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Films that would've been better had they been shorter
- Thread starter Rii
- Start date
Granted, the Doolittle Raids were unnecessarily tacked on to give a movie called Pearl Harbor a feel good ending, why would you want to take it out when the action is the only good thing about this movie? Without the action, all you have left is the high school melodrama romance.
The Zion battle was the most boring part of the trilogy.
Rii
Rear Admiral
QFT.
WOW.
Just.............WOW!!!
Were that my friend, I'd tell him to watch the whole damned thing or fuck off.
Oh God, Transformers 2. A 2 1/2 hour movie that felt like it was 3 1/3 hours. They could have cut a lot out of that. All the time wasted with Shia's character in college, particularly the stupid stuff with his parents. A lot of the dumb humor could have gone too. Fim probably still would have sucked but maybe it would have sucked less.
AI is another one. Cut at least ten minutes off the end and enough with the multiple endings.
Peter Jackson's King Kong is another example. Jackson's first big mistake was making a ninety-minute movie into a three hour plus "epic." It took forty-five minutes for them to arrive on Skull Island. Inexcuseable.
Most of Judd Apatow's comedies. The man refuses to cut anything out and as a result, his movie go over two hours and are unwieldy and inconsistent. A comedy shouldn't go past the 90 minute to 105 minute mark. Tighter editing could make his films great. Superbad was kept under 105 minutes.
Wedding Crashers...another comedy that goes almost two hours. Overkill.
Yeah, I think the darker ending with have helped Minority Report. Instead, Spielberg gives us the Scooby Doo ending.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
I agree with KING KONG, lots of gratutiousness to it, especially the long journey to Skull Island. Look, we know they are going to the damn island, quit making such a thing out of it. The shit with the natives was so bad, it almost needs to be axed entirely. Also, the Kong vs. T-Rex stuff is longer than most heavy weight boxing fights.
The Matrix Reloaded, dump the mosh pit/pseudo orgy celebration. The freeway chase is a bit long, IIRC.
The Dark Knight, okay, did the Hong Kong part really add anything to the film?
Lord of the Rings, lots of establishing/long scenery shots of people walking. It validates the CLERKS 2 mocking of the LOTR. There's a lot of melodramatic socio-political allegory rhetoric in the second film and too much Gollum in the second and third...face it, most of us would've strangled the twit after the second day.
Live Free or Die Hard, dump the Kevin Smith scene
Master and Commander, the "cursed" guy who kills himself. Who gives a shit? It's even more absurd that after he dies, things get better. So he was to blame! Whatever.
Australia, 70% of the film is spent worrying about the half-aboriginal boy being taken away. One might think the romance or the cattle drive or the attack on Darwin was the plot. No. It was that boy.
2001, call it a classic with its effects. But it takes hours to tell what is at most a 45 minute story.
The Matrix Reloaded, dump the mosh pit/pseudo orgy celebration. The freeway chase is a bit long, IIRC.
The Dark Knight, okay, did the Hong Kong part really add anything to the film?
Lord of the Rings, lots of establishing/long scenery shots of people walking. It validates the CLERKS 2 mocking of the LOTR. There's a lot of melodramatic socio-political allegory rhetoric in the second film and too much Gollum in the second and third...face it, most of us would've strangled the twit after the second day.
Live Free or Die Hard, dump the Kevin Smith scene
Master and Commander, the "cursed" guy who kills himself. Who gives a shit? It's even more absurd that after he dies, things get better. So he was to blame! Whatever.
Australia, 70% of the film is spent worrying about the half-aboriginal boy being taken away. One might think the romance or the cattle drive or the attack on Darwin was the plot. No. It was that boy.
2001, call it a classic with its effects. But it takes hours to tell what is at most a 45 minute story.
Lord of the Rings - all of them were too long, but Return of the King was the biggest offender here. And yes, the book had all that stuff in it, blah, blah, blah.
But that didn't make it any less boring. I thought this movie was ending about 5 times before it actually did...and that whole goodbye scene with Frodo and the boat? I was ready to strangle him - JUST GET ON THE BOAT AND LEAVE ALREADY, 'FER CRYIN OUT LOUD!!!
They could have easily cut 45 minutes out of this movie and it wouldn't have suffered in the slightest. Might have been better, even.
