lie,” the actual events are up for debate. Did he or didn’t he? Everyone has their own opinion. [this entry has been edited since the original post]
18. Donnie Darko
    With more of a strange ending than a twist one, it turns out that Donnie’s sleepwalking – which saved him from being crushed by a jet engine at the beginning of the film – has put his mother and sister in peril, as a month later, they are on the plane that will eventually crash into their home a month earlier. Donnie decides to sacrifice himself and die so that his family wouldn’t a month later. Or something like that.
19. Stephen’s King The Mist
    I just watched this movie the other night, and wow, what an ending. This movie shouldn’t have been that good, with mediocre special effects and overblown acting (not to mention it’s a film about random monsters from another dimension), but it is. And the capper: an utterly depressing ending. Thomas Jane’s truck runs out of gas, leaving the five survivors, including his son, stranded in the middle of the mist, which has apparently taken over the entire world. With no chance of survivor, he turns to his gun, which only has four bullets left. He kills the other four people, including his own son, and then steps outside. A minute later, the army shows up and the mist begins to clear. Had he waited a minute longer, he wouldn’t have had to murder his only child! Ouch!
20. Soylent Green
    They’re people! They’re people! The movie is a bit dated now, but if I hadn’t known the ending ahead of time, this would have been a pretty damn good twist ending.
21. Chinatown
    Pretty common nowadays (just watch an episode of Law and Order: SVU), this Jack Nicholson film featured a twist that revealed that 1) Faye Dunaway was not who she first appeared to be and 2) that she had an incestuous relationship with her own father.
22. Night of the Living Dead
    It’s a bit of a stretch to call this a twist ending, but it’s still a shocking one. Zombies are everywhere, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Militias have moved in to clean out the walking dead, and it looks like our hero (an African American) is safe. But, then, one shooter takes him to be one of the bad guys and shoots him in the head. Not a cheerful ending, but a memorable one.
23. The Ring
    The Naomi Watts horror-thriller that took cinema by storm has a couple twist endings, even if you don’t recognize them as such. In most horror movies, once the protagonist discovers the dead body of the mean ghost, the spirit is usually set free and the movie ends. In The Ring, after Watts saves herself and her son by pulling Tamara’s body from the well, she things all are good. Wrong! Tamara is evil, and she’s just released her spirit to kill at will. And, to ultimately save themselves, Watts decides that she and her son will pass the video onto someone else (I believe a relative).
24. Memento
    Guy Pearce, suffering from severe short term memory, goes through life searching for his wife’s killer and not trusting people. Since the film works in backwards order, we slowly discover that his wife killed herself by tricking Pearce into giving her multiple insulin shots; furthermore, Pearce tricks himself by writing notes about people that aren’t true, so that in the future he won’t listen to their “lies,” which are actually truths.
25. The Descent
    If you’ve seen the original, European version, you’ll know what I mean; if you’ve only seen the American version, where the main character escapes from the monster-filled caves, you won’t. While we get to see the woman escape from the cave, drive away and so on and so forth, that escape is actually in her head – she’s still miles underground, surrounded by the creatures that are going to kill her.
26. Minority Report
    Not really a twist ending, but another one that makes you think. After Tom Cruise is accused of murder, he sets out to clear his name. Since the whole criminal system is based on a predictive, psychic machine that is never wrong, his only way to do that is to prove that the system, which he has believed in for years, is wrong. How does he do it? He sets out to kill the creator of the program, thus triggering the system to alert the authorities. But, since he knows the truth about the creator, the creator wants to kill him, too. If Cruise succeeds, the system fails. If the creator succeeds, the system fails. Bam!
27. Mulholland Drive
    No one really knows what David Lynch’s movie is about, but that doesn’t stop me from being intrigued by the completely weird ending to Mulholland Dr., the movie that put Naomi Watts on the map. There’s something about Pandora’s box, about two leading women being the same person, Watts masturbating and making out with herself, etc.
28. 12 Monkeys
    I didn’t love this Bruce Willis/Brad Pitt movie, but it does have a disturbing ending. After Bruce Willis is sent back in time to stop a virus from wiping out most of mankind, you expect him to find the solution and save humanity. Instead, he fails, and his child-self gets to watch him get killed by security guards in an airport. Cheerful.

