90 Minutes or Less

[Small Man Big Horse]

The short boring bit: I've found that about three evenings a week I've time to watch a film if it's 90 minutes or less, so have been deliberately tracking down such things, and thought it might be interested to have a thread dedicated to such films. I'm even going to say that you can include any films where the credits start at the 89 minute point, unless there's additional footage as the credits roll, or mid or post credits sequences. Sorry, rambling, but yeah, 90 minutes and under only please.

To kick things off:

A Very Brady Sequel (1996) - Enjoyably daft sequel where Carol Brady's husband supposedly returns from the dead, but it's made blatantly clear to the audience that he's a con artist from the word go. Meanwhile everyone else gets various subplots, the best of which involves Jan making up a pretend boyfriend, Jennifer Elise Cox's really superb in the role and it's not just her delivery of the lines, she's really strong on the physical comedy front too, even if it is Jan just walking off in a stroppy way. Everyone else is pretty great as well, and this might just be Gary Cole and Shelley Long's finest hours. It might sag slightly around the hour mark, but only does so briefly, and this is pretty consistently amusing and often laugh out loud funny, and the ending is a great one too. 7.6/10

I've also got Shiva Baby, The Time Of Their Lives (1946), Twenty Feet From Stardom, Alps, Gasbags, La Cha Cha, No Dogs Or Italians Allowed, Tawny Pipit, The Magician (1926) and Thrilling Bloody Sword downloaded, and will no doubt add a bunch more soon.

But yeah, recommendations, reviews and or suggestions for any other 90 minute or less films would be really appreciated.

[dead-ced-dead]

I'm a big fan of Attack the Block for exactly this reason. It's 88 minutes and packs in loads of thrills, chills, spills and giggles. It also has smartly written social commentary and class commentary during the age of handwringing over hoodies and the very middle-class anxiety that kids with knives and dogs would spring out of every corner. I rewatched Eden Lake around the same time (just over 90 minutes, also recommend), which is a really nasty horror flick, but it leaves a really sour taste in the mouth when you think about what it's saying. A bunch of middle class filmmakers sneering at the poors in that same Vicky Pollard/Am I bovvered way. Attack the Block flips it on its head in a really fun way and is really, really tight. Not an ounce of fat on that film.

Also, John Boyega has a Clint Eastwood like intensity. Very much a movie star in the making turn.

[Norton Canes]

Was surprised to discover the other day that This Is Spinal Tap is only 82 minutes.

[Magnum Valentino]

Corman famously said a film needn't be longer than 80 so you're safe with any of his cracking Vincent Price Poe films, especially the first two.

[Keebleman]

Lots of Woody Allen's films are under 90 mins. Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, Radio Days all qualify. Midnight in Paris is only slightly longer and is way, way better than almost anything else he's done since 1990.

[Keebleman]

If you're pushed for time and want a really cracking picture that barely breaks the hour mark, look for My Name Is Julia Ross, a terrific B-movie from 1945 in the mode of Gaslight and Rebecca.

[13 schoolyards]

My current go-to for films under 90 minutes are either Italian cop movies from the 70s or Japanese yakuza movies from the 70s (and the 60s). A lot of good Hong Kong action movies are under 90 minutes too - I just rewatched Flashpoint which is a bit of a muddle story-wise but a): stars Donnie Yen (always excellent) and b): has plenty of quality fights, including an insane ten minute battle at the end where both guys should have died a dozen times over.

Basically, don't be led astray by John Wick movies that run three hours: trash (even quality trash) aimed at fans of violent action almost always comes in at 90 minutes or less. Even now, a lot of recent direct-to-DVD / streaming action movies are under 90 minutes if you stop watching the second the end credits begin

[badaids]

90 minutes or fewer.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Thanks for all of the suggestions above, I'll respond to them later on but I've already got a few downloading and am looking forward to watching them.

