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Post by Viced on Nov 12, 2018 22:24:02 GMT
Ya know... like Full Metal Jacket or The Lobster. Where a lot of people seem to single out liking one half a lot more or hating one half a lot more...
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Post by Sharbs on Nov 12, 2018 22:28:14 GMT
The Lobster is the prime example. Straight Time is definitely one that I've recently seen and am surprised to see people hate the second half
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Post by JangoB on Nov 12, 2018 22:34:42 GMT
"Hereditary" was like that for me. The first half was this pretty interesting study of the horror of grief and then the movie shifted gears and turned significantly worse.
"City of Pirates" is another example - the first half is a great cinematic representation of dream logic, and then the character finds herself on the island and the movie falls apart.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2018 22:36:07 GMT
Interesting topic. Wish I could think of more, but here's a few that come to mind:
The Village.
Pulse (the '01 movie) took an unexpected turn in the last third or so that apparently turned a lot of people off.
If we're counting Grindhouse, a lot of people liked Planet Terror and strongly disliked Death Proof.
Maybe Interstellar too.
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Nov 12, 2018 22:39:29 GMT
From Dusk till Dawn, which personally I enjoy from start to finish, but I know a lot of people who don't like the vampire stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2018 22:42:04 GMT
Once Upon a Time in America. If it wasn't't due to the second half, it would be in top 10 for me.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 12, 2018 22:57:51 GMT
Straight Time is definitely a good example. Not only does the second half feel like it belongs in a completely different film, it also doesn't live up to the promise or social realism of the first half. Basically it throws away the aspects of its story that were provocative and fresh for a pretty basic action narrative.
The Lobster of course comes to mind, but I wouldn't say I was in love with either half of that film.
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Post by notacrook on Nov 12, 2018 23:05:49 GMT
I don't really think of The Lobster in this way. Obviously the story takes a very different turn, but the jarring, off-putting tone remained consistent throughout. I didn't particularly like any of it.
Anyway, I remember being absolutely enthralled by Blue Velvet for the first hour or so, before it took a significant nosedive and became an ultimate mixed-bag for me.
I adored the first half of Dogville, but found the second half a little too punishing and kinda clocked out in a way, though it came swinging back with the sensational ending - and I don't think the film got bad or anything, just so overbearingly grim that I couldn't say I was liking watching it anymore.
Full Metal Jacket definitely had a much better first half than second.
Recently, I thought Hereditary got off to a very solid, nicely unsettling start before totally losing its way, somewhere after that explosive dinner table scene. It's like it hit a fantastic high, then unfortunately unravelled.
It's a shame that all of these start strong and then go downhill, for me. If a film's gonna have a divisive half, I'd rather it took a while to get going and then hit its stride and delivered at the end.
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Post by stephen on Nov 12, 2018 23:08:06 GMT
The first half of Django Unchained is the best thing Tarantino has ever done. The second half is the worst thing he's ever done.
Like you say, The Lobster. The first half is a bit clumsy but there's still enough heart to it that I was enticed. Then it shat the bed the moment Weisz and Seydoux showed up.
Speaking of Seydoux, Spectre. The first half ain't a masterpiece or anything, but it's still a strong entry. But it really hamstrings itself hard in the second half, and I'm convinced it's because they heard rumors that Craig was going to bail afterward and they wanted to make fuller use of Blofeld before rebooting the franchise, but wound up cramming three movies' worth of ideas and stories into one.
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Post by stephen on Nov 12, 2018 23:08:56 GMT
Also, Full Metal Jacket's second half is actually really good. The film's real problem is that it's two acts of a three-act story, and it just kinda peters out without closing the loop.
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Post by mrimpossible on Nov 12, 2018 23:18:46 GMT
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. First half this was locked to be my favorite film of the year and then it drops in quality.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 12, 2018 23:19:22 GMT
Hmmmm.........I freakin' love both halves of Straight Time (#1 of '78)..........but the second half of Sinister is a mess to me - it goes in a very odd, first draft direction.......and more recently .......mother!
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Post by Viced on Nov 13, 2018 1:13:34 GMT
Also, Full Metal Jacket's second half is actually really good. The film's real problem is that it's two acts of a three-act story, and it just kinda peters out without closing the loop. I actually re-watched it today hoping for the second half to grow on me... but I actually like it less now. I used to say the first half was a 10/10 and the second half is a 7... now I'd lean more towards 9 and 6. The second half has some great moments... but overall there's way too much clunkiness and it just doesn't add up to much. I agree that it needs a final act... Kubrick should have cut 15 minutes out of Vietnam and replaced them with the return home.
