Little known Hollywood fact but scripts are written exactly from start to finish and you can't go back to where you started so when the first writer has to leave half way through the next writer can only continue from their stopping off point.
You're joking, if course. But I'm not sure if that's from a stance of 'that would never happen'. Weirdly, some films have a rough script, but writing continues throughout filming. Having a full change of writing staff, or the lead _can_ introduce such a tonal shift as scenes have already been written.
Kevin Smith has some articles about such occurrences.
Click with Adam Sandler. The first half of the movie is filled with the types of comedic hijinks that could be had with a magic remote control on life. Muting and fast forwarding annoying people etc…
Then he realizes that he skipped huge amounts of his marriage and kids growing up etc but he can’t rewind and it gets surprisingly depressing
i know everyone talks about him dying in the street surrounded by his family but the scene where he keeps replaying his father’s last words to him. shit, that hit fucking hard. especially in a movie with no less than four fart jokes.
That’s because Adam Sandler doesn’t make films for critics. The sooner I realized the sooner I was able to just enjoy his films. I’m not saying they’re all amazing but 50 first dates and happy Gilmore will never get old to me.
I completely agree. I've found it's all about setting realistic expectations. I remember when my older brother really wanted to watch Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. I had little to no expectations, so I ended up enjoying it for what it is.
I put off watching this movie for so long because I thought it would be silly. But Click is weirdly poignant in a way that made me regret not having watched it sooner and also made me wary of watching it again.
That movie and funny people are peak "Adam Sandler can't figure out what kind of actor he wants to be". He started trying to make serious films but was unwilling to let go of the box office and marketing that come from selling an Adam Sandler comedy. The results were just weird and confused.
Parasite is a positive example of this. Starts of as a nice semi dark comedy about a poor family working for the rich, and then, no spoilers here, but halfway through the movie there’s a tone shift, and it somehow gets better from there
We unintentionally split up our viewing into two days without knowing anything about the movie. What a bizarre second night for the second half! We absolutely loved it though and it was a fun to split it up in this way.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! as an Asian it was a really special film for me, not just because of the accolades and the attention but how its themes really reflect a lot about the reality of not just South Korea but a lot of East Asian values and economies
The ending talking about allowing his father to come up the stairs once he would be rich enough to own the house was a kick to the gut. That's how I've approached my entire life and my immigrant parents and to realize that that's not how it works was sad.
For those who don't know, it's a common idea that if a child is successful, he can pass down a ladder or stairs for the poorer parents to come up it to join the child in a higher social class. But in reality all that ends up happening is the kids either can't escape, or the parents just bring the kids back down into poverty with them.
Downsizing
Those trailers were wildly misleading. What I expected was a fun whacky comedy about shrunken people. What I got was a terrible fucking movie that didn't know what it wanted to be.
That was my most anticipated film that year and I was like "REVIEWS BE DAMNED. This is Alexandar Payne. This can't be that bad." and I will still sit here and defend the first 50 minutes of the film but the moment they get small...my lord does that movie take a turn.
I am not one to bemoan hamfisting politics into movies, as movies have a variety of messages they attempt to portray just like any art form, but oh man. I'm all for cleaning the world and taking care of the environment. I pick up trash on the street literally multiple times a day.
That movie needed to seriously calm tf down with the environmentalist messages. It was like every single line after the shift was "oh man, things wouldn't be this bad if only we put more effort into the environment!" Might as well just have mat Damon spraying orange paint on everything for the last hour.
It was so stupid because them being little ended up having no bearing on the plot. They could have made the same movie with the people normal sized. So dumb.
This was my first thought. I'm mad at myself for seeing it through to the end. It went from light-hearted comedy, to depressing drama to sheer what the fuck did I just watch?!, and was way too long to boot
Does Hot Fuzz count? To me it feels like it has 3 distinct tones for the 3 acts. Big city cop in a small town fish out of water bit, then an eerie and vaguely supernatural feeling murder mystery, and then just straight up gunplay action flick. Damn, what a good movie.
I think that's where The World's End stumbles. Watching it back more recently, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than when it first came out. I got what they were going for, switching to the full alien invasion/pod people movie.
It just never quite clicked or landed the first go-round. Wheras Hot Fuzz does the shifts \*masterfully\* and like u/SamwellBarley points out below --- \*everything\* is set-up. I was GONE the entire third act in fits of laughter. I literally slid out of my chair.
They \*pay off every last thing\*.
"THEY'RE JUMPING THROUGH THE AIR WHILST FIRING TWO GUNS!!!!"
I lost it when the modern art appeared behind the cars. The tonal shift in that one was brutal.
Still in my top 10 movies, but it's definitely the weakest of the Cornetto trilogy
It took me a few years to watch it a second time and I definitely liked it more the second time. Like being the worst movie in the Cornetto trilogy is still pretty damn good.
Ya I rewatched it recently and I know the movie really well. But I was still shocked at how everything has a pay off in some way. So well written.
I didn't even catch until the last time that she says "No luck catching them swans then?" meaning she didn't slip with murderers it's just how she talks.
It's because it's all so perfectly set up that it makes total sense for them to be diving around shooting each other, or hiding in the shadows in cloaks murdering people. Genuinely one of the best-written movies of all time.
It worked for me in Hot Fuzz. It finds the right gradient to shift the tone without too much friction.
My extremely unpopular movie opinion though, is that the tonal shifts didn’t work for me at all in Shaun of the Dead. It is very effective both as zombie parody and as example of the genre, but the two facets clash too much for me to get invested in either.
I agreed with you up until about a week ago, got high and watched it with a friend who’d never seen it. Totally understand why people who stay away from the genre would find this effectively spooky.
My dad rented this back in the day, and told me it was gonna be 'a vampire movie'. The first 20 minutes, I'm like, you sure about that Pops? Turns out it was THE vampire movie.