So-So or Overrated Twist Endings

The following list contains several movies with endings that I have liked, but haven’t loved. #1 on the list should evoke some emotion, but I stand by it. The twist endings in this list neither made the movies better or worse.

1. Fight Club
   This is the one movie that will cause people to complain about this list. Many would rank this ending as one of the best endings in cinema history, as it is revealed that Ed Norton and Brad Pitt are, in fact, the same person. While I’m sure it worked in the book, I think this is a bit of a cop-out. Fight Club is still a pretty good and imaginative movie, but the fact that everything we saw was a lie – and that it really never makes complete sense – doesn’t have me drooling over the ending like it causes some people to do.
2. Swimming Pool
   This great thriller starring Charlotte Rampling has an aging author staying at a French villa only to discover that a sexy younger woman has shown up to share space. Intrigued by her sexuality, a subtle erotic thriller and ultimately murder mystery ensue… but then we discover that everything is all in her head and that we simply saw her imagination at work as she developed her story. Normally I don’t like endings where it turns out everything is a dream, but Swimming Pool pulled it off. Still, some would see it as a cop-out.
3. Vanilla Sky/Open Your Eyes [this film was added after the original post]
   In these movies (remake and the original, both of which star Penelope Cruz – in different roles), the leading man (we’ll call him Tom Cruise) starts to go out of his mind as an ex-flame comes back from the dead, his ravaged face turns out to be not-so-ravaged and other weird things happen. As it turns out, most of the movie is a corporate-controlled dream due to the fact that he has been cryogenically frozen. The movie is weird and not for everyone, but the ending works.
4. Signs
   I have mixed emotions about the “twist” ending here. When I first saw Signs, I liked it a lot. It was creepy, suspenseful, and had an ending that at least wrapped things up. Still, it seems like M. Night Shylaman threw a twist ending into the film for the sake of not letting his fans down, and a lot of people didn’t buy into the “Swing away” line. I don’t hate the ending, but it’s rather unnecessary.
5. No Way Out
   In this spy thriller, it turns out that Kevin Costner, who has been searching for a Russian mole, is, in fact, the Russian mole. It’s sort of a silly ending that seems thrown in there at the last moment, but I certainly didn’t see it coming.
6. Citizen Kane
   Does this movie have a twist ending? No, not really. But it has shown up on other “twist” listings so I just included it here to say so. [this entry has been edited since the original post]
7. Eastern Promises
   In this decent thriller from David Cronenber, it is revealed that the ruthless Russian mobster played by Viggo Mortensen, who took it upon himself to protect Naomi Watts from his own people, is actually an undercover detective. The surprise really doesn’t make the movie any better, and in many ways it takes the emotional impact of the movie out of the story. After all, Mortensen never really had to make a choice between his people and Watts; he was against them from the start.
8. The Village
   Another M. Night Shyalaman film, The Village is a pretty decent drama. I wasn’t crazy about the film because it was marketed as a horror movie, even though it isn’t, and maybe that distracted me from a pretty good twist ending. It’s not the direction I wanted the film to take, but the ramifications are huge: as it turns out, there are no monsters in the woods. The monsters were devised by the elders of the village to keep the younger people from venturing away, which would lead them to the wall: on the other side, a paved road and modern civilization.
9. Identity
   John Cusack and others find themselves being picked off one by one by an unknown killer. What starts out as a reasonable thriller develops into a supernatural one, and from that somethinge entirely different: all of the characters, including Cusack, are all in the mind of a psychotic killer who is sitting in prison. No one saw this ending coming, though I can’t say it’s an amazing one: once the ending is revealed, the thriller loses any suspense it had going for it.
10. Fallen
    In this supernatural thriller, Denzel Washington hunts a killer that moves from body to body, possessing people to carry out its evil will. Denzel figures out a way to trap and kill the demon – by luring it into the woods away from bodies to transfer to. As he becomes possessed, he inhales poison to kill the demon; but doesn’t take into account that the demon can also possess animals such as cats. So, at the end of the movie, evil wins and Denzel is possessed by a demon. Not a horrible ending – and many people love it – but it just didn’t click for me. [this entry has been edited since the original post]
11. High Tension
    An ending that is so good it’s bad, High Tension, which could have been one of the most memorable and disturbing slasher films in recent memory, ends with a whimper when it is revealed that the sexually charged killer, played by a man, is actually the female protagonist, who, driven by jealousy, has gone insane. The twist, while shocking, really never makes sense, especially considering the fact that in the first scene the killer is shown jerking himself off with a decapitated head. I go back and forth on this one…
12. Lucky Number Slevin
    Josh Hartnett gets confused for someone else and winds up getting involved in a deadly plot between an assassin named The Cat and a couple mobster-type guys. He plays it innocent until it is revealed that he and The Cat are partners and that Hartnett is himself a master assassin. There’s more to it than that, but I don’t have enough space to explain everything. The twist is a shocker, and yet it takes away something from the film. Handled a bit differently, it could have really worked, but I found it a bit underwhelming.

