Good movies with crappy endings/Crappy movies with GOOD endings?

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Crap ending : Just Cause (1995) a sympathetic character suddenly goes nasty and a good movie nosedives..

Crap movie good ending : AVP (2004). All but one of the annoying humans are killed and Pred and Alien Queen battle it out...

and YOUR Mix of good and bad?

[RikWriter]

Identity with John Cusack. Well made, taut, compelling movie...that ruins its own ending by revealing the twist JUST before the ending and making the ending pretty much pointless. Would have been awesome if they'd had the twist revealed AFTER the climax.

[AnthonyO'Brien]

I Bury the Living (1958)
Guy working in cemetery has a map of the burial grounds. Reserved areas are marked with white pins. Graves of the dead are marked with black pins. He notices when the white pins are randomly replaced with black ones people start dying. What happens if he puts white pins on the black areas? "The movie turns to sh** " is what Stephen King remarked. A cop-out scooby-doo ending undermines a compelling movie that could have given us zombies 10 years before night of the living dead...

[AnthonyO'Brien]

I Bury the Living (1958)
Guy working in cemetery has a map of the burial grounds. Reserved areas are marked with white pins. Graves of the dead are marked with black pins. He notices when the white pins are randomly replaced with black ones people start dying. What happens if he puts white pins on the black areas? "The movie turns to sh** " is what Stephen King remarked. A cop-out scooby-doo ending undermines a compelling movie that could have given us zombies 10 years before night of the living dead...

[SteveGus]

The most obvious bad ending of a good movie I can think of is the 1956 version of The Bad Seed, about a murderous little girl who's the daughter of a serial killer. In the book and play the film was based on, the little girl gets away with her crimes. That wasn't allowed by the Hays Code, so the movie literally ends with a bolt from the blue.

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Doomsday (2006) : a Mad Max/Escape from New York clone that's a bit derivative of these films. It DOES have a thrilling car chase escape scene as the heroine races down the highway with the crazy bad guys chasing her while "When two tribes go to war" plays but by then it is too late to save the movie.

[kingaliencracker]

Good movie/Bad ending = A Cure for Wellness;

Bad movie/Good ending = Superman II (Super-kiss to make Lois forget he slept with her).

[williamtheday]

And a spanking!

[williamtheday]

The most obvious bad ending of a good movie I can think of is the 1956 version of The Bad Seed, about a murderous little girl who's the daughter of a serial killer. In the book and play the film was based on, the little girl gets away with her crimes. That wasn't allowed by the Hays Code, so the movie literally ends with a bolt from the blue.

And a spanking from Mom!

[TriggerWarning]

The Last American Virgin - generic movie with one of the greatest and gut punching endings of all time.

Its a not very good generic teen sex comedy from the 80's that got lost in the shadow of Fast Times at Ridgemont High which came out two weeks later. Its your typical teens want to get laid movie with all kinds of R rated hijinks throughout. The main character is named Gary and he's just ordinary with nothing particularly special about him. One of his friends is named Rick and the jock who gets all the girls. Gary falls for a girl named Helen but naturally she is into Rick. Helen ends up pregnant by Rick who dumps her wanting nothing to do with this "slut" who got pregnant. In rushes Gary to comfort Helen and he even pays for her abortion and helps her recuperate. She invites him to her birthday party and Gary goes thinking he's finally got a chance. He walks in only to find Helen making out with Rick. There is an incredibly painful 30 seconds (that feels like hours) where you just see Gary's heart breaking as he watches and Helen and Rick then notice him standing there. He then walks away as the 80's song Just Once (perfect song for the moment) starts to play. Gary drives away in tears and the credits roll.

The movie would be utterly forgottable except for the ending. Because we all either have been a Gary or know someone who was a Gary. For me, I was a Gary. I fell in love but she chose someone else. I was devastated. About a year later, having not seen or talked to her in nearly that whole time, she finds me and breaks down in tears about how abusive the guy was and how he had raped her a few days earlier saying she made the wrong choice when she picked him over me. We spent most of the next week together (nothing physical, I was trying to be there as a friend not some creepo). A week later she went back to him and by facebook is still with him now over 20 years later. Haven't talked to her since then but it still bothers me to this day that she chose a rapist over me. I'm married to a great woman now but in some ways I know I've never gotten over this and probably never will. So I think I know exactly how Gary felt in that moment which is why this ending resonates with me because it was so realistic in how life often actually turns out rather than the fairy tale ending most Hollywood movies give you.