I watched Vamp for the first time the other night, and it’s essentially the same format at FDTD. It’s starts off like an 80s buddy comedy, complete with Long Duk Dong, then they got to a vampire strip club and it becomes a horror film.
New Batch making fun of one of the most unsettling moments of the first movie is still one of my favorite things. It's so completely and utterly inappropriate, and it works exactly because that's what it is.
Agreed totally.
I remember being blown away when Gremlins 2 came out because it was the first time I'd seen a movie be so deliberately self aware and using that to such great effect.
I think it’s also kind of a ‘parody’ or commentary or mockery or whatever you wanna call it it of wholesome family Christmas movies, but this is purely my theory not based on particularly much.
Die Another Day.
The first hour is actually pretty good. It shows James Bond in a vulnerable situation. Something we never saw before. And then the film's tone changes in the second hour. It turns into a very tongue in cheek film with a feeling that is not too dissimilar to Moonraker.
I'll go even sooner, once he lands in Hong Kong.
He was previously tortured for months in North Korea, but when he cleans up at the hotel in Hong Kong, he looks no worse for wear, and a bit pudgy, if anything.
Octopussy feels the same, it has the beginning of a good Cold War story with the rogue general wanting to invade NATO and stealing from the Soviet treasurey to fund his operations until an 00 agent is killed which puts Bond on the case....but when he gets to India it becomes a weird Temple of Doom story with racist caricatures and belly dancer killsquads.
It was one of the best scenes of his era. He's gotta stop a bomb going off at the circus and needs to dress like a clown to blend in as he's being chased. I never really got the criticism for that as it's never played for laughs and is a great and tense scene. The fact that Bond looks like a literal clown does nothing to ruin the sequence IMO.
Yeah, that scene was incorrectly said to be comic and over the years people have stuck with it. There is no doubt it is dramatic and it is one of the only times - from any Bond actor - that we see him legitimately scared. However, there is a problem that he fully dresses and accurately applies clown makeup in about 30 seconds.
I like Octopussy, but there are tonal shifts all over that movie. He has that comedic "Siitt" and the Tarzan swing to the tiger when in other parts of that chase he seems in genuine danger.
Then in Germany the movie becomes a grittier sort of cold war actioner. I think Bond even shoots one solider in the heart and head, as well as others in the head, on screen. In the same sequence he hides in a gorilla costume to listen to the bad guys.
Yeah, Octopussy definitely is two movies mashed into one.
As you mentioned, the Germany stuff is the best Cold War stuff in the franchise outside of From Russia With Love with some great sequences and Bond actually up against an enemy whom we don't know if he can defeat. It's full of tension and realism, even though there's a smidge of levity here or there to lighten the mood.
The India stuff might as well be a different movie altogether. It's full of cheese and lightheadedness, and plenty of casual racism against Indians to go around. It's basically an action/adventure movie wedged in between this tense and taut Cold War thriller. At no time do the audience doubt Bond will save the day and win the girl.
It's really a confounding mess of a movie that somehow just altogether fits and works. It's not my favorite Moore, or even my favorite Bond of the 80s, but it's infinitely watchable and entertaining. Just too bad Moore didn't know it was a perfect send off and came back for A View to a Kill.
It is still my favorite of the Moore Bonds, even though most of the Indian scenes are cringe-y one way or another. But the Cold War and nuclear countdown stuff was genuinely gripping.
I agree with you. I watched Octopussy not so long ago and did not find myself being distracted by the fact that Bond was dressed as a clown. He was at a circus and the only way he could get to the bomb was to disguise himself.
People shit on Moore's Bond films too much these days.
Sad clown Roger Moore works way better than it should. His pleading at the end with the bomb in the circus cannon (a wonderfully ridiculous thing to type) is remarkably good.
That’s fair. I *have* seen people complain that it went away from hard sci-fi to supernatural. But yes, that was a different tilt altogether.
“Negative, five crew members” was still a super chilling moment though.
For me it’s when cool grounded sci fi movies go ethereal and abstract in the third act. I don’t mind ethereal and abstract I like the fountain. But as astra and interstellar (I know I’m about to be stoned) I hate how they build this sci fi world that is sci fi but has rules and then just breaks it’s own world to make its artistic point. I feel like you can make your point about family or father son relationships consistently with the rules you have defined yourself.
the people who think the 3rd act is a tonal departure from the first two did not pay attention during the first two acts.
10/10 movie one of my absolute favorites.
Bone Tomahawk opens with a gruesome, on-screen throat slitting. It’s ominous and tense the whole time.
Maybe there’s a pacing shift because shit really pops off at the end but the tone is pretty consistent for me.
Barbarian...it is a weird tonal shift, but it actually *does* work in the context of the film, and makes the film more interesting because of the shift.
It's definitely the kind of movie you just have to tell people to "trust you" on when you recommend it since you can't really describe it without giving away the good stuff so you just have to tell the person to trust you and give it a try.
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is basically a parody of the Great Man biopic for the first half and then in the second it becomes the most strait laced Great Man biopic of all time
Yeah maybe not a definite shift, but some scenes were like a straight biopic, while others were a parody. Had Scott just stuck with one of the tones in sure we would have had a much better film
I know everyone trashes it, but loved it. I essentially went in blind, only knowing a basic plot description and Edgar Wright, and an hour and a half later I'm wondering [WHAT THE HELL AM I EVEN WATCHING](https://youtu.be/78wPkLfFMzA?si=RRt2dVtR39re6M9v)?!
It think that third act mushed my brain with how trippy and weird it was.
*Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World* has a bizarre tonal shift near the end. The first 2/3 is a dark comedy about what happens to society when we have an expiration date and then suddenly it takes a hard turn into syrupy tearjerking melodrama.
By far the hardest sharp turn I've ever seen a movie take.
you could start blinking during one movie and be in a whole different film by the time you opened your eyes again.