The Worst Twist Endings

Below is a list of the worst twist endings known to man:

1. The Forgotten
   What could have been a really good movie turns out to be a film about aliens experimenting on people. Aliens? Come on. This movie has the worst twist ending ever, and due to some scenes shown in the previews, you actually could see it coming.
2. The Number 23
   This thriller was supposed to put Jim Carrey on the map as a truly serious actor, but it failed miserably. Not only was his acting terrible, but the movie features one of the most disappointing endings ever. Having been seduced and driven to obsessed madness by a book that seems to parallel his life, giving us hints at Satan and other disturbing ramifications, it is revealed that Carrey himself wrote the book while he was in a psychiatric hospital that he no longer remembers. So the twist is: he actually is crazy and he wrote the book himself. Wow. Stupid.
3. Secret Window
   This Johnny Depp film had potential, but it has a strangely predictable ending, and one that was not particularly good. After it is revealed that he himself is off his rocker and has killed every victim, Depp never gets punished but does decide to get braces. Huh?
4. Hide and Seek
   Hide and Seek features another predictable ending. In fact, it is so bad that when I realized it in the first 30 minutes of the movie, I prayed for the next hour that I was wrong. As it turns out, Dakota Fanning doesn’t have an imaginary friend who kills people, but instead it’s her father – the main character, played by Robert DeNiro – who has a split personality. The split personality twist ending is almost always a deal killer, and Hide and Seek proves it.
5. Saw
   I only put this on the list because I’ve seen Saw mentioned on other Best Twist Ending lists. It’s not much of a twist ending, but after the protagonists do themselves in, it is revealed that the corpse in the middle of the room is in fact the killer – and that he’s just been lying still for the last two hours. It just doesn’t make much sense, nor is it very exciting.
6. Perfect Stranger
   This Halle Berry thriller is about as bad as it looks. I lost interest halfway through and thus was only paying attention at half staff when the twist ending is revealed, but the fact that the main character – Berry – is in fact the unknown killer she’s been hunting is just downright stupid.
7. Never Talk to Strangers
   Like Hide and Seek and Perfect Stranger, here’s another movie that ends with the revelation and the main protagonist is actually the bad guy.
8. The Life of David Gale
   Kevin Spacey is on death row for a crime he didn’t commit… or did he? As it turns out, he faked murder to get convicted and sentenced to death, so he could prove that the death sentence is inhumane. Uh… OK.
9. Planet of the Apes (2001)
   In this pointless remake directed by Tim Burton, Mark Wahlberg finally escapes from Ape World to land back on Earth… only to find that the Lincoln Memorial has the face of an ape. Unlike in the original, where there’s a lot less tacky and much more iconic view of the Statue of Liberty – implying that Heston is on Earth and is simply far in the future – this ending implies that there’s an alternate dimension or something like that. It’s just cheesy, and a stupid way to lead the audience into the ending credits.
10. No Country for Old Men
    The Oscar-winning drama-thriller really doesn’t have a twist ending, unless you allow the fact that the Coen brothers kill the protagonist off screen, never explain how he died and that the movie has switched gears to a pointless and rambling speech by Tommy Lee Jones. It’s one of the most disappointing endings to an otherwise excellent film. Should the ending be different? No. That’s how the film ends in the book by Cormac McCarthy (and no one should mess with McCarthy’s works), but the film is so suspenseful and exciting for the first 80% that it’s just a major letdown when the movie takes a pure dramatic turn. [this entry has been edited since the original post]

I hate the Saw movies. Despite what some people think, the first one was bad and they just got worse from there. Bad acting and directing gave way to one attempt after the next to shock the audience more and more, while becoming more convoluted and cocky with each outing. The fourth Saw movie was especially bad, the worst of the franchise.

