Films that would've been better had they been shorter

[Owain Taggart]

Oh, King Kong definitely. When I saw it, I almost fell asleep. It's definitely a good example of what should be shorter. I think Peter Jackson was in love with himself when he made that one. I too can't really stand LOTRs. I'd like to, and I've watched the first one, but I'm not really interested beyond that because of the length. Many of the scenes would only interest the hardcores. So, more or less, I'd say Peter Jackson doesn't know when to stop. He needs a lesson in brevity; to learn that his movies can have more of an impact and be more effective without going the route of an epic.

I watched The Patriot the other day, and I felt that could use a trim. It was about an hour too long.

 

[Captain Shaw]

I think star trek TMP is too long.
I have it on DVD and I think I've only watched it the once.

 

[Starbreaker]

Transformers 2
King Kong
Pirates of the Caribbean 2&3
White Ribbon
Day Watch

There's a lot of stuff I think could tell a halfway decent story, but added an extra hour just for the hell of it.

 

[Gaith]

LOTRs... Many of the scenes would only interest the hardcores.

I think the movies' box office performance shows that to be an opinion reshaped into a demonstrably untrue assertion. Though I do indeed agree with the opinion... vis-a-vis the extended editions of TTT and ROTK.

Here's one: Gladiator. When it first came out and I was little, I thought the slow pace and portentous dialogue was deep and sophisticated. Now that I've seen HBO's Rome and know one or two things about the ancient world, I see it for the late-20th-century cartoon that it is, and therefore don't see it at all.

 

[Rii]

I don't know about others, but the films I've talked about I still find reasonably enjoyable. I just think they could've been better.

White Ribbon

Someone else's who's seen this film!

It's a reasonably long film, and paced slower than most, but I don't recall losing interest at any point; although I suspect it might not hold up as well as most to repeat viewings. Which parts would you condense/cut, exactly?

Spoiler: The White Ribbon

I went into the film knowing less about it than most; i.e. although it soon became clear that there were children involved, I didn't know it was 'the children', collective, who were responsible. And when that revelation came to me it was like a punch in the gut; I felt positively ill. I suspect my experience in that respect isn't representative of most viewers who knew more about the film going in. What was it like for you?

 

[Owain Taggart]

LOTRs... Many of the scenes would only interest the hardcores.

I think the movies' box office performance shows that to be an opinion reshaped into a demonstrably untrue assertion. Though I do indeed agree with the opinion... vis-a-vis the extended editions of TTT and ROTK.

Well, I agree. They were obviously very successful due to the fanbase attached to Tolkien alone, but the point was that, as someone with only a passing interest, it felt very tedious. I liked the first one, but I tried very hard to watch the second one and could never make it through. Just not interested. I actually feel that the rotoscoped animated movie that is often lambasted told the story in a cleaner fashion.

 

[Gaith]

I'd eat my hat if more than one in five people who saw the LOTR movies had read the books in question.

 

[Starbreaker]

I don't know about others, but the films I've talked about I still find reasonably enjoyable. I just think they could've been better.

White Ribbon

Someone else's who's seen this film!

It's a reasonably long film, and paced slower than most, but I don't recall losing interest at any point; although I suspect it might not hold up as well as most to repeat viewings. Which parts would you condense/cut, exactly?

Spoiler: The White Ribbon

I went into the film knowing less about it than most; i.e. although it soon became clear that there were children involved, I didn't know it was 'the children', collective, who were responsible. And when that revelation came to me it was like a punch in the gut; I felt positively ill. I suspect my experience in that respect isn't representative of most viewers who knew more about the film going in. What was it like for you?

I absolutely loved the scenes with the school teacher and Eva. I think these two characters really made the movie. I really don't have a problem with slower paced films, but I thought the movie needed a better editing job. The cinematography was great, but I never could remember which character was which or which kid belonged to who... I was just very confused most of the time. There was a good story in there somewhere though.

 

[Greg Cox]

A Muppet Christmas Carol has several songs that kill the plot momentum dead. Actually, pretty much all musicals do.

I suspect you may be missing the point of musicals.

