Like a lot of the reviews state, this is a movie that starts off good only to end with a resounding thud. It's a movie that I really enjoy and like to rewatch occasionally, but man, the ending is a total letdown every single time.
The first third of the movie is great. In a relatively quick opening sequence, we see Clyde and his family the victims of a home invasion, one which ends up taking the lives of his wife and daughter. The actions of the thieves don't exactly make sense especially since one of them is written like a cartoon villain, but it's all in service to set up the premise of the movie: Clyde has been wronged, the system has failed him, and he's out to get revenge. Rather than just take revenge on the perpetrators of the crime (which he does rather quickly), Clyde goes after everyone involved in the subsequent trials because of the deal made with one of them which lets him go free (naturally, it's the more evil of the two, a guy named Darby).
Clyde kind of has a point, too. Nick, the prosecutor, wants to make a deal with Darby despite the fact that Clyde would rather he go after both perps. Clyde pleads with Nick, but Nick is more concerned with his career and his win percentage, so he offers Darby the deal and Darby walks free. This starts Clyde on the path of vengeance and sets the stage for the rest of the movie. One could easily argue that Nick is entirely to blame for Clyde's actions, and Clyde even tells him at one point that he would have been fine with them losing the case, had he at least tried to go after both of them.
As the movie goes on, Clyde kills a bunch of people. Everyone killed was involved with the case somehow, but some of them arguably don't deserve his wrath, or at least the movie's script doesn't adequately justify it. One example would be the judge, who as far as I can tell did nothing wrong, as all she did was preside over the case. Clyde's internal logic is also inconsistent; he says the system is broken and wants to tear it down, but he also says that he would have been satisfied with the criminals going free had Nick tried to prosecute them both.
Most of this stuff is easily overlooked. Shut brain off, enjoy movie. What starts to become an annoyance is Nick's arrogance and the fact that it's painfully obvious he's never going to get his comeuppance. Nick even takes Clyde out of his cell, outside of the jail actually, and physically beats him, punching him in the face repeatedly, leaving him with a mouthful of blood. The movie wants us to believe that Nick is a good guy, but Nick doesn't really do anything to deserve that label throughout the entire movie.
By the last third of the movie, Nick has been promoted to DA (thanks to Clyde killing the previous one) and has become an ace detective. Meanwhile, Clyde has for some reason lost a bunch of braincells and become nothing more than a common criminal. Nick illegally breaks into one of Clyde's properties with a police detective and finds his secret tunnel to the prison (I still have no idea why Nick is doing the job of a police detective, but whatever). Clyde has tons of surveillance equipment and access to City Hall's closed circuit video system, but he has no surveillance on his own properties and doesn't secure the most important one with anything that would stop Nick from breaking in with a large metal pole, which he finds laying around right outside the door.
They crawl into the tunnel and find Clyde's center of operations. Because he's dumb now, Clyde leaves stuff laying around that lets master detective Nick immediately figure out his entire plan. They find Clyde's entrance to his jail cell, but Clyde forgot how to set booby traps, so they don't blow up or anything. Clyde plants a bomb in City Hall, but remember he's dumb now, so he can't hide it very good and they find it immediately. The open it up and look at the bomb, contemplating what to do with it while Clyde heads back to his place so that he can enter the tunnel and go back to his jail cell.
But surprise! Nick has invented a secret teleportation device and uses it to get back to the prison before Clyde. Clyde gets back into his cell, only to realize that Nick is already there waiting for him. Dumb Clyde, having been figured out, pulls out his cell phone to set the bomb off anyway, because he doesn't suspect that Nick might have found the bomb and did something with it. As it turns out, Nick teleported the bomb into Clyde's cell and it's now sitting directly under him. Nick knows (somehow?) that Clyde put a 25-second time delay on the bomb, which gives him just enough time to yell "Nanny nanny boo-boo, stick your head in doo-doo! You're an idiot! You're going to blow up!" as Nick locks Clive in his cell (the detective blocks off the tunnel from the other side), and runs out of the jail.
In one of the least satisfying endings of a movie of this caliber that I've ever seen, Clyde sits on his bench as the scene stretches a 3-second explosion over about 5 minutes, most of which is Clyde just sitting there staring at his dead daughter's bracelet while fire is burning all around him, as if he were inside of a furnace or something (it doesn't look anything like a bomb exploding). Then, just before credits roll, we see Nick and his wife attending his daughter's cello performance at school, or something. Nick has a look of relief on his face, knowing that he can rest peacefully now having murdered Clyde.
I honestly have no idea what they were thinking when they came up with this ending. The contrived plot points aside, having Nick learn nothing and turning him into a murderer does nothing to endear him to the audience. What's worse, it's generic and predictable. And it's not even really an ending, either. Once the bomb is revealed to have been placed in his cell, the movie just stops. Nick runs away and the bomb explodes, but that's it. The cello concert thing only lasts like a minute and has no need to be there. There's no wrap-up, no aftermath, no exploration of the consequences or anything like that.
When I watch this movie, I'm really tempted to just turn it off before I get to the ending. If I could recut this movie, I'd cut it at the point where they find his plans in the tunnel. Then I'd add an explosion in the tunnel. Cut to the bomb in City Hall and that blows up. Nick is dead, the mayor is dead, and Clyde's job is done. He walks off into the sunset or something. It's not much of an ending but it'd be a million times better than this one.
