21 Ridiculously Long Movies That Should Have Been An Hour Shorter And 8 That Are Actually Worth Your Time

"It was the closest I've ever come to bursting my bladder."

How long is the perfect movie length? It's an age-old debate that filmmakers and audiences can never agree on. Some people will say 90 minutes, others cap it at two hours — but regardless of what you prefer, I think we can all agree that there's been an upward trend of offensively long movie runtimes.

NBC

Now, as someone who is Indian and was raised with Bollywood movies, I'm no stranger to long films. If the pacing is right, the storyline is interesting enough and the acting is on point, then by all means, I'll happily enjoy having those hours deducted from my day.

Warner Bros.

But more often than not, filmmakers are becoming greedy and bloating up their runtimes because they can't bloody decide if that subplot — that really doesn't matter and has no bearing on the storyline — should be cut or not.

CBS

So, when u/fire-lord-momo asked the good people of Reddit, "What film made you say: 'Holy shit, there are still 50 minutes left?'", I quickly ran to the comments to see what was said and boy, oh boy, they didn't disappoint. Some obvious films were called out (cough, Babylon, cough), but there was also an interesting discussion about movies that were made better with a longer runtime.

New Line Cinema

You can read the entire thread here.

Without further ado, here are 21 movies with runtimes that should have been put on the chopping block and 8 movies which were long, but the length was justified.

1. DIDN'T WORK: The Batman (2 hours, 56 minutes).

Warner Bros./DC Films

"Don't get me wrong, I love the movie, but it was about 30–45 minutes longer than it needed to be. You could remove the entire Selina Kyle subplot and still have the same film. I’m glad Reeves [Matt Reeves, the director] created a Gotham with a history where all the characters already exist, but it almost felt like he was afraid to leave anything out in case he needed it for a later film."

—u/SuperRob

2. DIDN'T WORK: Titanic (3 hours, 16 minutes).

Paramount Pictures / 20th Century Fox

"Back in the '90s when VHS was still a thing, Titanic was split between two VHS tapes. The first was all about the onboarding and love story, while the second was finally about the iceberg hitting and sinking the ship. I always dozed off before the second VHS tape got entered. Also, my family decided to stop playing part one and just go straight to part two whenever we decided to watch the movie."

—u/HydraHamster

"I will admit that I — then a 13-year-old boy — cried seeing Titanic in the theatre, but it was because I drank my Mountain Dew too quickly and didn't want to miss the drawing scene (better than I could have hoped for!) or awaited-sinking by getting up to use the restroom. It was the closest I've ever come to bursting my bladder."

—u/morroia_gorri

3. DIDN'T WORK: Blonde (2 hours, 46 minutes).

Netflix

"If you watch it at a faster speed it's almost bearable.

The, dialogue, is, so, ungodly, slow, in, that, movie. I, can’t, express, how, horrible, it, is, to, watch, at, normal, speed, because,

there, are, long, awful,

pauses, between, each,

and,

every,

word,

spoken."

—u/KFredrickson

"It's the first movie in years where I couldn't make it through and had to turn it off."

—u/unluky10

4. DID WORK: Everything Everywhere All At Once (2 hours, 20 minutes).

A24

"Once it hit the second half, I had no idea where it was going or how it was going to resolve in a satisfying way, but it did it, and it's now one of my favourite movies."

—u/greenlemons404

5. DIDN'T WORK: King Kong (3 hours, 21 minutes).

Universal Pictures

"My friend and I gave up and left the theatre after the first 2 hours and 45 minutes of that movie."
—u/aleksandra_nadia

"I didn't give up on it, but I swear I left the theater not knowing what year it was anymore."

—u/PurposeOk7918

6. DIDN'T WORK: The Eternals (2 hours, 37 minutes).

Disney/Marvel

"It would've been better as a Disney+ show. Even at such a long runtime, it felt like they tried to cram in too much."

—u/CWRules

7. DIDN'T WORK: Babylon (3 hours, 9 minutes).

Paramount Pictures

"I watched Babylon last night and I was like, 'Holy shit, there's still two hours left?'"

—u/jkhabe

"I liked Babylon, but hated the last 30 minutes that were a recap of the whole movie. It was an unnecessary addition to an already long film."

—u/AlvTellez

8. DID WORK: RRR (3 hours, 7 minutes).

DVV Entertainment

"RRR is amazing. I've watched it eight times now, showing new groups of my friends each time. It has something for everyone and every 10 minutes you're trying to figure out how this is the same movie, why is this happening now, why is it so cool and what the hell is going on. Each scene builds upon the previous one. You have the fountain and the fireworks, the tiger and the throwing of the leopard, flipping the carriage that's on fire and then the damned governor pointing his rifle. After all that, you think, 'Well, that was good!' — but that's only act one! More than half the movie is left and it's brilliant!

Just give it 20 minutes. I guarantee you will watch it all and realise you're grinning as you watch it. It's great."

—u/Lego_Nabii

9. DIDN'T WORK: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2 hours, 41 minutes).

Disney/Marvel

"I can't believe it was almost three hours — the plot is so thin and not much really happens. I'm not even bashing it necessarily, I found it enjoyable, but they could have easily cut an hour without affecting the story really."

