Jami Goes to the Movies

I love going to the movies, but it's a love-hate kinda thing. I love the big dark theatre, the sound, the buttery popcorn and bucket of soda. I hate the usual things - the people who talk or use their cell phones, the actual commercials (not trailers, I love trailers), the fact that I can't pause the movie to take a potty break. But mostly I love movies. I love stories: hearing them, telling them, retelling them. Since the Husband doesn't work the traditional M-F 9-5, we get to go to the theatres at "off-times" like a Wednesday afternoon. We saw the third Pirates movie which I loved. Much better than 2, with nice complex plots and twists and a good ending, that could have been sappy and dumb, but instead was just right. Even better than a story is a story with a "just right" ending. Good movies can be totally ruined by a sucky ending, I'm talking to you Blazing Saddles and Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail. A movie's ending isn't just, well, when it ends, it's that last bite of sandwich you saved while eating your fries so that you can finish with the taste of sandwich in your mouth. The last Pirates movie, while not great overall, is still a fine example of a good ending. Great endings should both wrap up the story lines, yes, ALL of them, to some extent, don't just forget about something that wasn't going anywhere. If it was a red herring at least give us a clue to that effect. They don't need to end with "And we lived happily ever after" but there should be a hint of how the rest of eternity goes - even if you're planning a sequel, make this movie end. And a movie ending doesn't have to be happy. Just saying. I especially like if I don't see it coming. My favorite movie ending, at the moment, would have to be 40-Year-Old Virgin, which (if you haven't seen it, hope I'm not wrecking it for you) ends with a giant musical dance number to the Age of Aquarius. Sure didn't see that coming, but it fit the tone of the movie, it wrapped up what had been going on and it was just plain fun. Good ending. Return of the Jedi ends a trilogy very satisfactorily. Drop Dead Gorgeous perfectly wraps up a plot which I thought had painted itself into a no-win corner. Go see it, if you haven't, and be prepared to laugh so hard you have to pause it. To wrap up my post on movie endings, let me ask you - what movies end just right? Which took a sharp turn into wrong before the credits rolled?