best beginning/best end

[elmsyrup]

So which film in your opinion, which may not necessarily be particularly amazing all the way through, has-

1)The best beginning (I'd go for Enduring Love, and you can watch that here), and

2)The best ending (which for me is probably Before Sunset- the perfect last five minutes or so just save what could otherwise be a disappointment. That's on youtube too but to watch it alone would spoil it. Or Brief Encounter, which I absolutely bawled at).

[elmsyrup]

Oh, and to save making another thread, which ending do you just totally not get? Perhaps someone else could explain the end of Hedwig to me. I've seen it loads, admittedly often while drunk, but still- I don't get it and I've not known anyone else who's been able to explain it properly either.

[richdidnt]

Best Beginning: Scream
I know its probably not very high up on most people's lists, but the killing of Drew Barrymore before the credits had even rolled have left me scared to this day. It was just so shocking, especially when you think Drew may reach her parents and Ghhostface slashes her throat so she can only whisper "Mom" before being strung up to a tree.

Best Ending: The Opposite of Sex
I love films that don't stick to the filmic formulas (god I did learn something this year) and I love the whole duplicious narrative going on in the film. The ending though is great simply for the way Christina Ricci breaks the fourth wall and also the way her voiceover says the line "I was forever changed after that summer" echoing back to her opening monologue.

That's the smart ending I like, but trash wise I love Romy and Michele's High School Reunion and its "Lets fold scalfs!" ending. Its so stupid, and yet it works for the characters.

[pauliepoos]

I'm not sure what my best opening is yet. I'll edit later.

Best ending: L'appartement. The looks on Bellucci and Bohringer's faces when they realise the fates they've been dealt by their men is astonishing.

[[james]]

The first five minutes of The Rules of Attractions were pretty good. Although the fast-forward-rewind gimmick got a bit boring by the end of the film, it managed to introduce the three lead characters and sum up their life attitudes before the titles without it seeming forced or trite.

The last five minutes of Cruel Intentions are possibly my favourite. First time I saw it, my heart actually broken for Kathryn. I'm not sure that's the intended response but I related a lot to her character, okay?

[coxy1979]

Best ending: Seven or The Usual Suspects. I know they're both easy choices, but they are astounding

Best beginning: Not sure; Little Shop of Horrors always makes me smile, as does Goldmember

[Elly]

This is going to sound ridiculous, but my favourite ever opening is the first few minutes of the Lion King. I know, I know. But when the crazy monkey holds up baby Simba, and the animals all bow down, and Elton John swells stirringly in the background, I honestly can't think of anything wrong with the world.

I feel quite cleansed for admitting that!

Best ending: The Last Seduction. For finally allowing a femme fatale to exit triumphant. It's still, even now, a fairly radical concept.

[QuincyMD]

Best Beginning - Moonraker, he jumps out of a plane without a parachute and then steals one in midair whilst fighting off Jaws.

Best Ending - Dr Strangelove, it's the end of the world.

[somethingbiblical]

Ah, but the principal opens her coke-necklace

[[james]]

While if I was at Ryan Phillipe's funeral I'd probably be inconsolable but the lure of a good scandal would probably tempt me to run outside. I get the feeling Kathryn had a Regina George-type reputation, as opposed to the Marsha fucking Brady of the Upper East Side she'd imagined, where everyone knows she's a bitch but no-one had taken her down yet. in fact her diary was like a private Burn Book. I never realised how incredibly similar Regina and Katherine really were until I started typing this paragraph!

I still want a coke-cross. I'd keep sherbert in it.

[Bungle]

Best opening - Halloween III.

Best ending - The Wicker Man (original).

[Steven]

jbugle said:

I still want a coke-cross. I'd keep sherbert in it.

Don't snort the sherbert, whatever you do. I discovered far too late that it's not a good idea.

richdidnt, I agree with both of your choices. In fact, if we were having a category for "best narration", I think The Opposite of Sex would win it hands down:
"If you think I'm just plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in over your heads. I don't have a heart of gold, and I don't grow one later, okay?"
"What, you thought I'd be the dead one? I'm the fucking narrator, guys, keep up!"
But on to my own choices:

BEST BEGINNING: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. The second that Terrance and Philip starting singing "shut your fucking face, uncle fucker", I knew I was going to enjoy myself.

BEST ENDING: Lovers of the Arctic Circle. At first I was frustrated to have sat through the movie for two hours to have had such an inconclusive ending, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I like that the dual viewpoints mean that you never quite know if they found each other in the end or not. Even if they didn't, the fact that they came so close and were stopped by basically a cruel act of fate is heartbreaking.

[[james]]

I've never tried it but I do have a cam-phone video of my friend doing lines of Sherbert Dip-Dab. I really can't remember why he's doing it but needless-to-say he won't be doing it again after he overdid it and got it in his eye.

[jetsetwilly]

Best opening: The Spy Who Loved Me. Disco version of the Bond theme! Submariners going "Oh. My. God."! Saucy bird turns out to be Russia's top agent! This dialogue:

"But James, I need you!"
"So does England!"

