Is it me or do some films leave you wondering what on earth the film was about?

I thought I would start a topic where we can explain (or try) to others what the ending of a film was meant to be or what message it was giving off. For example, I watched Alien Autopsy last night and although I understand the plot and twists etc, towards the end I was left wondering why the lads were talking to the producer. I know it is based on real events but I didn't really 'get' the ending. Anyone care to explain or offer another example of an unexplained film?


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Can someone please change the capital letter at the start of 'and' in the title. It will drive me and everyone crazy otherwise. Thanks. :thumbsup:

well im afraid i cant answer that for you maria, as i haven't seen it, but i would think that any film with 'ant' and 'dec' in it isnt going to make a great deal of sense anyway... however on the subject of films and things that dont make sense, did anyone catch '50 films to see before you die on C4 last weekend?

ok 1 quick question, WHO THE HELL WROTE THAT LIST?

ok i will tell you who wrote that list... ready?... CHANNEL 4 TA DA BET YA NEVER SAW THAT COMING!!!

actually it was FILM4 but its the same thing really, and its not hard to see it either, because most of the films in the list (about 45 out of 50) are owned by film 4...

i mean i know that the majority of them are great films but look at the list...

1 Apocalypse Now
2 The Apartment
3 City of God
4 Chinatown
5 Sexy Beast
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
7 North by Northwest
8 A Bout de Souffle
9 Donnie Darko
10 Manhattan
11 Alien
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
14 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
15 Pulp Fiction
16 Touch of Evil
17 Walkabout
18 Black Narcissus
19 Boyzn the Hood
20 The Player
21 Come and See
22 Heavenly Creatures
23 A Night at the Opera
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club
27 Hero
28 Fanny and Alexander
29 Pink Flamingos
30 All About Eve
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
33 Three Colours: Blue
34 The Royal Tenen-baums
35 The Ladykillers
36 Fight Club
37 The Searchers
38 Mulholland Drive
39 The Ipcress File
40 The King of Comedy
41 Manhunter
42 Dawn of the Dead
43 Princess Mononoke
44 Raising Arizona
45 Cabaret
46 This Sporting Life
47 Brazil
48 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
49 Secrets and Lies
50 Badlands

ok...
1 Apocalypse Now
3 City of God
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
11 Alien
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
15 Pulp Fiction
20 The Player
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club
27 Hero
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
41 Manhunter
49 Secrets and Lies

all great movies agreed? i think we all do...

BUT! .. where are psycho, jaws, star wars, jurassic park, rocky, the lost boys, the godfather, goodfellas, ET, close encounters, american beauty, donnie brasco, scent of a woman, million dollar baby, the exorcist, the good the bad and the ugly, the green mile, jfk, groundhog day, the matrix, monsters ball, monster, natural born killers, platoon, serpico, ronin....

methinks they could have been a touch more subtle, and a touch less obvious

the best part about the way they presented the whole night was they showed clips of the movies and had loads of spoilers, so most of the movies that i havn't seen on that list, i now have a reason not to... ESPECIALLY number 29, a grown woman eating dog poo... what was john waters thinking?

What :o No Dirty Dancing, Grease, Ghost? OK So they are a little cheesy but there's no getting away from the fact that they are great movies. Dawn of the Dead????????????? I like living dead films but I wouldn't exactly class it as a top 50!

You are right, less subtlety, more viewers votes I think!

Given the strength of that list I'm amazed that Howard the Duck didn't make it on there :lol:

Nice to see Breakfast Club on there :thumbsup:

But where was The Goonies?? :o Technically not one of the greatest movies ever made, but more enduring than a good few on that list!!

Goonies :thumbsup: Come to think of it, no Stand by Me??

We could always do our own top 50 by asking everyone to name say five and then pick them through process of elimination???????

I know I'd find it difficult trying to narrow it down to just five movies. There are countless genres and countless movies from each of them. It's a good idea though.

And yes, Stand By Me should also be there :thumbsup:

I will leave it open for someone who frequents the board more than I do to decide and maybe start the topic. I know Claire has done / participated in similar things on the Beeb site so maybe she will read this tomorrow....

I'll see if anyone's kicked it off tomorrow night, if they haven't I'll sort something out :thumbsup:

I never watch any of these Top 50..., Must see..... etc programs because they are all completely fixed and (as has been said) are made up entirely of whatever shows/films etc the channel owns the rights to/are trying to plug.

Brilliant. :thumbsup:

Sounds like one of Rob's specialist movies....... :unsure: :lol:

:lol:

I've not seen that yet :naughty:

I'm sure you're in touch with some seedy online rental establishment as I type.......:lol:

The Third Man isn`t on the list ! :o

It`s an outrage !! :o :lol:

As I have grown up a bit I am prepared to try and go with a film a bit to see where it goes but some leave me baffled. A 12 year old should not watch Blade Runner but a university student definitely should.

Donnie Darko left me pretty baffled. Is it a journey into schizophrenia or some kind of peculiar meditation on existence or what?

I need to watch Lost In Translation again but I thought nothing happened in it. It left me cold other than in love with Scartlett Johansson.

I do like films which are 'cleverer than I am' eg Heathers and Apocalypse Now. I can just about follow what they are doing but I am aware of being in the presence of genius. Heathers is genius because it is a meditation on the absurdities of teenagerdom which metamorphises into a meditation on our interpretation of it. That is probably not quite right but then it is cleverer than I am. Apocalypse Now is dreamscape genius which is an interpretation of Heart Of Darkness which is hardly a model of clarity to begin with. sk

I haven't seen the end of Lost in Translation but I believe it to be an either love it or hate it film. It didn't grip me enough to make me want to see the end but because it has had some excellent reviews I will give it ago one day again.

I have to say I didn't agree with some entries on the list, but it strikes me that - had they included the likes of Star Wars, Jaws, ET, Jurassic Park etc - then they would have been going down the more obvious route. Surely the point was to encourage people to watch films that they may not have seen before, rather than pander to the masses? :shrug:

I think you're right there Steve, it's not a "50 Best Films".

It's "50 Films you may not have considered watching but maybe should give a go".

What about 50 films that make you cry like a girl?

I cried at the end of Monsters` Inc. :ph43r:

The one that always gets me is My Life with Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman (iirc), and now that I remember the song (Over the rainbow by some Hawaian bloke) at the end of Finding Forrester always gets me going.

I haven't seen Monsters Inc. but I'll be sure to bring some tissues; embarrasingly enough I cried when Optimus Prime dies in Transformers the Movie - despite the fact that I knew it would happen :rolleyes:

The end of Ride With The Devil always gets to me :tear:

Oh, and Return of the King, it's the bit where Aragorn says "My friends, you bow to no-one". I'm filling up now just thinking about it :rolleyes: :lmao:

And Aliens and LA Confidential - just because they end and I don't want them to :lol: