Les Miserables ties us to our seats for over two and half hours - not too appealing.
And most of the movies I've seen over the last few years have stretched to two hours and over. Can it take that long to communicate a story? I think not.
It's a relief then to know I'm not alone in thinking that movies are being stretched beyond human endurance. The National Association of Theatre Owners, which represents 28,000 cinemas in America, calls for reduction in "film bloat" and wants to get back to the Alfred Hitchcock dictum:
"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."
I couldn't agree more.
With all this in mind, Parental Guidance
starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler
was the choice for a New Year's Day family trip (today) and while it was fun - mostly thanks to Mr Crystal's rapid, deadpan one-liners, but ultimately forgetteable, the best bit was the neat 105 mins.
Happy New Year!
4 comments:
I have to admit, while I used to be all for these epic, drawn-out movies, I'm growing less and less enthusiastic about them. I don't want to be worried about needing to use the bathroom in the middle of the climax, and most movies these days that go far over the 2 hour mark feel too long as it is.
Hi Paul. There does seem to be a thing with film makers that movies HAVE to be more than two hours even if the story can be told in less,hence long dragging segments in the middle (some of the final Harry Potters come to mind)
Nice to hear from you & all the best for 2013!
I couldn't agree more about The Hobbit. All those join-the-bandwagon orcs that never so much as growled in the book and just succeeded in slobbering out the action. The one exception is Lincoln - we've just seen it and I wished it was 10 hours long. Superb acting - I forgot I even had a bladder. Either that or it was so gripped there was no danger of leakage. DX
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