Films that should be longer

[The Roofdog]

Are there any at all?

I think I have one: Cop Land. It should be a Scorsese-length epic that takes its time to investigate the relationships between the characters and earns its ending, but instead it comes in at 100 minutes, gives De Niro and a load of other decent actors short shrift and makes the ending seem a bit silly.

[smudge1971]

The Room.

All those unexplained threads (cancer, death, that cunt who suddenly appears like he's just been off-camera for the first hour, the magical blow-job and at least another five scary sex scenes) tied in a four hour epic of spoons and not keeping opinions in your pocket.

[Gulftastic]

I don't know if the whole film should be longer, but part of Eddie Murphy's under-rated 'Life' should be. They spend far too long in the set up of them going to prison. They should have trimmed that part and added it to the second act, showing more of the stories of them in prison. That was the meat of the movie. I'd have liked more.

[thecuriousorange]

Quantum of Solace was too stingy a portion.

[The Roofdog]

I know they do big bags of solace, but I don't want 'em

[Fr.Bigley]

Das Boot. Not nearly long enough.

[Hand Solo]

The NeverEnding Story

OBVIOUS JOKE IS OBVIOUS

48 Hrs.

Another 48 Hrs.

From Here To Eternity

[pigamus]

90 minutes or GTFO.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

No good film is too long and no bad film can be over quickly enough.

[Custard]

Prometheus, maybe. It felt a bit rushed, and very muddled. An extra 30 to 60 minutes might have given it more time to breathe and successfully tell a story. MAYBE.

I remember reaching the end in the cinema and thinking "is that it?". It felt like there was a final third that had been lopped off

To be honest, there aren't many films I'd want to make even longer. A fuckload I'd wanna trim down

[Small Man Big Horse]

Bill and Ted Face The Music. I enjoyed it an enormous amount but the wives / princesses deserved to have their plotline expanded.

[phantom_power]

It did feel like a lot was cut out for one reason or another

[Small Man Big Horse]

It did feel like a lot was cut out for one reason or another

Ed Solomon's talked about wanting to expand upon that storyline, and a couple of other bits, but apparently they ran out of money (and I think time, given the pandemic, but I'm not 100% certain on that front).

[Custard]

Wasn't it to get it down to a tight 90 minutes, like the two previous films?

[Glebe]

Prometheus, maybe. It felt a bit rushed, and very muddled. An extra 30 to 60 minutes might have given it more time to breathe and successfully tell a story. MAYBE.

Just watched that again recently. Had potential, some good scenes, but it just goes silly.

[Custard]

I liked it more on a second viewing, but I do agree with you. Should've been a lot better, with the talent involved

[Noodle Lizard]

Bill and Ted Face The Music. I enjoyed it an enormous amount but the wives / princesses deserved to have their plotline expanded.

It's probably for the best they didn't, though. I think they're the only roles that weren't reprised by the original actors (George Carlin had a good excuse), the characters were never especially interesting in and of themselves and there were already too many different plots going on across various timelines as it was. If anything, they probably should have just ignored that subplot altogether since it ultimately came to nothing, unless they had a really solid idea of what to do with them. As it stands, I'm glad they went with the daughter Bill & Teds instead, even if their subplot was a little ropey.

[phantom_power]

Just watched that again recently. Had potential, some good scenes, but it just goes silly.

I remember watching it in the cinema and for the first hour thinking I was watching a new classic. Then it just got shitter and shitter until at the end I was just laughing at the screen. Never has a film dive-bombed so badly

[lazarou]

Probably the worst case I've ever seen of a fairly major release feeling like it was missing half the film was Jonah Hex. It really felt like they either just never finished whole parts of it or the original cut was in such bad shape they hacked away at it until they had the absolute bare minimum they could release to cinemas. Strip out the end credits and there's about 70 mins of actual film there, and even that's padded out with comic panel sequences and flashbacks to things you've already seen. Not sure being longer would've helped too much in this case though.

[Custard]

Heh, didn't that have a really tortured production, with fucktons of issues throughout?

I think it started as a Josh Brolin passion project, but something went wrong along the way. A couple of years ago he was saying how sad he was that it went so badly, and that he might try to get another one going one day

And this is the point when I notice he's been Jonah Hex, Thanos, AND Cable. Bit greedy, innit!

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I've not bothered watching Jonah Hex, but I remember some review mentioning that it was padded out with a recurring metaphorical scene of Hex and his nemesis fighting. This continues throughout the film - even when they are literally fighting at the end.

Brolin, Ryan Reynolds and Chris "not that one" Evans seem to be in competition to play the most comics characters. I'm not sure who's winning at last count, although Brandon Routh might have stealthily stolen the title.

Going further off topic, what's the deal with Hex's facial scarring? His entire cheek isn't burned off, Harvey Dent style. It's like he grew an extra column of skin over part of his gob.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I watched The Thing last night for the first time in years and it occurred to me that it could have done with about 20 more mins to flesh out the characters. Also, watching it in HD I noticed for the first time that Richard Dysart inexplicably has a nose ring.

[Glebe]

^Just watched that again recently myself. Yeah, I could watch another 20 mins no prob.

[oy vey]

Das Boot. Not nearly long enough.

If you mean the 1981 movie, there's an expanded 6-part miniseries they made from all the footage they shot. It's das gut.

[kngen]

A Clockwork Orange should probably have had the 'missing chapter' as an epilogue. Although my main reasons for wanting this would be to see how Kubrick addressed Alex and his gang's new look, which Burgess made sound like they were the spitting image of Max Wall. And that would have been very funny indeed (although, admittedly, it might undermine the majesty of the preceding two-plus hours.)

[lipsink]

I remember when 'Killing Them Softly' ended suddenly I thought "Is that it?" Strangely short film for such a big name cast too.

[sovietrussia]

Definitely agree with "Killing Them Softly". It felt like one of those films that had swathes cut out by the studio over the director's head.  The world-building is great and the incidental characters are so well set up (Gandolfini pretty much steals the picture in two scenes) then it just peters out.  The director had really stretched his legs with the wonderful "... Jesse James by the Coward..." and I was expecting a similarly leisurely, lyrical approach to the mob movie. Don't know what happened here.

"The Counselor" feels like A LOT is missing.  Many would wish it were shorter, given its pretty terrible reputation. I happen to think it's one that will be reassessed down the line, it's a fascinating film IMO.

[Attila]

I watched The Thing last night for the first time in years and it occurred to me that it could have done with about 20 more mins to flesh out the characters. Also, watching it in HD I noticed for the first time that Richard Dysart inexplicably has a nose ring.

I've got the novelisation by Alan Dean Foster, which is actually quite good! It's got the entire film in there, but adds scenes and develops characters a bit that enhances, rather than gets in the way of the plot.

[greenman]

I think the characterisation allows us to assume quite a lot about the groups dynamics without actually seeing them in action though, you have the scientists, the tough loners, the military man, the anti establishment guys, etc.

[phantom_power]

Yeah I would say The Thing is a handbook for economic character development and storytelling. Not so much "show don't tell" as "imply don't show"