Although, granted, some manage to integrate the song-and-dance numbers into the story better than others . . . .

 

[Gaith]

It's true; I often get antsy in the second half of musicals, especially after intermissions. You want to sing a couple songs to show us your personality up front, dandy. But if you start singing towards the end, you better darn well have something new to say.

Though I haven't watched it in a while, Muppet Treasure Island works pretty well in that regard. Unlike MCC, where they're still singing about the meaning of Christmas 'til the end, they don't bust out singing about adventure, gold or sailing once they reach the island.

 

[bluedana]

When I watched Babel, I thought that the whole plot with the deaf Japanese girl could have been excised. It had no point at all except to account for the gun.

 

[Kegg]

^
Well Babel wasn't really about narrative. Funnily enough, the deaf Japanese girl is one of the few strands I remember clearly; mostly though I found it a convoluted mess of a picture; with a lot of interconnected stories of which few if any were worthwhile.

Anyway, Robinson Crusoe on Mars. I like the film, sort of, but it's pretty much thin on, well, everything. This movie could have around a half-hour shaved off with no real harm.

White Ribbon

Someone else's who's seen this film!

One of my favourite damn movies of 2009 and an utterly mesmerising experience. I wouldn't cut a thing, personally, though it is a fairly slow paced film.

 

[Starbreaker]

When I watched Babel, I thought that the whole plot with the deaf Japanese girl could have been excised. It had no point at all except to account for the gun.

That was probably my favorite part of the movie.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I don't know if it would have been better but they could have shaved at least twenty minutes off the last Harry Potter film if they had excised half the instances of the word 'brilliant' from the script.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Syriana, the drunken dad...what was the point?

 

[23skidoo]

I'm a broken record on this one, but whenever this topic comes up the only film that comes to mind is "A.I." which should have ended about 15 minutes earlier than it did. The last 15 minutes took the film, in my opinion, from being one of the best films of the decade to one of the worst and if I ever find myself watching it again (highly unlikely) I'll be sure to turn it off at the proper ending.

Alex

 

[Goliath]

Much as I love 2001: A Space Odyssey, I do think the hyperspace voyage near the end goes on too long.

Okay...we're travelling through hyperspace...we're travelling...we're travelling...still travelling...zzzzzz...*snort* huh? Oh good, we're there.

 

[Harvey]

Much as I love 2001: A Space Odyssey, I do think the hyperspace voyage near the end goes on too long.

Okay...we're travelling through hyperspace...we're travelling...we're travelling...still travelling...zzzzzz...*snort* huh? Oh good, we're there.

I'd cut out the parts that are just various Earth canyons and environments, but with the colors manipulated--they're just not as mind-blowing or convincing as the other visual effects in the sequence.

 

[Goliath]

^Yeah.

 

[milo bloom]

I'm actually having trouble thinking of a specific movie that would benefit from being trimmed. If I don't like a movie, length usually has very little to do with it. I mean, in extreme cases, there are movies my wife has made me watch that would work best cut down to "super trailer" length (7-10 minutes), but that's going beyond the point of this thread, I think.

That said, to contribute to the thread: , I'll say I love the first X-Men film in part because of it's tight running time. I wouldn't mind an alternate, longer cut on DVD, but for rewatchability, the theatrical cut is just perfect.

The Phantom Menace: there's no specific scene I hate, there's just so many scenes that seem to meander and would benefit from being cut away from a few frames sooner.

There's one that's bothered me since day one: early on when Panaka is advising Amidala, and the actor says his lines, and then his eyes quickly flick to the next actor who's supposed to speak, and the camera still holds on Panaka for another beat before switching to the next character (Bibble, I think). That just astounds me that bit made it past Lucas. There's lots of little trims like that that would greatly improve the pacing of the film.

Another related comment I'd like to make is, one thing that helps me is when films get broken up on DVD like the extended Lord of the Rings versions. That makes it much easier to get through something long like that. Also, we recently borrowed a BBC production of Emma from the library, and it was 4 or 5 hour long parts. That really helped as we spread it out over a couple of days and could do things like eat and sleep in between the parts.