FRENCH CONNECTION II
At the IMDB, there's a thread, "Greatest Last Four Seconds Ever???" Here's my reply...
I never saw these in theatres, only on TV (with commercial interruptions... grrr). Non-stop tedium, interrupted by the odd moments of intense action. The subway scene was cool. The attempted assassination leading to the elevated train and car chase was incredible. The shootout in the dry-dock was intense, but somewhat maddening. The shootout in the drug lab, leading to the long, long chase on foot, was thrilling. After all the hell the main character goes thru, and all the hell the audience goes thru, sitting thru both pictures, the ending was ABSOLUTELY called for. It just "had" to end that way.
The only other time I can recall seeing an ending like that-- totally abrupt, yet absolutely "final" and utterly called for-- was HALLOWEEN: TWENTY YEARS LATER. At least half of those movies are a horrid waste of anyone's time. The 1st, 4th & 7th aren't. When Jamie Lee Curtis swings that shovel and DECAPITATES the killer, I actually let out a ROAR of approval in the theatre! There was a group of girls in the place who were making noise for most of the film, and I decided to get into the spirit of things by making even more noise. And the end, I just let out a roar. INTENSELY satisfying!!
So what's frustrating is... A)the idiot producers decided to do another one, B)the opening scene in "8" totally contradicted the ending of "7" (and was an INSULT to the audience), and C)the actual decapitation is CUT anytime they run the film on commercial TV.
Some characters not only deserve to get killed, they NEED to. Can you imagine if someone decided to do a sequel and revealed that Charnier "got better"?