Titanic - They took so long to sink this ship that by the time it went under, I no longer cared.
Lawrence of Arabia - Okay, we get it! Lawrence rode camels in the desert a lot and inserted himself into various disagreements between Arab factions...with an ultimately unsuccessful result.
Does that story REALLY require 216 minutes? OVER 3 1/2 hours to tell???? Good grief! By the time this movie ended, I couldn't have possibly cared less about what happened to Lawrence, or to Arabia!
But that didn't make it any less boring. I thought this movie was ending about 5 times before it actually did...and that whole goodbye scene with Frodo and the boat? I was ready to strangle him - JUST GET ON THE BOAT AND LEAVE ALREADY, 'FER CRYIN OUT LOUD!!!
They could have easily cut 45 minutes out of this movie and it wouldn't have suffered in the slightest. Might have been better, even.
Titanic - They took so long to sink this ship that by the time it went under, I no longer cared.
Lawrence of Arabia - Okay, we get it! Lawrence rode camels in the desert a lot and inserted himself into various disagreements between Arab factions...with an ultimately unsuccessful result.
Does that story REALLY require 216 minutes? OVER 3 1/2 hours to tell???? Good grief! By the time this movie ended, I couldn't have possibly cared less about what happened to Lawrence, or to Arabia!
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CGI robots shooting at other CGI robots does not make an exciting action sequence. The highway chase is the pinnacle of action sequences in the Matrix movies, closely followed by the subway station from the first film.
Yeah, the Zion battle may have been better if I gave a damn about any of the characters in Zion, but I didn't.
Don't have a feel good ending. Play it right up to the attack, everyone is killed, ending. No Doolittle raids.
Personally, for me, the film ends after the Pearl Harbor scene....
Dances With Wolves is better shorter. I originally saw it in the theater when it was released, and think it is a really wonderful movie. Especially considering it was Costner's first time directing. Recently, though, I saw the "extended cut" version. Definitely too much of a good thing. None of the scenes that are added are necessarily bad, but it just becomes too much. The theatrical release tells the story much more effectively IMO. Also, The Postman by costner isn't a bad movie, per se, but it could stand a bit of editing.
Others have mentioned these already but both Minority Report and A.I. are the ones that spring to mind.
I quite like the ending in Minority Report, actually (though the short story's ending is a lot more challenging and, well, cynical, I guess). So I'd probably leave it as is. But what really bothers me every time is the 'funny' scene with the eye rolling down the ramp. What a way to totally destroy the movie's amazing atmosphere for some comic relief that's not even funny. Plus I also usually skip the gross bit with the eye transplant. I'm not convinced the movie actually needed that.
In terms of A.I. I wish they'd ended it with David forever begging the Blue Fairy to turn him into a really boy, down below, at the bottom of the ocean. I think that would have been the perfect fairy tale ending. And I remember sitting in the cinema actually thinking that's where it would end. But, unfortunately, Spielberg continues with what I personally feel is so incredibly unnecessary and annoying. I do like the advanced A.I.s, I do like the dream-like quality of parts of the sequence. But it just felt wrong to me overall and incredibly over-sentimental.
Having said that the John Williams part in me is delighted they added that part since my favorite piece on the soundtrack CD (Stored Memories) is from that sequence
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I quite like the ending in Minority Report, actually (though the short story's ending is a lot more challenging and, well, cynical, I guess). So I'd probably leave it as is. But what really bothers me every time is the 'funny' scene with the eye rolling down the ramp. What a way to totally destroy the movie's amazing atmosphere for some comic relief that's not even funny. Plus I also usually skip the gross bit with the eye transplant. I'm not convinced the movie actually needed that.
In terms of A.I. I wish they'd ended it with David forever begging the Blue Fairy to turn him into a really boy, down below, at the bottom of the ocean. I think that would have been the perfect fairy tale ending. And I remember sitting in the cinema actually thinking that's where it would end. But, unfortunately, Spielberg continues with what I personally feel is so incredibly unnecessary and annoying. I do like the advanced A.I.s, I do like the dream-like quality of parts of the sequence. But it just felt wrong to me overall and incredibly over-sentimental.
Having said that the John Williams part in me is delighted they added that part since my favorite piece on the soundtrack CD (Stored Memories) is from that sequence
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