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Post by stephen on Nov 13, 2018 1:17:51 GMT
Also, Full Metal Jacket's second half is actually really good. The film's real problem is that it's two acts of a three-act story, and it just kinda peters out without closing the loop. I actually re-watched it today hoping for the second half to grow on me... but I actually like it less now. I used to say the first half was a 10/10 and the second half is a 7... now I'd lean more towards 9 and 6. The second half has some great moments... but overall there's way too much clunkiness and it just doesn't add up to much. I agree that it needs a final act... Kubrick should have cut 15 minutes out of Vietnam and replaced them with the return home. Not sure if you know how Hasford's story actually ends, but in the book, Joker rotates back to the world and realizes that no one back home gives a damn about what's happening in Vietnam and he winds up feeling so disillusioned that he actually volunteers to go back. And in the sequel, he actually defects and becomes a guerrilla fighter with the NVA. It's twisted, but would've been a fine ending to the film. As a director, Kubrick was technically immaculate. But when it came to writing, he was far from perfect. Sometimes he got it right ( Dr. Strangelove, Barry Lyndon), other times he missed the mark hard ( The Shining).
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Post by countjohn on Nov 13, 2018 1:20:49 GMT
I actually like the second half of FMJ a little better than the boot camp stuff. People who prefer the boot camp sequence don't seem to understand the film, IMO. That stuff is entertaining for the dark humor, but the second half is what completes Joker's arc and establishes the dehumanization theme.
Million Dollar Baby might apply here. Not really a "half" of the film, but a lot of people like it until the assisted suicide debate gets shoe-horned in during the last act.
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Post by countjohn on Nov 13, 2018 1:27:19 GMT
Also, Full Metal Jacket's second half is actually really good. The film's real problem is that it's two acts of a three-act story, and it just kinda peters out without closing the loop. I actually re-watched it today hoping for the second half to grow on me... but I actually like it less now. I used to say the first half was a 10/10 and the second half is a 7... now I'd lean more towards 9 and 6. The second half has some great moments... but overall there's way too much clunkiness and it just doesn't add up to much. I agree that it needs a final act... Kubrick should have cut 15 minutes out of Vietnam and replaced them with the return home. One of the things I like about is there isn't anything of the world outside the military; boot camp and then the war. There are no cliched war movie scenes of guys talking about their girlfriends or parents either. It gives it a claustrophobic feel and establishes how the war has taken over their lives. Ending it with- Joker shooting the girl and then marching off with the thousand yard stare
.....works just fine as a resolution to the story and the character. Ending it with him going home or joining the NVA is getting off the point, or at least the point Kubrick's film was trying to make.
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Post by Allenism on Nov 13, 2018 1:36:16 GMT
The Deer Hunter Gosford Park mother! Melancholia Angel Heart
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Nov 13, 2018 2:21:12 GMT
Not quite the halfway point, but I still love all three acts of Sunshine.
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Post by stephen on Nov 13, 2018 2:54:26 GMT
Not quite the halfway point, but I still love all three acts of Sunshine. Good call, and this is a problem endemic to all of Alex Garland's movies. 28 Days Later loses momentum at the third act, Sunshine turns into that B-movie slasher in its last twenty minutes, and Ex Machina sets up so many potential thought-provoking and new ideas to explore only to take the cheap and easy way out at the end.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Nov 13, 2018 2:59:27 GMT
Not quite the halfway point, but I still love all three acts of Sunshine. Good call, and this is a problem endemic to all of Alex Garland's movies. 28 Days Later loses momentum at the third act, Sunshine turns into that B-movie slasher in its last twenty minutes, and Ex Machina sets up so many potential thought-provoking and new ideas to explore only to take the cheap and easy way out at the end. It would be great to see him get a co-writer to help in out in those regards.
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Post by jakesully on Nov 13, 2018 3:21:49 GMT
1st half of Django Unchained is aces then well.....