"Life is Beautiful" (1997). We knew the movie was about a man trying to help his son survive the Holocaust, but the first 90 percent of the movie was pretty lighthearted – and then, it wasn't.
I'm not a big Courtney Love fan, but she absolutely knocks it out of the park in that movie. Not to take anything away from anyone else's incredible performance either.
And there's a [sequel](https://people.com/sandra-bullock-playfully-warns-practical-magic-reunion-will-be-good-trouble-at-director-griffin-dunne-s-book-launch-8666112) coming!
I’d agree and add wild at heart, I don’t remember the whole film but when they find the character who played Audrey Horne in twin peaks after a car accident, and she mentions her brain, goes from wacky nic cage flick to oh shit yeah Lynch directed this.
As sudden and shocking as that scene is, I'd argue the film keeps plowing along with the same tone. Extremely dark comedy. What happens with Clooney later makes me laugh so hard,
From Dusk Till Dawn This film starts as a crime thriller with two fugitives on the run but abruptly shifts into a horror movie involving vampires halfway through.
*Chicken Little* (2005) started as a middle school comedy about a boy trying to win a baseball game and impress his father, and then becomes a sci-fi alien invasion film.
Psycho.
The first half hour or so is about a young woman who steals money and skips town. She stops at a hotel for the night and...
Suddenly you're watching a completely different movie.
The weirdest one for me is Where the Boys Are (1960). It starts as a typical 60s beach party movie until one of the girls is raped in the third act. It's jarring.
"Dungeons and Dragons (2000)".
Light-hearted fantasy adventure film, which dramatically kills off its comic relief halfway through. Suddenly the movie takes itself seriously.
Your description of House of Gucci's tone shifts reminds me of [Walden (2023)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21202916/). It really can't seem to decide if it wants to be a dark comedy or a thriller. It does not pull off either one. Quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen.
Short Circuit 2.
That movie is all fun and games until Johnny Five gets assaulted in a way that still scars a corner of my soul. The worst part is that it didn't have to be that, but they made a choice. Then they try to end the movie with the same goofball slapstick that they started with, but it just doesn't land.
It's used pretty well in the film adaptation of Evil Under The Sun.
The first half plays things up as a lighthearted comedy with sarcastic barbs throughout, with the only real conflict being Arlena (Diana Rigg) being a bitch to everyone. It even uses showtunes in the first half to show how easy going everyone has it.
Then Arlena is found brutally murdered on the beach and the jokes and music just outright stop. The insults featured among the cast become a lot more bitter.
The tone shift in Fury has always been jarring to me. The first half hits you over the head with a sledgehammer repeatedly about the savagery and futility of war. Literally the first scene shows one of the soldiers (I think Brad Pitt's character) violently ambushing and stabbing the German officer on a horse, quite literally killing the fantasy about gentlemen soldiers, honor in battle, and the rest. This same theme is reaffirmed in every subsequent gruesome gut-wrenching battle, until we get to the excellent and tense lunch scene where the civilian women get shelled and buried in rubble. From this point forward, it's like a completely different movie. The "futility of war" theme is replaced by a far more optimistic and downright traditional "brothers in arms until the end" theme, which is okay I guess, but it's a jarring tone shift. I felt like the first half of the movie had something interesting and new to say about war, or at least explored darker themes that probably more closely mimick reality. The second half just felt like a re-hash of every other war movie I've ever seen, down to the highly improbable "impossible odds" duel to the death. It was disappointing because I really liked the first half.
Lost Boys (1987) changes from campy horror, to 80s comedy, to mood piece music video, to suspense, on a nearly scene to scene basis. However, I think this actually adds to the uniqueness of the film and makes it great for what it is.
I feel like I see this in Kubrick movies frequently. There's definitely a first half/second half feel to his movies. To his credit, it usually works amazingly well.
What IS weird to me is Stripes. It has a wild tonal shift that would feel like a parody of Full Metal Jacket...if it didn't predate Full Metal Jacket by 6 years.
I haven’t scrolled all the way down to see if anyone posted already, but Serenity (2019) with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway is almost a completely different movie in the third act. And “weird” doesn’t even come close to describing the shift.
Mr. Brooks, with Kevin Costner, felt like they shot two different movies, and then decided to cut them together in post. The Costner stuff is a pretty decent (if memory serves) psychological thriller set around a suburban serial killer. William Hurt plays his alter ego who talks to him during the murders. It’s slow and tense.
The stuff with Demi Moore (the detective) feels like a shitty action procedural, including a weirdly out of place techno-laden shootout: https://youtu.be/czUdUmpWUiw?si=N9mbrMKVwlf3Yowe
Cocktail. A great fun ride of a guy finding his way in life by being the best bartender ever with his best friend and mentor, until it isn’t. And boy it sure isn’t anymore.
A Simple Favor with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. First two-thirds are this serious, suspenseful tone and then the last third takes a sharp right and becomes a weird slap stick comedy.
Sorry to Bother You was pretty wild in the last 15-20 minutes or so. Like, most of the movie is just an exaggerated portrayal of working in a telemarketing call center and in big business that might be doing some shady but still realistic things, and then if you know you know >!a drug that turns the user into a human-horse abomination because horses can work longer and it's the perfect employee!<
"That movie doesn't really decide if it is a serious crime drama or an over-the-top satirical comedy, and as a result, it doesn't manage to pull off either of those genres and fails as a movie"
This comment made me think of the Boondock Saints, with the exception being that they actually do pull it off, and I really don't know how. It is pretty weird but works, at least for the first one.
Abigail, for sure. If the studios would have let that movie cook on it's own instead of ruining it's own premise/surprise, it might have been a much better fun twist from a gallery of rogues heist movie into a vampire flick.
