Make Shorter Movies

I was listening to "Comedy Bang! Bang!" earlier today and Scott Aukerman brought up a pretty good point about the length of movies. He had Jake Johnson on as his main guest and they started a conversation about the most recent "Spider Verse" movie.

Aukerman mentioned how much he liked it, but that he was annoyed at the ending. I heard a lot of people make this complaint as well. I thought it was fine because it means more of these movies. I want all that I can get at this point. But that is not what I took away from all of this. While talking about the movie, Aukerman mentioned that they should just make one five hour movie. Johnson said that he didn't know how long each movie is, but that he is fine with whatever they do because he loves these movies.

But Johnson did mention that he is not a fan of super long movies. Aukerman agreed. They both said that 90 minutes is the perfect amount of time to watch a movie. Johnson said that he loves Martin Scorsese, but he hasn't seen many of his recent movies because they all approach three hours. Aukerman said he has seen "Killer of the Flower Moon", which he liked, but he also said that it felt very long. I sat back and thought about this as I listened to them gripe about it, and I have to say, I fully agree with their assessment.

Movies are very, very long now. A movie I love, "Uncut Gems", is about two and a half hours long. I have a lot of love for the movie, but there are definitely things they could have cut from the movie. The whole scene with The Weeknd felt unnecessary. The constant fights with his wife felt tacked on. I wanted more of the family stuff or the Kevin Garnett stuff. They could have cut things here and there and made that a two hour movie with ease. And I still would love it. I am a big time fan of the "John Wick" franchise, and each movie seems to get longer and longer. These movies keep me intrigued, but still, they can cut some stuff down and make these movies a hair over two hours, no problem. I enjoy watching Judd Apatow movies, but he keeps making two plus hour comedies. That is way, way too much time for a comedy. Ninety minutes should be the hard cut for a comedy. I also love sci fi, and the fact that those movies keep pushing two and a half hours is nuts. "Blade Runner" is 1 hour 57 minutes. That is kind of perfect. I'd so much rather watch "Blade Runner" than "Interstellar". A movie that clocks in at 90 minutes, or even 1 hour 45 minutes, that is the exact amount of time that I want to sit and watch a movie from start to finish. A movie that length will keep my attention, I won't squirm in my seat, and that feels like the perfect amount of time to tell a well thought out story. These "epics" almost feel like the writers and directors don't know how to finish the movie, so they just keep filming and writing more and more. It is like the movie "Babylon". They had no idea how to end that, so they kept making it and eventually had to end it. They did that with a death, the most common way to end these "epics". Movies that are shorter get you in, hold your attention for the allotted time and get you out. That's the way it should be.

We need more 90-115 minute movies. That would rule. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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