The Length of Movies

        Lately I have had a very big thought on my mind as I have been watching movies recently. That thought is of the length of most movies. I have found that a lot of movies I have watched that are around two hours in length are not that good as they try and push the movie too far. A few examples are a couple of raunchy comedies I recently have seen for the first time; Pineapple Express and This Is The End. I enjoyed both of these movies very much however they both had a lot of dead time because they were two hours long. The first thirty minutes of Pineapple Express I was completely uninterested and bored but the next hour and a half was great. In This Is The End it was the exact opposite as the first hour and a half was hilariously entertaining but the last thirty minutes fell short of the rest of the film. (Please know that these were just two of the movies that stood out to me most that were pushed too long and that there are others in different genres that have done the same as well.)

Now this might just be me and it might just be the movies I have watched recently for the first time but a two hour plus movie just doesn’t seem to be able to stand up on it’s own that well. (I will say that I do realize that there are exceptions to this, like Speed Racer, that is my opinion, but in general it seems my thought holds up.) Almost all of my favorite stand alone movies (ones not being part of a trilogy or anything of that sort) have been right around that hour and twenty minutes to a hour and forty minutes mark. Those movies would include; Youth in Revolt, (500) Days of Summer, Year One, and How to Train Your Dragon to name a few. 

I am not by any means saying that movies that are closer to a hour and a half are any better than the two hour movies out there but it seems to me that sometimes stories are pushed to far and start to lose the audiences' attention. This is all based on content though and as long as there is good content during the whole movie then it will be able to hold up.

Well that is my ramble on that, if anyone reads this and has their own opinion please leave a comment and tell me what you think. I am very interested in what others would say on the subject.