I doubt Reddit will like this answer, but I have to say Looper (2012). The first act is this cool, sleek cyberpunk near-future Kansas City. It's gritty, has seedy nightclubs, drugs, gunplay, and just feels like such a promising sci-fi story that can really make good use of the city. The characters feel believable. The setting feels lived-in. The film does a lot of interesting things at first, and then loses momentum really quickly. Joe gets his gold payday, and we get a montage of his life in France, before seeing Old Joe go back in time and starting timeline B. That was cool! Let's see more of that! But...then the rest of it basically just takes place on a farm. The pace slows down dramatically and somehow still manages to gloss over the Rainmaker; a key antagonist that we never even see. Then we're supposed to be intrigued when it turns out that this bitter unlikable child is the secret villain we got all of 3 lines of exposition about. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the film for what it tries to be. I have seen it many times. It does a lot of things I really like. The flashbacks of Old Joe's memory changing as Joe changes the course of his history, Old Paul Dano's >!disappearing limbs!<, and >!the protagonist killing himself to change the future.!
Get into some Hong Kong movies and you'll get to see some tonal shifts that will give you whiplash. You'll have a funny scene with two cops maybe foiling a robbery and then in the next scene the bad guys get revenge by killing everybody in the building. Kids, you name it.
Running Scared with Paul Walker. A run of the mill crime flick where half way through the movie Walker goes into a house to discover that the weird husband & wife tenants acting strangely are actually a pair of murderous peodophiles who also film their victims. Walker then realises that the entire floor under his feet is covered with dead children.
What the fuck? Such a tonal shift that doesn't go with anything else in the movie. Very ill judged scene.
Hancock. I was expecting it to stay as a comedically cynical antithesis to a typical superhero film like the first half
Didn’t the writer leave halfway through and the brought in someone else to finish it?
Little known Hollywood fact but scripts are written exactly from start to finish and you can't go back to where you started so when the first writer has to leave half way through the next writer can only continue from their stopping off point.
You're joking, if course. But I'm not sure if that's from a stance of 'that would never happen'. Weirdly, some films have a rough script, but writing continues throughout filming. Having a full change of writing staff, or the lead _can_ introduce such a tonal shift as scenes have already been written. Kevin Smith has some articles about such occurrences.
That movie is fascinating to me as a Vince Gilligan fan.
Wuhuh?! I did not know Vince Gilligan even wrote movies.
Occasionally! If you watch it knowing he wrote a good amount of it, you'll see his quirks here and there.
I'm just glad he got off that island!
The original title for the spec script was TONIGHT HE COMES - it was much darker throughout, Hancock’s ejaculate would destroy his human partner.
Somebody read man of steel, woman of Kleenex...
If you stop paying attention at any point to the Blues Brothers you will end the movie saying "what the fuck is going on" for 20 straight minutes.
"We play both kinds --- country, and western."
This is glue. *Strong stuff.*
You got my cheeze whiz boy?
Though probably best if you walked in just before the first pileup, lol. Or maybe any scene with Carrie Fisher...
Click with Adam Sandler. The first half of the movie is filled with the types of comedic hijinks that could be had with a magic remote control on life. Muting and fast forwarding annoying people etc… Then he realizes that he skipped huge amounts of his marriage and kids growing up etc but he can’t rewind and it gets surprisingly depressing
i know everyone talks about him dying in the street surrounded by his family but the scene where he keeps replaying his father’s last words to him. shit, that hit fucking hard. especially in a movie with no less than four fart jokes.
Click is basically a re-imagining of It's A Wonderful Life, just like Mr Destiny was. Christopher Walken is Clarence
For how much that movie was panned by critics I thought it was a pretty good movie.
That’s because Adam Sandler doesn’t make films for critics. The sooner I realized the sooner I was able to just enjoy his films. I’m not saying they’re all amazing but 50 first dates and happy Gilmore will never get old to me.
Adam Sandler has talent and can act when he wants to. Reign Over Me while a bit sappy is still a fantastic movie.
Amazing movie. I loved it and still consider it in my top 10 or so.
It’s true, one of his guiding philosophies is “TBS needs content too.”
I completely agree. I've found it's all about setting realistic expectations. I remember when my older brother really wanted to watch Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. I had little to no expectations, so I ended up enjoying it for what it is.
I put off watching this movie for so long because I thought it would be silly. But Click is weirdly poignant in a way that made me regret not having watched it sooner and also made me wary of watching it again.
It gets an extra point from me, because Linger is part of the soundtrack.
That movie and funny people are peak "Adam Sandler can't figure out what kind of actor he wants to be". He started trying to make serious films but was unwilling to let go of the box office and marketing that come from selling an Adam Sandler comedy. The results were just weird and confused.
Which is funny, because those are my two favorite movies he did, just like Stranger Than Fiction and Everything Must Go was with Will Ferrell.
Parasite is a positive example of this. Starts of as a nice semi dark comedy about a poor family working for the rich, and then, no spoilers here, but halfway through the movie there’s a tone shift, and it somehow gets better from there
We unintentionally split up our viewing into two days without knowing anything about the movie. What a bizarre second night for the second half! We absolutely loved it though and it was a fun to split it up in this way.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! as an Asian it was a really special film for me, not just because of the accolades and the attention but how its themes really reflect a lot about the reality of not just South Korea but a lot of East Asian values and economies
The ending talking about allowing his father to come up the stairs once he would be rich enough to own the house was a kick to the gut. That's how I've approached my entire life and my immigrant parents and to realize that that's not how it works was sad. For those who don't know, it's a common idea that if a child is successful, he can pass down a ladder or stairs for the poorer parents to come up it to join the child in a higher social class. But in reality all that ends up happening is the kids either can't escape, or the parents just bring the kids back down into poverty with them.
Barbarian might be the most positive example
Downsizing Those trailers were wildly misleading. What I expected was a fun whacky comedy about shrunken people. What I got was a terrible fucking movie that didn't know what it wanted to be.