I also forgot to mention / recommend Orion And The Dark (which is only about 80 minutes but as it's on Netflix it has about 10 minutes of credits), Blast Of Silence (which was recently recommended in the Non-New Films thread) and Adult Swim's Yule Log aka The Fireplace (which without credits just slips under the 90 minute rule), The Return Of Doctor X (only 62 minutes) and The Old Man Movie: Lactopalypse (a nice tight 89).

90 minutes or fewer.

Heh, I was wondering about that (and well remember the Great CaB Less Vs Fewer Wars) so I looked on google and thought either might apply.

There's a commonly repeated rule about fewer and less. It goes like this: fewer is used to refer to number among things that are counted, as in "fewer choices" and "fewer problems"; less is used to refer to quantity or amount among things that are measured, as in "less time" and "less effort."

[badaids]

Thanks for all of the suggestions above, I'll respond to them later on but I've already got a few downloading and am looking forward to watching them.

I also forgot to mention / recommend Orion And The Dark (which is only about 80 minutes but as it's on Netflix it has about 10 minutes of credits), Blast Of Silence (which was recently recommended in the Non-New Films thread) and Adult Swim's Yule Log aka The Fireplace (which without credits just slips under the 90 minute rule), The Return Of Doctor X (only 62 minutes) and The Old Man Movie: Lactopalypse (a nice tight 89).

Heh, I was wondering about that (and well remember the Great CaB Less Vs Fewer Wars) so I looked on google and thought either might apply.

I was just being a twat.

It's the old countable and non-countable bollocks.

[SteveDave]

Seemingly all Hammer horror films were edited using a stopwatch and all last just under 90 minutes. This was probably done to get more screenings per day.

My dad told me that cinemas used to run the same film constantly so you could come into a screening halfway through, watch til the end and then sit there til you saw up to where you came in. Is that true?

[Norton Canes]

And stay and watch it all over again.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Petite Maman (2021) is only 1hr 12 and is a wonderful French film about childhood fantasy and loss from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Reality (2023) 1hr 22 - gripping true story drama about the interrogation by the FBI of Reality Winner
Vivre sa Vie (1962) 1hr 23 - classic Godard
Eraserhead (1980) 1hr 29 - everyone knows this one

[Small Man Big Horse]

Was surprised to discover the other day that This Is Spinal Tap is only 82 minutes.

I watched it during the lockdown and was surprised as well, and apart from The Big Picture I think they'd all fit in to the category.

If you're pushed for time and want a really cracking picture that barely breaks the hour mark, look for My Name Is Julia Ross, a terrific B-movie from 1945 in the mode of Gaslight and Rebecca.

Cool, thanks for that, that sounds very much like my cup of tea.

My current go-to for films under 90 minutes are either Italian cop movies from the 70s or Japanese yakuza movies from the 70s (and the 60s). A lot of good Hong Kong action movies are under 90 minutes too - I just rewatched Flashpoint which is a bit of a muddle story-wise but a): stars Donnie Yen (always excellent) and b): has plenty of quality fights, including an insane ten minute battle at the end where both guys should have died a dozen times over.

Basically, don't be led astray by John Wick movies that run three hours: trash (even quality trash) aimed at fans of violent action almost always comes in at 90 minutes or less. Even now, a lot of recent direct-to-DVD / streaming action movies are under 90 minutes if you stop watching the second the end credits begin

Cool, I'll definitely check out some of them, thanks for that.

Petite Maman (2021) is only 1hr 12 and is a wonderful French film about childhood fantasy and loss from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Reality (2023) 1hr 22 - gripping true story drama about the interrogation by the FBI of Reality Winner
Vivre sa Vie (1962) 1hr 23 - classic Godard
Eraserhead (1980) 1hr 29 - everyone knows this one

I'd agree with everything you say there bar that I haven't seen Reality yet, but will obtain that asap!

[idunnosomename]

Apart from Fantasia (over 2 hours!) no Disney animated feature breaks 90 min until the mid '90s. Since 2010 they all have to be over 100, dont they.

Dumbo's barely an hour!

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

There occasionally is a column that shows up on TV streaming services (Netflix or Amazon I think) that says "90 minutes or less" or something, but you're at the whim as to whether the algorithm decides to show it to you or not.