Bond doing a backflip off a ledge in a lemon ski suit! Bond skiing off a mountain, then silence for absolutely frigging ages, then a giant Union Jack parachute while the Bond theme blows your eardrums! Then Nobody Does it Better, with a line of naked women in fur hats being pushed over by Roger Moore. Fab.

Best Ending: Sleepless in Seattle, because I am a complete sap. It's not so much when they meet up on the Empire State, as when they have to leave. Tom Hanks says (of him and his son), "We have to leave." Then he looks at Meg Ryan and says, "Shall we?", thus including her in his lovely little family, even though they only met about three minutes before. I just love it so much. (It is spoilt slightly by Jimmy Durante and Celine pigging Dion over the end credits, but I stop the DVD at that point).

[Nurse Dunkley]

jbugle said:

I've never tried it but I do have a cam-phone video of my friend doing lines of Sherbert Dip-Dab. I really can't remember why he's doing it but needless-to-say he won't be doing it again after he overdid it and got it in his eye.

Oh I've done that. It's quite an odd sensation. A few of us in sixth form went through quite a snorty phase, during boring free periods. Grounds up rubbers were quite popular.

So mature.

EDIT: I forgot to mention my film choices.

Best Beginning: Moulin Rouge, with the prettiness of it all, the speeding down through the streets of Paris,the setting up of Christian's character, and the Argentinian fallng through the ceiling.

Best Ending: I'll go with Se7en, too. Or anything that ends in a happy sing song.

[somethingbiblical]

Steven, what happened when you snorted sherbert?

[FeelsLikeKellyCrabtree]

I know it's actually the credits rather than the ending but surely Spice World deserves a special mention...

Even as a pre-teen homosexual watching it in the cinema I always thought it was highly unlikely that Posh Spice would be asking some girl in the New Street Odeon where she got her dress from

[Steven]

somethingbiblical said:

Steven, what happened when you snorted sherbert?

It burns. A lot.

[Nurse Dunkley]

feelslikesex said:

Even as a pre-teen homosexual watching it in the cinema I always thought it was highly unlikely that Posh Spice would be asking some girl in the New Street Odeon where she got her dress from

Yes! And they destroy any believability when, after they've spoken to the cinema, Baby then comments that some people are watching it on video and they then proceed to chat to them. Way to fake omnipotence, girls.

[elmsyrup]

pandarama said:

BEST ENDING: Lovers of the Arctic Circle. At first I was frustrated to have sat through the movie for two hours to have had such an inconclusive ending, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I like that the dual viewpoints mean that you never quite know if they found each other in the end or not. Even if they didn't, the fact that they came so close and were stopped by basically a cruel act of fate is heartbreaking.

Ooh, that sounds interesting. I've added it to my rental list. But now I know the ending!

junky said:

We learnt in Uni the best 'opening gambit' was a man falling into a police station panting
'i want to report a murder... mine!' can't remember the name but i know they're remaking it soon. (he's been poisoned and has 24 hours to catch the killer before he dies)

I've seen that! Damn, what is it... something to do with a fish, and he starts hallucinating and stuff, made in the 80s or 90s... grrr. Edit: I've just remembered they tried to kill him so they could steal his book manuscript. Title, anyone? I'll go mad.

[Bungle]

It's a classic 1950s Film Noir, DOA. You're probably thinking of the 1988 remake starring Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid.

[jetsetwilly]

junky said:

and the end of Remains of the Day because i desperately want him to shout out - 'no ms Kenton - nooo i love you goddamn it!' but he never does.. she just rides off in a bus as it pours down rain

Oh God yeah. Emma Thompson blubbing into the distance, and Anthony Hopkins lifts his hat to her.

However, it's ruined by that scene involving Christopher Reeve and the trapped pigeon afterwards.

[El Capitan]

Best beginning:
Dead Man's Shoes, if just for the line 'God will forgive them, he'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that.

Best end:
Before Sunrise. When they realise they don't really want to part ways and hurry through a way to meet up again...Ethan Hawke's grubby little face!

Right at Your Door's motherfucker of a twist ending is also similarly awesome, though for entirely different reasons.

[Mike]

jbugle said:

The last five minutes of Cruel Intentions are possibly my favourite. First time I saw it, my heart actually broken for Kathryn. I'm not sure that's the intended response but I related a lot to her character, okay?

It's also worth mentioning that this is quite possibly the best use of TWO great songs in a finale ever. Kathryn's downfall unfolding to The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony, then the credits roll to the accompaniment of Secretly by Skunk Anansie. AMAZING.

[klee]

Best Ending

Touch Of Evil: Marlene Dietrich stood in the road wearing a costume made out of all kinds of tatt pretending to be a gypsy while Orson Welles lies there like a beached whale. Then, in that incomprehensible accent she says: -

"He was some sort of a man. What else can you say about a person? Adios."

Honky tonk music, Marlene hobbles off into the distance on a pair of clumpy heels.

AMAZING.