That was my most anticipated film that year and I was like "REVIEWS BE DAMNED. This is Alexandar Payne. This can't be that bad." and I will still sit here and defend the first 50 minutes of the film but the moment they get small...my lord does that movie take a turn.
I was looking forward to a shrunken society and I got a shitty movie instead
I am not one to bemoan hamfisting politics into movies, as movies have a variety of messages they attempt to portray just like any art form, but oh man. I'm all for cleaning the world and taking care of the environment. I pick up trash on the street literally multiple times a day. That movie needed to seriously calm tf down with the environmentalist messages. It was like every single line after the shift was "oh man, things wouldn't be this bad if only we put more effort into the environment!" Might as well just have mat Damon spraying orange paint on everything for the last hour.
It was so stupid because them being little ended up having no bearing on the plot. They could have made the same movie with the people normal sized. So dumb.
I'm still mad at myself for not just turning it off once things turned.
This was my first thought. I'm mad at myself for seeing it through to the end. It went from light-hearted comedy, to depressing drama to sheer what the fuck did I just watch?!, and was way too long to boot
Does Hot Fuzz count? To me it feels like it has 3 distinct tones for the 3 acts. Big city cop in a small town fish out of water bit, then an eerie and vaguely supernatural feeling murder mystery, and then just straight up gunplay action flick. Damn, what a good movie.
Somehow they pull all that off without it feeling disjointed and weird.
I think that's where The World's End stumbles. Watching it back more recently, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than when it first came out. I got what they were going for, switching to the full alien invasion/pod people movie. It just never quite clicked or landed the first go-round. Wheras Hot Fuzz does the shifts \*masterfully\* and like u/SamwellBarley points out below --- \*everything\* is set-up. I was GONE the entire third act in fits of laughter. I literally slid out of my chair. They \*pay off every last thing\*. "THEY'RE JUMPING THROUGH THE AIR WHILST FIRING TWO GUNS!!!!"
I lost it when the modern art appeared behind the cars. The tonal shift in that one was brutal. Still in my top 10 movies, but it's definitely the weakest of the Cornetto trilogy
It took me a few years to watch it a second time and I definitely liked it more the second time. Like being the worst movie in the Cornetto trilogy is still pretty damn good.
Oh, yeah. Certainly. Being a 5 or 6/10 Edgar Wright movie still makes an 8/10 movie
Ya I rewatched it recently and I know the movie really well. But I was still shocked at how everything has a pay off in some way. So well written. I didn't even catch until the last time that she says "No luck catching them swans then?" meaning she didn't slip with murderers it's just how she talks.
It's because it's all so perfectly set up that it makes total sense for them to be diving around shooting each other, or hiding in the shadows in cloaks murdering people. Genuinely one of the best-written movies of all time.
Not an ounce of fat in that script. They don’t waste a single second or frame
Agree 100%, with both of you!
It worked for me in Hot Fuzz. It finds the right gradient to shift the tone without too much friction. My extremely unpopular movie opinion though, is that the tonal shifts didn’t work for me at all in Shaun of the Dead. It is very effective both as zombie parody and as example of the genre, but the two facets clash too much for me to get invested in either.
I agreed with you up until about a week ago, got high and watched it with a friend who’d never seen it. Totally understand why people who stay away from the genre would find this effectively spooky.
From Dusk till Dawn.
My dad rented this back in the day, and told me it was gonna be 'a vampire movie'. The first 20 minutes, I'm like, you sure about that Pops? Turns out it was THE vampire movie.
I watched this in the theater on LSD without knowing anything about it. There actually was a vampire rat, right?
Couldn't tell you over the sound of that guy's crotch revolver
Which also shows up in "Desperado" in the guitar case of guns. Robert Rodriguez must *love* the idea of a dick gun.
I watched Vamp for the first time the other night, and it’s essentially the same format at FDTD. It’s starts off like an 80s buddy comedy, complete with Long Duk Dong, then they got to a vampire strip club and it becomes a horror film.
Vamp is VERY fun. Grace Jones as a vampire queen!
i wish i could watch this movie for the first time again
Honestly, I find the shift kind of works in that movie.
From Dusk Til Dawn is a classic
Very, very intentional. First half is Tarantino, second half is Robert Rodriguez.
Sorry to bother you. Holy fuck
This is the one. Starting off as a wry social commentary then ending with a whacked-out sci-fi social commentary.
Whenever i describe this movie to someone I just say that its a weird movie that turns into the weirdest movie
Hard left there at the end. Makes complete sense once it sets in, but damn in the moment is it something else.
I went to the bathroom right before the shift. I had no clue what the fuck I walked back into
Great use for the "Whose horse is that?" audio
A friend brought me to see that movie and I hadn’t heard of it before or even seen a trailer. What a surprise.
Honestly, as weird as the story gets, I wouldn't say the *tone* ever changes.
Gremlins has a very stark tone shift when they eat after midnight but it works so well for the film.
I'd make that same argument moving from the first movie to the second one. The New Batch is insanely silly, but it really works for it.
New Batch making fun of one of the most unsettling moments of the first movie is still one of my favorite things. It's so completely and utterly inappropriate, and it works exactly because that's what it is.
Agreed totally. I remember being blown away when Gremlins 2 came out because it was the first time I'd seen a movie be so deliberately self aware and using that to such great effect.
That's true. I don't think I saw that level of self-awareness again until Last Action Hero.
I think it’s also kind of a ‘parody’ or commentary or mockery or whatever you wanna call it it of wholesome family Christmas movies, but this is purely my theory not based on particularly much.
Die Another Day. The first hour is actually pretty good. It shows James Bond in a vulnerable situation. Something we never saw before. And then the film's tone changes in the second hour. It turns into a very tongue in cheek film with a feeling that is not too dissimilar to Moonraker.