Still, even though the main villain has been dead for over a full movie now, Lionsgate is milking its franchise once again with Saw V. I don’t blame them – audiences continue to swarm to this franchise for some God-awful reason. How much abuse can audiences take? Lionsgate is putting that question to the test.

Regardless, Lionsgate recently released a new Saw V movie poster, and I have to admit that it’s pretty damn good. Disturbing and creepy, it features Tobin Bell’s face plastered over someone else. Clever, and damn good marketing. Here’s the movie poster:

James Bond really is 007 after yet another accident on the Quantum of Solace cost Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond, three of his fingers. Details of how he lost his trigger finger and two others is still unclear, but at least now he won’t be able to make any un-gentleman-like gestures.

OK, in reality, Daniel Craig only sliced off the tip of one of his fingers, according to Daily Mail, but it is the second injury inflicted to the Bond star while filming Quantum of Solace. The production is beginning (if it hasn’t already) to look like a cursed one, as there have been several accidents, injuries and crazy mayors that have disrupted shooting.

An exterior set was heavily damaged after a fire broke out at the studio; a stuntman drove an Aston Martin into a lake; another stuntman suffered head injuries after slamming head first into another vehicle; and Craig had to get eight stitches to the face a few weeks ago.

Is this the wrath of Amy Winehouse?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull may have been a bit cheesy, but the movie is based on a real legend. John Trybus from Archaeology Magazine notified me a few weeks ago about a new section on their website devoted to Indiana Jones, and there’s an interesting article about the “real” crystal skulls.

There’s no point writing more than that – check out the article and see for yourself. Needless to say, the “real” skull doesn’t look as alien as the one in the movie.

Review by Robert Bell (A-)

Featuring clever and natural dialogue that is anchored by uniformly impressive performances from the young (mostly) Canadian cast, Young People F*cking is a refreshingly real sex comedy sure to be a cult favourite with many. What makes YPF stand out from the endless parade of soulless sex romps are the embarrassingly accurate observations and organically derived laughs. It struggles only in maintaining its tone as the slice of life insights are unable to carry to weight of an entire narrative.

The film follows the sexual pursuits of five separate pairings (and triplicate) as defined by non-diegetic on screen titles: the friends, the couple, the exes, the first date and the roommates. Each story is unraveled on its own without need to intermingle characters for purpose of connectivity; they are connected thematically, defining an overall dramatic arc and observation about modern relationships.

Best friends Matt and Kris (Aaron Abrams & Carly Pope) decide to take their platonic friendship to f*ckbuddy status. Kris is more comfortable with the arrangement, needing to urge on her friend with booze as he struggles to sexualize his longtime female companion. Amusement is derived from the friendly discussions that arise and honest revelations about how it feels to watch a buddy provide oral sex.

Abby (Kristin Booth) & Andrew (Josh Dean) play the couple, who find themselves in a sexual rut, going through the motions without any real desire. It’s a painfully relatable depiction of long term relationships and the discussion of fantasy screws while Andrew goes down on Abby is absolutely hilarious. Who knew that anything involving Ian Ziering could be laugh-out-loud funny?

The most complex and dramatic story comes from exes Mia & Eric (Sonja Bennett & Josh Cooke). The pair comes together for one last meeting and attempt to revisit a sexual encounter without strings and emotional entanglement. Unsurprisingly, it inspires memories, both fond and unhappy, which make the simple shag that much more complicated and difficult.

The first date segment is an amusing look at male/female manipulation and power struggles as Ken (Callum Blue) tries to get into Jamie’s (Diora Baird) pants by convincing her that he’s not interested in a one night stand. The mismatched dynamic and unique neuroses demonstrated give a needed sense of unfamiliarity to the overall text of the film.

Unsurprisingly, the most overtly comedic storyline involves a sexually liberal couple, Gord & Inez (Ennis Esmer & Natalie Lisinska), who invite Gord’s reserved roommate Dave (Peter Oldring) into the bedroom for a threesome. Dave is initially keen on the idea, until he notices that Gord intends only to observe and narrate the sex act while eating cookie dough. The needed chemistry and awkwardness between the three is what makes this sequence as bizarre and memorable as it proves to be.

If there is one indie comedy to see in the summer of 2008, it is Young People F*cking. Giving the genre a much-needed kick in the formulaic arse, it proves to be one of the most genuine and true comedies in some time. One would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t find charm and amusement in this movie.