As for suggestions, Dredd is 95 minutes? That's always fun. A lot of 80's films seemed to always aim for the 1 and a half hour mark too.

[greenman]

Petite Maman (2021) is only 1hr 12 and is a wonderful French film about childhood fantasy and loss from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

There does end up being quite a bit of euro arthouse drama which is around 90 mins or less, Ursula Meier's Sister from 2012 I think is a lesser known little gem.

[Mister Six]

Shout out to the amazing Miracle Mile (1988), an alternately lovely and stressful oddball film about a romantic date that goes awry when the chap discovers that the world is about to end, and so he must struggle to get him and his girlfriend to an underground bunker before the nukes fall. Clocks in at 87 minutes, so once shit goes down it's almost in real time.

If you don't count the credits then the 92-minute Fremont (2023) should just scrape in, and was one of my top 10 movies of last year. A dryly funny indie comedy-drama co-starring possibly the world's funniest human, Gregg Turkington, as a self-absorbed therapist, it's sweet and melancholic without being a downer. Some cute cameos too - don't spoil it for yourself by reading the cast list.

I also enjoyed last year's Jethica, which is a minor spooky indie flick (though not scary at all) and probably could have been 50 minutes without all the lingering, slow scenes, but is still worth checking out since it's only 72 minutes long, including credits.

I also love anime psychodrama (and Black Swan "inspiration") Perfect Blue, by sorely missed animation genius Satoshi Kon, about a squeaky-clean pop star who suffers a mental break, a creepy stalker and vivid hallucinations when she becomes an actress in mature (though not "adult", ie. porn) movies. Who is killing people around her? Is it a split personality, her stalker, her idol persona somehow come to life or something else entirely? It's stunning.

Actually, it looks like all of Kon's films are under or around 90 minutes: Paprika (stolen technology causes the waking world to merge with dreams), Tokyo Godfathers (three homeless people odyssey across Tokyo to return an abandoned baby to her parents on Christmas Eve) and Millennium Actress (memory, time and film swirl together as an actress on her deathbed recalls her life).

Children of Heaven is a sweet 1997 Iranian film about a poor pair of Iranian siblings who get into scrapes after one of them loses the other's shoes. It's pretty light stuff, but heartwarming. Did well on release for an Iranian film, IIRC, but I think it's a bit forgotten about today.

Also kind of forgotten, but similar in no other way to Children of Heaven, Run Lola Run (1998) is a rollicking, oddball thriller about a woman (Franka Potente; what happened to her?) who has 20 minutes to get 100,000 Deutschmarks before gangsters kill her boyfriend. It fills out the 80-minute runtime by showing the same scenario in three different ways, with Lola's differing decisions changing the lives of those around her in a butterfly effect sort of way.

A quick Google search brings up a slew of more obvious titles that I like: Airplane!, the OG Evil Dead, My Neighbor Totoro, Before Sunset (though you'll want to see Before Sunrise first, and that's 101 minutes), Crank, What We Do in the Shadows, Zombieland, the OG Wicker Man, Once, Sexy Beast, High Noon, Best in Show and The Naked Gun.

Heh, I was wondering about that (and well remember the Great CaB Less Vs Fewer Wars) so I looked on google and thought either might apply.

Sorry to be a MASSIVE TWAT, but in this instance the time is being counted (as 90 minutes), so it should be fewer. Less would be used if it were time in the abstract ("I like watching TV show episodes over movies as individual sittings take up less time.")

[Mister Six]

Also this oddball film, 1985's Crime Wave (unrelated to the Raimi/Coens film of the same year), which has had a good response in the old movies films thread and is on YouTube. Haven't watch it yet myself mind. Clocks in at 80 minutes:

I think this is quite hard to get hold of but it is on YouTube:

[Keebleman]

My dad told me that cinemas used to run the same film constantly so you could come into a screening halfway through, watch til the end and then sit there til you saw up to where you came in. Is that true?