I'll go even sooner, once he lands in Hong Kong. He was previously tortured for months in North Korea, but when he cleans up at the hotel in Hong Kong, he looks no worse for wear, and a bit pudgy, if anything.
Octopussy feels the same, it has the beginning of a good Cold War story with the rogue general wanting to invade NATO and stealing from the Soviet treasurey to fund his operations until an 00 agent is killed which puts Bond on the case....but when he gets to India it becomes a weird Temple of Doom story with racist caricatures and belly dancer killsquads.
All I remember is Roger Moore running around in a clown suit in what was supposed to be a dramatic scene.
It was one of the best scenes of his era. He's gotta stop a bomb going off at the circus and needs to dress like a clown to blend in as he's being chased. I never really got the criticism for that as it's never played for laughs and is a great and tense scene. The fact that Bond looks like a literal clown does nothing to ruin the sequence IMO.
Yeah, that scene was incorrectly said to be comic and over the years people have stuck with it. There is no doubt it is dramatic and it is one of the only times - from any Bond actor - that we see him legitimately scared. However, there is a problem that he fully dresses and accurately applies clown makeup in about 30 seconds. I like Octopussy, but there are tonal shifts all over that movie. He has that comedic "Siitt" and the Tarzan swing to the tiger when in other parts of that chase he seems in genuine danger. Then in Germany the movie becomes a grittier sort of cold war actioner. I think Bond even shoots one solider in the heart and head, as well as others in the head, on screen. In the same sequence he hides in a gorilla costume to listen to the bad guys.
Yeah, Octopussy definitely is two movies mashed into one. As you mentioned, the Germany stuff is the best Cold War stuff in the franchise outside of From Russia With Love with some great sequences and Bond actually up against an enemy whom we don't know if he can defeat. It's full of tension and realism, even though there's a smidge of levity here or there to lighten the mood. The India stuff might as well be a different movie altogether. It's full of cheese and lightheadedness, and plenty of casual racism against Indians to go around. It's basically an action/adventure movie wedged in between this tense and taut Cold War thriller. At no time do the audience doubt Bond will save the day and win the girl. It's really a confounding mess of a movie that somehow just altogether fits and works. It's not my favorite Moore, or even my favorite Bond of the 80s, but it's infinitely watchable and entertaining. Just too bad Moore didn't know it was a perfect send off and came back for A View to a Kill.
It is still my favorite of the Moore Bonds, even though most of the Indian scenes are cringe-y one way or another. But the Cold War and nuclear countdown stuff was genuinely gripping.
I agree with you. I watched Octopussy not so long ago and did not find myself being distracted by the fact that Bond was dressed as a clown. He was at a circus and the only way he could get to the bomb was to disguise himself. People shit on Moore's Bond films too much these days.
Sad clown Roger Moore works way better than it should. His pleading at the end with the bomb in the circus cannon (a wonderfully ridiculous thing to type) is remarkably good.
A Simple Favor (2018) goes weird and slapstick right at the very end after an otherwise fun, bubbly homage to film noir.
Full Metal Jacket. One of the clearest breaks between two acts that you will ever see.
I had to scroll way too far to find this answer. The first part is borderline comedy, then shit gets real in a hurry.
Sunshine
This is a great movie up until the tonal shift, then it just becomes ok.
I liked the shift
Me too. I don’t see how people were surprised. They only telegraphed the supernatural element from the very beginning of the movie.
That's not the shift people have a problem with. It's the complete change into a slasher film that people didn't like
That’s fair. I *have* seen people complain that it went away from hard sci-fi to supernatural. But yes, that was a different tilt altogether. “Negative, five crew members” was still a super chilling moment though.
For me it’s when cool grounded sci fi movies go ethereal and abstract in the third act. I don’t mind ethereal and abstract I like the fountain. But as astra and interstellar (I know I’m about to be stoned) I hate how they build this sci fi world that is sci fi but has rules and then just breaks it’s own world to make its artistic point. I feel like you can make your point about family or father son relationships consistently with the rules you have defined yourself.
Same here. “Not your God! *Mine!*” is such a good line.
the people who think the 3rd act is a tonal departure from the first two did not pay attention during the first two acts. 10/10 movie one of my absolute favorites.
Thank you! It’s not at all a tonal shift, so much of that “twist” is forshadowed.
these have more subtle shifts, but still definitely there: Promising Young Woman Snack Shack Bone Tomahawk
I did not see the tonal shift in Bone Tomahawk coming I’ll tell you what
Fuck Bone Tomahawk was good
Bone Tomahawk is such a fucking ride. That movie is traumatizing.
Bone Tomahawk opens with a gruesome, on-screen throat slitting. It’s ominous and tense the whole time. Maybe there’s a pacing shift because shit really pops off at the end but the tone is pretty consistent for me.
Bone Tomakawk was not a subtle shift. Old fashioned western to straight horror in less than a couple minutes.
What was the tonal change in promising young woman?
Barbarian...it is a weird tonal shift, but it actually *does* work in the context of the film, and makes the film more interesting because of the shift.
I had no context or clues about this movie when I first started it, and I'm grateful for that. What a wild ride.
I watched the trailer and still didn't really have an accurate expectation for the movie. They kept it kinda vague, much to their credit.
It's definitely the kind of movie you just have to tell people to "trust you" on when you recommend it since you can't really describe it without giving away the good stuff so you just have to tell the person to trust you and give it a try.
I absolutely love this movie. You have to go into it knowing absolutely nothing.
The measuring tape scene kills me every time.
Came to post this. I laughed so hard at the smash cut to Justin driving along the countryside.
Riki Tiki Tavi Mongoose is gone
Death of stalin definitely shifts in tone around the time of the riots thru the ending. Fitting tho, given the subject matter
Armando Iannucci is a master of that kind of tonal shift though. Death of Stalin is one of the funniest movies of all time for me.
