Neither of those won Best Picture- they won Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, not Best Picture. Stupid gaffe, when I was a teacher in the early 90s, my students asked me what I did over the weekend and I said, "I went to see A Few Good Men." Took me a long time to live that one down.
In general I hate it when movies differ from the original story. Just keep to the story or think of a new original concept. However with this movie I didn't read the book. So when I watched the movie I didn't know that it should have had a different ending. But the ending was so strong that I loved it and now I cannot hate it anymore .
Yea, it was a great ending to me because it was so unexpected but at the same time really fit the story, IMO. I think a lot of people hate endings to movies that are, more or less, works of art or "arty" films. Kubrick's movies always had ambiguous endings that left the audience to think. "Black Swan" had an ending that could go more than one way. Some people don't like that but I do - I am not a big fan of the "canned" ending that you see so often in movies these days.
I think both are very strong, personally I love the novela, always been one of my favorite King stories. Think the film was just as strong.
I will have to watch Contact again but I think a lot of you are missing the point of why the alien appeared to her as her dad. The stated reason by the alien was that it would be easier for them to interact if it took the form of someone she knew but there was a bigger overall plot reason for that. The underlying theme of Contact was about faith. Jodie Foster's character was an avowed atheist and she was contrasted with a man of faith, unfortunately played by Mathew McConaughy, and the most of the debate of the movie was about what you believe in. To everyone else her trip to Vega and beyond didn't happen as it just look liked the pod dropped right away into the water after falling through some trippy lights yet to Foster's character she had undergone a life altering experience, but she can't prove to anyone else what she experienced was real and claiming that she saw her father just showed to other's that she was either faking it or hallucinating. In the end she is left with faith that what happened to her was actually real.
The Town Spoiler Ben Afflick should have been caught, if he had been, it would have been an amazing movie The Village... self explanatory I'm still not over someone telling me the ending to fight club, knowing the ending ruined the movie for me, so I count it here...
Troy Gladiator Both of those made sense with the endings they had, it was just hard to cope with them! I would have preferred alternate endings! Where the Red Fern Grows Swordfish The Green Mile Those are just off the top of my head. Pugs
Here you go Spoiler David and Ollie attempt to lead their remaining allies in a covert exit from the market, but are stopped by Mrs. Carmody, who orders her followers to seize her chosen victims: Billy and Amanda. Ollie shoots Mrs. Carmody in the stomach with a revolver found in Amanda's purse, killing her, causing her congregation to break up. En route to David's car, Ollie in turn is bisected by the claw of a very large creature looking similar to a giant lobster or crab. David, Billy, Amanda, and an elderly, yet tough, school teacher Hilda Reppler reach the car and leave Bridgton, driving south for hours through a mist-shrouded, monster-filled New England. After finding refuge for the night, David listens to a radio, and through the overwhelming static possibly hears a single word broadcast, "Hartford". With that one shred of hope, he prepares to drive on into an uncertain future.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mist
Movies or not. But 91 hrs of LOST to end the way it did and for the damn writers to tell us "Hey guys, we don't know WTF we were talking about for 6 seasons, but thanks for watching! Here is a sappy ending that shouldn't answer anything, but it'll make women cry!" How manipulative. Absolutely horrible, and the worst possible ending to anything I have ever seen on TV.
I nearly liked everything about its ending but Iris Dement's singing spoilt it for me. She worked well for the end to Northern Exposure but not this. The blue screen part had a beautiful feel to it.
Thanks for your insight, I completely see where you are coming from. My only disappointment lies in the fact that everything about the movie was realistic (from a space-travel, science fiction pespective) except the Dad-as-alien ending. I remember thinking that it seemed like the producers needed to hurry up and end the movie, and that was the best they could come up with. I didn't read the book, so I'm not sure if the two correspond to each other or not. If nothing else, all of this is making me want to watch the movie again.
At least they had the excuse that the show was canceled. The writers of LOST had a whole season to wrap up the show.
The reason I didn't like the ending because they weren't in any danger and by the look of it they just ran out of gas. Spoiler I would understand if they are sick, starving, and been running from constant attacks and can't find their way around for days but they seems to give in right away after they ran out of gas.
as far as Stephen King endings..my absolute worst ending award has to go to "The Stand" - after watching the first 3 parts..the 4th & final part was just awful...the great parts and then That monstrous piece of crap. Upsetting
Seems like people hate endings where aliens clean up loose ends. Contact's ending was decent. It was just a long movie where Americans think Sci Fi movies are space operas like Star Wars and Star Trek. Imo, No Country For Old Men's ending was all about Chigure's dialogue about chance...how a flip of a coin has more meaning in an insane world (and an insane killer) than the rightness or wrongness of a person.
