The Mist, getting misty-eyed for all the wrong reasons

I'd been trying to see Stephen King's The Mist for a while because I knew there was some kind of weird twist or story element and--let's be honest--I'm a huge sucker for twists. I saw all M. Night Shyamalan's movies, after all. So my latest trip to the local Hollywood Video caused me to pick up this film starring Tom Jane and... yeah, that's actually pretty much it. I'm actually kind of encouraged whenever I don't see too many big names because I like to see stars becoming stars, not see them do what they've been doing for the past twelve years. I also enjoy a good mental thriller. By the way, this isn't a newspaper article, so don't expect it to look like the Great American Novel.
The Mist is the story of a small town that becomes completely engulfed in a mysterious fog that has...well, something inside it. The camera follows a father and his child who are trapped inside a supermarket with a handful of characters they might rather not be stuck with. It may sound a bit typical, but I really enjoyed this movie. The writing was pretty good to the point that the characters were actually believable and you could see a character in some of the people who live down the street. The one thing about the characters that does bother me is that they're all kind of stereotypical. There was the average joe just trying to keep his kid safe, the weird guy who has some kind of skill to save everybody, and the religious nut (not saying people who are religious are crazy--I'm religious--but this lady was absolutely insane) who could endanger everybody and even goes to the point of-- yeah, not telling you that.
The directing was well-done and there were even some inside jokes that the director threw in, either to have some fun at his own expense or just to add to the movie's own sense of humor. Speaking of that, the movie can actually be pretty funny at times. All of the points I've been talking about are completely ruined once you get to the end. I had fun and really enjoyed everything from the acting, to the characters, to the actual concept of the mist, but I watched the end of the movie, and there was a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the day. It was just disappointing to see a movie I was enjoying so much take this bad of a turn left. The rest of the movie was practically a fond memory once I got to the last four minutes which could have been seen as a "Haha!" to Nelson Muntz, but just a bad choice to anybody else.
Overall, the movie was pretty good, but could have been great with a few small changes. There was an alternate ending that I haven't seen yet, which I am heavily anticipating, but my mind has been made up. The Mist is decidedly not epic, but not awful, so it's found between two and two and a half stars (out of the prestigious four). Check it out, by all means and enjoi.