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is basically a parody of the Great Man biopic for the first half and then in the second it becomes the most strait laced Great Man biopic of all time
Yeah maybe not a definite shift, but some scenes were like a straight biopic, while others were a parody. Had Scott just stuck with one of the tones in sure we would have had a much better film
Last Night in Soho
I know everyone trashes it, but loved it. I essentially went in blind, only knowing a basic plot description and Edgar Wright, and an hour and a half later I'm wondering [WHAT THE HELL AM I EVEN WATCHING](https://youtu.be/78wPkLfFMzA?si=RRt2dVtR39re6M9v)?! It think that third act mushed my brain with how trippy and weird it was.
I can’t say I loved it, but I liked Wright for having the cojones to twist the movie on its head like that (almost like a Rian Johnson thing).
*Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World* has a bizarre tonal shift near the end. The first 2/3 is a dark comedy about what happens to society when we have an expiration date and then suddenly it takes a hard turn into syrupy tearjerking melodrama.
Audition (1999). The more blind you go in to watching it, the better
By far the hardest sharp turn I've ever seen a movie take. you could start blinking during one movie and be in a whole different film by the time you opened your eyes again.
*The Guest* takes a terrific turn about halfway through.
also The Gift (2015)
I liked the gift a lot Not going to call it an "underrated le gem" but I haven't seen it discussed here yet
Flight of the Navigator
"Life is Beautiful" (1997). We knew the movie was about a man trying to help his son survive the Holocaust, but the first 90 percent of the movie was pretty lighthearted – and then, it wasn't.
Basically a goofy slapstick comedy right up until the gutpunch final act
Something Wild You go from a socially uptight guy going on a travel adventure with a carefree girl to "I'm in danger!" somewhere around the middle.
They even change the coloring of the film to a darker hue at the moment of the tone shift. Fantastic movie.
The People vs Larry Flynt starts out like most biopics, but by the end of the film it becomes a totally enthralling treatise on free speech.
I'm not a big Courtney Love fan, but she absolutely knocks it out of the park in that movie. Not to take anything away from anyone else's incredible performance either.
Red state
I miss when Kevin Smith used to try making new things.
the unbearable weight of massive talent drastically shifts with each act and does so brilliantly
Practical Magic has some weird tonal issues to it. It can’t decide whether it wants to be a romantic comedy or a thriller/horror.
I agree -- but still awesome, though!
And there's a [sequel](https://people.com/sandra-bullock-playfully-warns-practical-magic-reunion-will-be-good-trouble-at-director-griffin-dunne-s-book-launch-8666112) coming!
Sunshine.
Triangle of Sadness does nothing but switch tone throughout the film. It's a wild ride!
Lost Highway
That's a good one. In a sense the tone shift feels like the whole plot and point of the movie. Not unlike other Lynch films.
I’d agree and add wild at heart, I don’t remember the whole film but when they find the character who played Audrey Horne in twin peaks after a car accident, and she mentions her brain, goes from wacky nic cage flick to oh shit yeah Lynch directed this.
Deliverance fun camping adventure film that takes a real turn
Burn After Reading, right after someone is shot in the head.
As sudden and shocking as that scene is, I'd argue the film keeps plowing along with the same tone. Extremely dark comedy. What happens with Clooney later makes me laugh so hard,
My favorite part is JK Simmons' character trying to figure out what they learned from it all.
That smile, paired with the camera angle, was the funniest shit ever. Never tought I'd laugh so hard qt someone getting his brains blown out
Predator
Bridge to terabithia
Oof
Something Wild has a great one.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The first half is a big scale adventure film then it shifts to a sorta gothic horror. What a bad movie
From Dusk Till Dawn This film starts as a crime thriller with two fugitives on the run but abruptly shifts into a horror movie involving vampires halfway through.
*Chicken Little* (2005) started as a middle school comedy about a boy trying to win a baseball game and impress his father, and then becomes a sci-fi alien invasion film.
Psycho. The first half hour or so is about a young woman who steals money and skips town. She stops at a hotel for the night and... Suddenly you're watching a completely different movie.
Barbarian. I think it was an excellent shift. Some people disagree and hated it because of it.
I loved the shift in this movie. I went in blind so I literally had no idea any of that was going to happen.
10 Cloverfield Lane. I think the first 85% of that movie is great. Then it becomes a different movie.
85% of it is great. That final 15% is fucking bananas- in the best way.
Man of the Year
The weirdest one for me is Where the Boys Are (1960). It starts as a typical 60s beach party movie until one of the girls is raped in the third act. It's jarring.
"Dungeons and Dragons (2000)". Light-hearted fantasy adventure film, which dramatically kills off its comic relief halfway through. Suddenly the movie takes itself seriously.
Agree with you about House of Gucci. The book was so good. The movie was a hot mess. It’s a shame because the story and family history was excellent.
Bound (1996) is one part cinemax soft core porn, one part suspense, one part looney tunes comedy.
Your description of House of Gucci's tone shifts reminds me of [Walden (2023)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21202916/). It really can't seem to decide if it wants to be a dark comedy or a thriller. It does not pull off either one. Quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen.
Short Circuit 2. That movie is all fun and games until Johnny Five gets assaulted in a way that still scars a corner of my soul. The worst part is that it didn't have to be that, but they made a choice. Then they try to end the movie with the same goofball slapstick that they started with, but it just doesn't land.
Jojo Rabbit. The shoes.
Adaptation. Once the other twin brother takes over…
Stripes. How the hell has nobody said this one yet? It's two different movies smashed together.
Full Metal Jacket
Event Horizon. Went into it blind. Enjoyed the space sci-fi first part, then it took a turn.
Eileen was one that threw me for a loop
After the Wedding, but I guess the name telegraphs a shift *after* the wedding.
