Entertainment & Music Very long movies

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Simon Hampel, 7th Apr, 2019.

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  1. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I have to laugh at everyone on social media losing their minds over the fact that the upcoming Avengers: Endgame will be just over 3 hours long (3 hours and 1 minute to be precise).

    Kids these days have no idea what long movies are!

    Long movies I've seen in the cinema:
    • Dances with Wolves: 3 hr 1min (Kevin Costner does long movies!)
    • Wyatt Earp: 3 hr 11 min (Kevin Costner again!)
    • Titanic: 3 hr 14 min
    • Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: 3 hr 21 min
    Other recently released long movies I didn't see in the cinema:
    • The Wolf of Wall Street: 3 hr
    • Pearl Harbor: 3 hr 3 min
    • King Kong: 3 hr 7 min (the 2005 Naomi Watts & Jack Black version)
    • The Hateful Eight: 3 hr 7 min
    • JFK: 3 hr 9 min (Kevin Costner!!)
    • The Green Mile: 3 hr 9 min
    • Nixon: 3 hr 12 min
    • Schindler's List: 3 hr 15 min
    • Malcolm X: 3 hr 22 min
     
  2. twobobsworth

    twobobsworth Well-Known Member

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    If it's a good movie it won't feel that long, but I remember sitting through king kong. 3 hours of my life I'll never get back.
     
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  3. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    Some of Kevin Costner's movies could really have been cut down by at least an hour - so slow and ponderous, but at least the period movies (Dances with Wolves / Wyatt Earp) are interesting for their historical context.

    Of course Costner's climate change documentary Waterworld went the other way and looked into the future (but was only 2 hr 15 min) :p

    The one movie which has always felt the longest to me is "Heat" (Al Pacino, Robert De Niro) - it's only 2 hr 50 min long - but I first watched it during an all-night movie marathon one night when I had borrowed a data projector and screen - so I had some friends over and we set up a cinema in the lounge.

    We wanted to do one last movie - and thought that Heat (being a lightweight "action" film) would be quick ... not the case at all - way to misjudge the tone of a movie from the description on the cover!

    To this day, I've not felt like going back and watching it - and I only recall the first half hour and the last 10 minutes of the movie, I think I slept through the rest of it.
     
  4. Kesse

    Kesse Well-Known Member

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    But on the flip side some movies that are based on books could be 12 hours long and it would never do the book justice.
     
  5. TMNT

    TMNT Well-Known Member

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    The good thing about that list is theyre mostly very good films!
     
  6. albanga

    albanga Well-Known Member

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    I have all 3 extended Lord of The Rings boxsets. The Return of The King goes for 4 hours and 10 minutes.

    The extra content on those DVDs are the best I have ever seen.
     
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  7. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    Totally agree! Loved the extended editions and the extra content.

    I also watched the extended edition of all 3 movies probably 3 or 4 times each, as I listened to each with the various commentary tracks turned on which was fascinating (and at times hilarious!).
     
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  8. albanga

    albanga Well-Known Member

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    Me too! I want to do all 3 extended back to back one Day. Most I mustered was 2 back to back on a hung over Sunday.
     
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  9. albanga

    albanga Well-Known Member

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    Maybe I’ll also do The 3 Hobbits! Haha
    That would nearly be a full 24 hours
     
  10. Mumbai

    Mumbai Well-Known Member

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    An average Bollywood movie is 3.5 hours.
    Alot of them are more than 4 hours. But there are on average 7/8 5 minute songs where you can take a nap or pee break ;)
     
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  11. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    Many years ago, I went to watch The Human Condition at one of the smaller theatres in the Sydney Opera House. It's three separate movies, meant to be .three parts of the same narrative, with each part over three hours, over 10 hours in total. It was in Japanese with subtitles in black and white, but it was excellent. The narrative of a Japanese soldier, from the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, through the war and immediately after. They were shown all in a single day - I initially paid just for the first but stayed on for all three. It was an incredibly powerful trilogy, I really enjoyed it.

    Ningen no jôken (1959) - IMDb
     
  12. Lacrim

    Lacrim Well-Known Member

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    Schindler's List could have been 5 hours and I'd still be glued to my seat. Brilliant film.
     
  13. Chicken or Beef?

    Chicken or Beef? Well-Known Member

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    Anything with Matt Damon is too bloody long. ZzzzzzzZzzzz
     
  14. Invest_noob

    Invest_noob Well-Known Member

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    Surprised no one's mention Ben Hur - 3h 44m.
     
  15. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I was more focusing on newer releases - if you go back to some of the classics there are plenty of examples of very long movies - but I doubt many people here would have actually sat through them in the cinema - which is kind of the point.
     
  16. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    The one I quoted is obviously old, but it is one I've sat through. It was promoted at the time as the longest movie ever made.
     
  17. Guest

    Guest Guest

    A movie should only be 3 hours if the story needs it.

    Something tells me an Avengers flick doesn't meet the criteria... though each to their own I guess.

    I watched a few of the early Marvel movies, but they seem to be out every few months these days. I can't believe how much they've managed to milk it.
     
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  18. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    You either like them or you don't.

    If you haven't watched most of the previous MCU movies, you shouldn't bother seeing Endgame. Especially if you didn't also see Infinity Wars - since this follows directly on and won't make a lot of sense without seeing it.

    Given that this is the culmination of careful story telling across multiple movie franchises over more than a decade, all tying together into a single storyline (across two movies), it's actually a pretty impressive feat that its has worked as well as it has so far.

    Given how many characters they have to fit in to this movie - each with their own stories - I'm surprised they've managed to fit it into 3 hours. I thought perhaps they might do a Hobbit and split the 2nd movie into 2 and make it a trilogy (well, technically this is the 5th Avengers movie - but whatever).
     
    Last edited: 10th Oct, 2021
  19. Dan Donoghue

    Dan Donoghue Well-Known Member

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    lol lose their mind over a 3 hour movie but will binge watch a new NFlix show 10 eps @ 1 hour each :p.
     
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  20. Dan Donoghue

    Dan Donoghue Well-Known Member

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    Gone with the wind: 3hrs 53 min........ it's bigger than Ben Hur :D