I forget who it was, but I remember some movie fan describing how he hated going to the pictures with his dad in the 40s or 50s. His father would buy tickets with only the most cursory interest in what was showing and none at all in what time it began. Invariably they would take their seats in the middle of the main feature. They'd watch it to the end, and then the cartoon, the short, the newsreel, maybe a B movie, and then the main feature again. When the scene that had been running during their arrival came around, his dad would lean towards him and say, "I think this is where we came in," and gather up their coats. No dispute or appeal possible. The guy said he dreaded that moment, and hoped and prayed that just once his dad would allow him to view a movie start to finish.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Sorry to be a MASSIVE TWAT, but in this instance the time is being counted (as 90 minutes), so it should be fewer. Less would be used if it were time in the abstract ("I like watching TV show episodes over movies as individual sittings take up less time.")

You're not being a massive twat and I really appreciate it as I was genuinely not sure (and given my job I really should know this stuff!) but that makes perfect sense.

Also, I fucking love Miracle Mile. I stumbled upon it as a teenager when I rented it from my local video shop (which in general only got really mainstream stuff in), and bought an ex-rental copy a few years later, then the dvd afterwards, I've lost count of how many times I've seen it but I rewatched it a few years ago and still thought it was fantastic.

I'll also respond to the rest of your post tomorrow, but I'm shattered now and am going to crash. But yeah, everyone should watch Miracle Mile. Now!

[Mister Six]

Damn right!

[Sebastian Cobb]

Videodrome 89 minutes

[Minami Minegishi]

https://letterboxd.com/director/aki-kaurismaki/by/shortest/

This is a man who understands how to tell a story in 90mins or less.

[13 schoolyards]

Also kind of forgotten, but similar in no other way to Children of Heaven, Run Lola Run (1998) is a rollicking, oddball thriller about a woman (Franka Potente; what happened to her?) who has 20 minutes to get 100,000 Deutschmarks before gangsters kill her boyfriend. It fills out the 80-minute runtime by showing the same scenario in three different ways, with Lola's differing decisions changing the lives of those around her in a butterfly effect sort of way.

This reminded me that there's another German film now floating around with a similar premise that's also under 90 minutes - a kickboxer is about to go into a big fight when his ex tells him that if he doesn't get to his daughter's birthday party across town she's suing for full custody so off he runs, only it turns out that there is a very good reason for a lot of tough guys to chase him all over Berlin (the fights are clearly done by people who know how to fight - how to act, not so much, but it doesn't really matter)

It's called Sixty Minutes, but it actually runs for like 86 minutes so I guess the minutes before the fight don't count.

[Blinder Data]

The Killing (1956), one of my fave films, comes in at a mean 84 minutes. it's fantastic - you can see where Tarantino got (some of) his influences for his early films...

[phantom_power]

Evil Dead II - One of the best films ever at a lean 84 minutes

[Pranet]

Two films that play out in real time which I enjoyed- The Set-Up 1949 fixed boxing film which comes in at 72 minutes and High Noon -increasingly panicked law man prepares for a pack of criminals who he imprisoned to arrive in town and take their revenge.

Also enjoyed the Narrow Margin (71 minutes) tense train set thriller.

Lots of good old short films.

[Blinder Data]

i know kids films are often on the shorter side, but Toy Story achieves an awful lot in only 81 minutes.

[Mister Six]

Oh yeah, the best classic Disney stuff is under 90 minutes too - Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan. When every frame has to be drawn by hand, you have to be careful about your shots. The efficiency of storytelling in Aladdin is amazing. And that's with peak Robin Williams ad-libbing all over the shop.

This reminded me that there's another German film now floating around with a similar premise that's also under 90 minutes - a kickboxer is about to go into a big fight when his ex tells him that if he doesn't get to his daughter's birthday party across town she's suing for full custody so off he runs, only it turns out that there is a very good reason for a lot of tough guys to chase him all over Berlin (the fights are clearly done by people who know how to fight - how to act, not so much, but it doesn't really matter)

It's called Sixty Minutes, but it actually runs for like 86 minutes so I guess the minutes before the fight don't count.

This sounds GREAT!