The Island
World War Z
It's used pretty well in the film adaptation of Evil Under The Sun. The first half plays things up as a lighthearted comedy with sarcastic barbs throughout, with the only real conflict being Arlena (Diana Rigg) being a bitch to everyone. It even uses showtunes in the first half to show how easy going everyone has it. Then Arlena is found brutally murdered on the beach and the jokes and music just outright stop. The insults featured among the cast become a lot more bitter.
The tone shift in Fury has always been jarring to me. The first half hits you over the head with a sledgehammer repeatedly about the savagery and futility of war. Literally the first scene shows one of the soldiers (I think Brad Pitt's character) violently ambushing and stabbing the German officer on a horse, quite literally killing the fantasy about gentlemen soldiers, honor in battle, and the rest. This same theme is reaffirmed in every subsequent gruesome gut-wrenching battle, until we get to the excellent and tense lunch scene where the civilian women get shelled and buried in rubble. From this point forward, it's like a completely different movie. The "futility of war" theme is replaced by a far more optimistic and downright traditional "brothers in arms until the end" theme, which is okay I guess, but it's a jarring tone shift. I felt like the first half of the movie had something interesting and new to say about war, or at least explored darker themes that probably more closely mimick reality. The second half just felt like a re-hash of every other war movie I've ever seen, down to the highly improbable "impossible odds" duel to the death. It was disappointing because I really liked the first half.
I remember almost nothing about this movie but now you have me kind of wanting to rewatch the first half.
Lost Boys (1987) changes from campy horror, to 80s comedy, to mood piece music video, to suspense, on a nearly scene to scene basis. However, I think this actually adds to the uniqueness of the film and makes it great for what it is.
I feel like I see this in Kubrick movies frequently. There's definitely a first half/second half feel to his movies. To his credit, it usually works amazingly well. What IS weird to me is Stripes. It has a wild tonal shift that would feel like a parody of Full Metal Jacket...if it didn't predate Full Metal Jacket by 6 years.
Donnie Darko as I recall started out feeling just a little weird and quirky and then shifted to feeling like an insane an LSD trip.
Nobody. Starts out as a family drama, then gradually turns into a Looney Tunes cartoon as it goes on.
Tickled.
I haven’t scrolled all the way down to see if anyone posted already, but Serenity (2019) with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway is almost a completely different movie in the third act. And “weird” doesn’t even come close to describing the shift.
Mr. Brooks, with Kevin Costner, felt like they shot two different movies, and then decided to cut them together in post. The Costner stuff is a pretty decent (if memory serves) psychological thriller set around a suburban serial killer. William Hurt plays his alter ego who talks to him during the murders. It’s slow and tense. The stuff with Demi Moore (the detective) feels like a shitty action procedural, including a weirdly out of place techno-laden shootout: https://youtu.be/czUdUmpWUiw?si=N9mbrMKVwlf3Yowe
Cocktail. A great fun ride of a guy finding his way in life by being the best bartender ever with his best friend and mentor, until it isn’t. And boy it sure isn’t anymore.
A Simple Favor with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. First two-thirds are this serious, suspenseful tone and then the last third takes a sharp right and becomes a weird slap stick comedy.
Sorry to Bother You was pretty wild in the last 15-20 minutes or so. Like, most of the movie is just an exaggerated portrayal of working in a telemarketing call center and in big business that might be doing some shady but still realistic things, and then if you know you know >!a drug that turns the user into a human-horse abomination because horses can work longer and it's the perfect employee!<
"That movie doesn't really decide if it is a serious crime drama or an over-the-top satirical comedy, and as a result, it doesn't manage to pull off either of those genres and fails as a movie" This comment made me think of the Boondock Saints, with the exception being that they actually do pull it off, and I really don't know how. It is pretty weird but works, at least for the first one.
Under The Silver Lake is *mostly* tonal shifts.
Abigail, for sure. If the studios would have let that movie cook on it's own instead of ruining it's own premise/surprise, it might have been a much better fun twist from a gallery of rogues heist movie into a vampire flick.
I doubt Reddit will like this answer, but I have to say Looper (2012). The first act is this cool, sleek cyberpunk near-future Kansas City. It's gritty, has seedy nightclubs, drugs, gunplay, and just feels like such a promising sci-fi story that can really make good use of the city. The characters feel believable. The setting feels lived-in. The film does a lot of interesting things at first, and then loses momentum really quickly. Joe gets his gold payday, and we get a montage of his life in France, before seeing Old Joe go back in time and starting timeline B. That was cool! Let's see more of that! But...then the rest of it basically just takes place on a farm. The pace slows down dramatically and somehow still manages to gloss over the Rainmaker; a key antagonist that we never even see. Then we're supposed to be intrigued when it turns out that this bitter unlikable child is the secret villain we got all of 3 lines of exposition about. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the film for what it tries to be. I have seen it many times. It does a lot of things I really like. The flashbacks of Old Joe's memory changing as Joe changes the course of his history, Old Paul Dano's >!disappearing limbs!<, and >!the protagonist killing himself to change the future.!
I may be downvoted for this, but Home Alone. The turn into a violent cartoony cat-and-mouse chase towards the end kinda came out of nowhere.
Get into some Hong Kong movies and you'll get to see some tonal shifts that will give you whiplash. You'll have a funny scene with two cops maybe foiling a robbery and then in the next scene the bad guys get revenge by killing everybody in the building. Kids, you name it.
Running Scared with Paul Walker. A run of the mill crime flick where half way through the movie Walker goes into a house to discover that the weird husband & wife tenants acting strangely are actually a pair of murderous peodophiles who also film their victims. Walker then realises that the entire floor under his feet is covered with dead children. What the fuck? Such a tonal shift that doesn't go with anything else in the movie. Very ill judged scene.