The first third of the movie is great. In a relatively quick opening sequence, we see Clyde and his family the victims of a home invasion, one which ends up taking the lives of his wife and daughter. The actions of the thieves don't exactly make sense especially since one of them is written like a cartoon villain, but it's all in service to set up the premise of the movie: Clyde has been wronged, the system has failed him, and he's out to get revenge. Rather than just take revenge on the perpetrators of the crime (which he does rather quickly), Clyde goes after everyone involved in the subsequent trials because of the deal made with one of them which lets him go free (naturally, it's the more evil of the two, a guy named Darby).
Clyde kind of has a point, too. Nick, the prosecutor, wants to make a deal with Darby despite the fact that Clyde would rather he go after both perps. Clyde pleads with Nick, but Nick is more concerned with his career and his win percentage, so he offers Darby the deal and Darby walks free. This starts Clyde on the path of vengeance and sets the stage for the rest of the movie. One could easily argue that Nick is entirely to blame for Clyde's actions, and Clyde even tells him at one point that he would have been fine with them losing the case, had he at least tried to go after both of them.
As the movie goes on, Clyde kills a bunch of people. Everyone killed was involved with the case somehow, but some of them arguably don't deserve his wrath, or at least the movie's script doesn't adequately justify it. One example would be the judge, who as far as I can tell did nothing wrong, as all she did was preside over the case. Clyde's internal logic is also inconsistent; he says the system is broken and wants to tear it down, but he also says that he would have been satisfied with the criminals going free had Nick tried to prosecute them both.
Most of this stuff is easily overlooked. Shut brain off, enjoy movie. What starts to become an annoyance is Nick's arrogance and the fact that it's painfully obvious he's never going to get his comeuppance. Nick even takes Clyde out of his cell, outside of the jail actually, and physically beats him, punching him in the face repeatedly, leaving him with a mouthful of blood. The movie wants us to believe that Nick is a good guy, but Nick doesn't really do anything to deserve that label throughout the entire movie.
By the last third of the movie, Nick has been promoted to DA (thanks to Clyde killing the previous one) and has become an ace detective. Meanwhile, Clyde has for some reason lost a bunch of braincells and become nothing more than a common criminal. Nick illegally breaks into one of Clyde's properties with a police detective and finds his secret tunnel to the prison (I still have no idea why Nick is doing the job of a police detective, but whatever). Clyde has tons of surveillance equipment and access to City Hall's closed circuit video system, but he has no surveillance on his own properties and doesn't secure the most important one with anything that would stop Nick from breaking in with a large metal pole, which he finds laying around right outside the door.
They crawl into the tunnel and find Clyde's center of operations. Because he's dumb now, Clyde leaves stuff laying around that lets master detective Nick immediately figure out his entire plan. They find Clyde's entrance to his jail cell, but Clyde forgot how to set booby traps, so they don't blow up or anything. Clyde plants a bomb in City Hall, but remember he's dumb now, so he can't hide it very good and they find it immediately. The open it up and look at the bomb, contemplating what to do with it while Clyde heads back to his place so that he can enter the tunnel and go back to his jail cell.
But surprise! Nick has invented a secret teleportation device and uses it to get back to the prison before Clyde. Clyde gets back into his cell, only to realize that Nick is already there waiting for him. Dumb Clyde, having been figured out, pulls out his cell phone to set the bomb off anyway, because he doesn't suspect that Nick might have found the bomb and did something with it. As it turns out, Nick teleported the bomb into Clyde's cell and it's now sitting directly under him. Nick knows (somehow?) that Clyde put a 25-second time delay on the bomb, which gives him just enough time to yell "Nanny nanny boo-boo, stick your head in doo-doo! You're an idiot! You're going to blow up!" as Nick locks Clive in his cell (the detective blocks off the tunnel from the other side), and runs out of the jail.
In one of the least satisfying endings of a movie of this caliber that I've ever seen, Clyde sits on his bench as the scene stretches a 3-second explosion over about 5 minutes, most of which is Clyde just sitting there staring at his dead daughter's bracelet while fire is burning all around him, as if he were inside of a furnace or something (it doesn't look anything like a bomb exploding). Then, just before credits roll, we see Nick and his wife attending his daughter's cello performance at school, or something. Nick has a look of relief on his face, knowing that he can rest peacefully now having murdered Clyde.
I honestly have no idea what they were thinking when they came up with this ending. The contrived plot points aside, having Nick learn nothing and turning him into a murderer does nothing to endear him to the audience. What's worse, it's generic and predictable. And it's not even really an ending, either. Once the bomb is revealed to have been placed in his cell, the movie just stops. Nick runs away and the bomb explodes, but that's it. The cello concert thing only lasts like a minute and has no need to be there. There's no wrap-up, no aftermath, no exploration of the consequences or anything like that.
When I watch this movie, I'm really tempted to just turn it off before I get to the ending. If I could recut this movie, I'd cut it at the point where they find his plans in the tunnel. Then I'd add an explosion in the tunnel. Cut to the bomb in City Hall and that blows up. Nick is dead, the mayor is dead, and Clyde's job is done. He walks off into the sunset or something. It's not much of an ending but it'd be a million times better than this one.