the ending ruined it
who is retarded enough to frame them self in a murder they committed.
worse twist than The Village.
who is retarded enough to frame them self in a murder they committed.
worse twist than The Village.
I agree with you. The ending just completely ruined what was a rather lack-luster film. That twist was a blatant rip-off of the audience, in my opinion. They could have just ended it after Ella gets CJ released and wrapped it up differently than they did. This ending is an insult to the audience.
Actually, doing what CJ did was really clever, but Ella figured it out. That was his big mistake.
I thought it was lame, too. Seems like every movie now days has to have a "big twist" whether it needs one or not.
"You can't tell me nothin' if you ain't had an 8-track." -Sinbad
The movie was decent until the end. It may not have been great but it kept me entertained. Then we get to the ending and it turns out he was guilty after all? I think the movie would have been much better if he had just lived happily ever after or whatever with Ella. The whole thing with the story being fake and the girl blackmailing him was clever but unnecessary. And since you are going to ruin the film with the "twist" ending, why not film another scene where Ella was secretly behind it all from the beginning? She framed Michael Douglas and that lieutenant guy for framing Jesse Metcalfe who framed himself for murdering a girl that he actually did murder after they made a fake documentary.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Member of the Lakinites
At the 25 minute mark, I leaned over to my wife on the couch and told her exactly how the movie would end and I was 100% correct.
***SPOILERS***
They shouldn't have focused so much on his award tape and they shouldn't have had his buddy draw so much attention to him limping. Both of those things gave it away to me.
Other than that, I thought the dialogue was meh, the camera work was distracting, and the acting was subpar.
Your wife must have been delighted. I love how you post a spoiler warning for strangers on the internet but you have no problem with ruining a film for your betrothed
"If I have any genius it is a genius for living" - Errol Flynn
Its not a spoiler if he was just guessing, read the post again more carefully
shareI guess I disagree. I found the movie pretty predictable UNTIL the ending. For me, that made a ho hum suspense thriller into something a little more interesting... it was obvious that the bumbling friend was going to get killed when he went to retrieve that DVD and it was obvious that they were going to get onto the girlfriend...
you forget about those phone calls in which he was agitated by the end of the film.. and when he gets there at the end.. it all comes together. Also.. I think the reason CJ recognized what Hunter was doing was because he was doing the very same thing.. manufacturing and sensationalizing something to draw attention to himself....
I dont know.. but for me, the ending elevated the movie a bit...
The clues were there from the beginning if you really watched the film and paid attention. I knew he was guilty from the beginning.
shareThe ending ruined it? Really? I was about to turn it off in disgust during that gawd-awful forced dialogue between the girlfriend and that lady who hooked her up with the digital-photography investigation ... this whole movie was atrocious! If I were Metcalf, I'd be begging the industry to not hold this movie AGAINST him! LOL
And ... ah yes, the Village. Another example of how a really awesome movie (the 6th Sense) can infect an ego so horribly that the auteur is convinced that every belch from his belly will be movie manna. That movie COULD have worked (Village)... if the highway scene had been the first place the audience became aware of the twist.
For someone who built their movie career on "plot-twists," The Village turned out to be just one sloppy mess. I was honestly surprised (as I still am) that M. Night continues to be bankrolled, considering that each succeeding movie of his has made less than the last.
Of course, I'm still surprised that Stephen King sells ... but who am I? LOL
I must say that twist surprised me. The rest of the movie had been relatively predictable until that point. But it came out of left field and didn't seem to jive with the rest of the movie.
shareIt didn't jive because nothing in the movie set it up. It is like a pirate movie that ends with a scene in a holocaust camp. Sure it comes out of left field but the wrap up is too quick. And her last lines????? Oh my god how stupid was that?
And what was stupid to the point of ridiculous was that the hooker's nails could have looked EXACTLY the same as in the video. Didn't several years pass?
And just as bad was that when the girlfriend sees the dvd for the very first time it was already there. She says, I want to see it and BOOM he pushes play.
EVERYTHING in the movie set this up.
1. He kept getting phone calls he didn't want from a woman who wouldn't give her name.
2. He desperately wanted to be famous and he was frustrated that his budget was cut.
3. He started dating the ADA at a really convenient time.
4. He had no actual alibi for the murder. His buddy thought he was sleeping, but no one knew where he was.
5. He was limping the night of the murder.
6. He left the room so that his friend couldn't see the dog bite him because he already had the bite mark.
7. He knew exactly what type of blade to buy.
8. The girl in his award winning tape was an African American hooker, as was the victim. We never get to see her face and he tells us she's dead (the video girl) but we never actually get confirmation.
9. They showed too much emphasis on the girl's tatoos not to be seen later.
10. He was directing his girlfriend too much while in prison on exactly what to do.
11. And finally, how better to get absolved from a murder you commit than by convincing the public that you faked it? If his friend hadn't died, they would have convicted Douglas right then and there and no one would have questioned him.
***
That's just it. I don't want to be the rebound guy. I wanna be the guy.
***
wow. now i feel really stupid for not noticing the phone calls or the limping! i thought it was his gf calling him and i always wondered why he was so angry with her! also just thought he bumped his leg being woken up at 4am.
the thing that did stand out for me was the overuse of his award winning video and the close up of her tattoos, stood out way too much
Exactly...maybe movie for some of you was lame and not enough dramatic or maybe you thinking that acting was not that great but it had all details that you need for figuring this by your self. There is no twist in this movie…just ending that merit all the things that we saw in this quite amusing and clever little movie…
I noticed pretty much everything on your list. It was just too much, I knew far too much of what would happen so I quit the movie at half time. Who cares, the plot is over-obvious?
As far as I went, I don't think the acting was too bad most of the time (although there were some scenes that felt awkward) but it wasn't shining to compensate for the lack of interest in the over-obvious plot. I simply got bored. Nothing more to see.
http://shareddarkness.com/2010/01/23/beyond-a-reasonable-doubt-dvd.asp x
^ Or did Jesse Metcalfe ruin it?
I think the ending just ruined a pretty decent film. It was so un-necessary . The movie didn't need it.
The twist juat felt contrived and out of place.
Why does filmmakers think that a twist is needed in every single movie to make it better?
Twist? I figured it out the moment his friend walking through the door and took him to the murderscene. So stupidly obvious..
shareI agree that the ending sucked, but I guess that because we were dealing with a work of fiction, there wasn't much they could have done. I was really really hoping he was going to bring the DA's office down and then say on the screen "This guy brought down the police department, and his case serves as a model now for how X,Y, and Z is done. He now resides in X, Y, and Z with his wife and three kids." And it turned out that it was actually based on a true story.
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