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Post by ibbi on Nov 13, 2018 10:25:34 GMT
Some that have been mentioned that I want to agree with -
Django Unchained is definitely one. I don't know if it's half the film, but once they get to Candie Land this movie that was blowing me away with how generally un-Quentin it was suddenly descended into full on QT yammering.
Spectre definitely falls off the rails once they get in that car in the desert and the whole thing descends into ever greater levels of stupidity.
Three Billboards is another one. I'm not a big fan of any of it, I think that it has awful moments peppered throughout the thing, but that letter reading scene is one of the stupidest and most comical fucking things I've ever seen in my life, and nothing that comes after it helps it back on its feet.
I really like the first half of Melancholia, but that second half is just woeful shit. Everything about it falls apart.
Some others -
Cooper's A Star Is Born is a recent one that qualifies for me. Was going so, so well until... I'm not sure exactly when it was, but in the second half when it becomes its directors ego trip, and more about A Star Falling Apart than one being born it totally pisses me off.
Another recent one was A Simple Favor. It's one of those movies that has something going so right for it in the first half that when the format switches up it can't maintain itself (Blake Lively is our new R. Lee Ermey/Vincent D'Onofrio) and the endless twists don't really help either.
Lion too. Oh, god. That first half is so good. It's like Crapbag Millionaire without the irritating tweeness. Then they flash forward, bring in all the movie stars, and leave themselves with nowhere near enough time to properly explore what they're going for, and feel like they've chopped a features worth of material down to less than an hour and still expect it to work.
Another film that suffered that same problem was Josh Trank's Fantastic Four. I was sitting watching this movie through its first half wondering what everyones problem with it was, then once they get their powers it becomes like a highlights package of what's coming on the next episode.
Also, it's not a half (thank christ) but that first 20 odd minutes of Fury Road I was getting a fucking headache, and wondering how I was going to make it through this movie, and then the sandstorm clears and it turned into the best movie of the year. What a turnaround that was.
I know WALL-E and Brooklyn were both films people had these kinds of issues with, but I'd totally disagree on both those.
Others that have been mentioned that I want to throw my love behind - Full Metal Jacket (the first half is so god tier it would be hard for anything to match its force, but there's nothing wrong with the stuff in Nam), From Dusk Till Dawn, Straight Time (wasn't aware people had a problem with this until this thread!), The Lobster, and Sunshine.
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Post by jimmalone on Nov 13, 2018 11:17:33 GMT
The first half of Django Unchained is the best thing Tarantino has ever done. The second half is the worst thing he's ever done. Like you say, The Lobster. The first half is a bit clumsy but there's still enough heart to it that I was enticed. Then it shat the bed the moment Weisz and Seydoux showed up. Speaking of Seydoux, Spectre. The first half ain't a masterpiece or anything, but it's still a strong entry. But it really hamstrings itself hard in the second half, and I'm convinced it's because they heard rumors that Craig was going to bail afterward and they wanted to make fuller use of Blofeld before rebooting the franchise, but wound up cramming three movies' worth of ideas and stories into one. I agree on Spectre, but as you bring this up I feel even more so about Skyfall. The second half is still good, but for me a total letdown after that terrific first half. Speaking of Tarantino (agree that the first half of Django is probably the best thing he has done and the second half is just bad, he has just made so many bad things for me that there are even much worse things in his filmography), it's the same thing with The Hateful Eight, just on a lower level. The first forty minutes are not brillant, but build up a nice atmosphere and it could have become a really good film - and then the second half is just ridiculously bad.
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Post by Viced on Nov 13, 2018 14:30:22 GMT
Another recent one was A Simple Favor. It's one of those movies that has something going so right for it in the first half that when the format switches up it can't maintain itself (Blake Lively is our new R. Lee Ermey/Vincent D'Onofrio) and the endless twists don't really help either. Good call... goes from a lot of campy fun to just too much nonsense. *beep* Anna Kendrick. I think there's only one person on the planet that feels this way about Straight Time, tbh.
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Post by notacrook on Nov 13, 2018 16:35:05 GMT
I really like Brooklyn overall, but the entire segment where she goes back to Ireland felt so poorly done and problematic to me. It's purely lovely for the first two thirds, and brings it back with a rousing ending, but I really don't think the whole Gleeson angle needed to feature. If they'd gone more with the home vs. new home take, I'd like it more, but it became a rushed story of two loves that was just as quickly wrapped up - wasn't a fan.
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