—u/creptik1

10. DID WORK: The Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition (run time varies per film, but the longest is Return Of The King which clocks in at 4 hours, 11 minutes).

New Line Cinema

"There are rumours of another super cut with more unseen footage and I'm absolutely here for it."

—u/TobiasFunkeFresh

11. DIDN'T WORK: Elvis (2 hours, 39 minutes).

Warner Bros. Pictures

"I wasn't a fan overall but holy hell, they could have cut 30–40 minutes and ended up with the same film."

—u/Kronikinsanity

"The film had too much dialogue. It needed a little less conversation, a little more action."

—u/Notcorrectallthetime

12. DIDN'T WORK: Black Adam (2 hours, 5 minutes).

New Line Cinema/DC Films

"I paused it saying, 'God damn! How much longer do we have?' and then saw the film was two hours in total. Felt like a glitch in the matrix or some shit."

—u/bitchfacevulture

"I checked out around the fourth time The Rock was floating in midair staring sullenly into the distance for an uncomfortable length of time."

—u/ScyllaOfTheDepths

13. DID WORK: Gladiator (2 hours, 35 minutes).

Universal Pictures

"Gladiator made me say, 'Holy shit, there are only 50 minutes left.' Maximus (Russell Crowe) enters the Colosseum in the second half of the movie [and] I felt like it had just started."

—u/Heath_co

"I haven't watched the theatrical cut [of Gladiator] in over a decade now. The extended version gives it room to breathe, better justifies the subplots with Lucilla and with Maximus' old servant and doesn't drag because the film already has me wanting more."

—u/Danhuangmao

14. DIDN'T WORK: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2 hours, 26 minutes).

Dreamworks

"Man, that movie dragged. Finally, it had this bittersweet ending and I was like, 'Yeah, not my thing, but I can totally see why people like it.' And then it went on."

—u/HabitatGreen

15. DIDN'T WORK: Cats (1 hour, 50 minutes).

Universal Pictures

"I thought it would be fun-bad like Birdemic, but it was BORING-bad like The Last Airbender."

—u/-Gigi_the_cat-

"This film is excruciating. I felt like time had literally slowed down, maybe that is what hell really feels like."

—u/TieOk1127

16. DIDN'T WORK: Avatar: The Way Of The Water (3 hours, 12 minutes).

20th Century Studios

"I actually liked Avatar 2, but they just hold shots and scenes FOR SO LONG. I get that a huge part of seeing Avatar is about the visuals and world-building, but I feel like that movie could be cut down by an hour very easily."

—u/goblin_goblin

17. DID WORK: The Dark Knight (2 hours, 32 minutes).

Warner Bros./DC Films

"The Dark Knight, in the best of ways."

—u/goaltaylor33

"Yup, this is the one. After Batman finally catches the Joker it feels like the end, but the film still has a ways to go. I remember thinking, 'Wait, it's not done yet?' when I first watched it."

—u/GriffinFlash

18. DIDN'T WORK: The Sound of Music (2 hours, 54 minutes).

20th Century Fox

"They get married and I said 'That was a nice ending' and my wife says, 'The Nazis haven't arrived.'"

—u/Davicitorra

"Fun fact: My parents always turned off The Sound Of Music when they [the characters] got married. I didn't learn there was more until I was 14 and we went to see The Sound Of Music stage play. There I was, sitting in the audience, expecting the curtain to fall, and then fucking Nazis show up."

—u/teatalker26

19. DIDN'T WORK: Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (2 hours, 22 minutes).

Disney

"92 minutes in and I wanted this shitshow to be over."

—u/Pilsberry22

20. DID WORK: Full Metal Jacket (1 hour, 56 minutes)

Warner Bros.

"Full Metal Jacket fucked me up the first time I saw it. The tone shift was so drastic that I thought someone changed the movie when I went to the bathroom."

—u/DreadedChalupacabra

21. DIDN'T WORK: You People (1 hour, 58 minutes).

Netflix

"All rom-coms are predictable, but this one was next level. You could see just about every gag coming a mile away, just based on who was in the scene and where their location was.

The only surprising scene was when Jonah Hill was good at basketball, but there was no follow-up to it. If it had been used for Eddie Murphy to realise there was more to this guy than he thought, it would have been fine, but it was inconsequential."

—u/baconwiches

22. DID WORK: Top Gun: Maverick (2 hours, 11 minutes).

Paramount Pictures

"After they do the real mission and Mav gets shot down, I really thought they were just gonna end it there and finish it in a sequel. But then it kept going and it was so good."

—u/Babayaga20000

23. DIDN'T WORK: Wonder Woman 1984 (2 hours, 31 minutes).

Warner Bros./DC Films

"I remember checking how long was left, and saying 'Jesus Christ, for real?' when there was nearly an hour to go."

—u/Grantagonist

24. DID WORK: Barbarian (1 hour, 42 minutes).

20th Century Studios

"In a good way, Barbarian. I was baffled at the midpoint where the thing you know if you saw the movie happens."

—u/EthanEpiale

25. DIDN'T WORK: Australia (2 hours, 45 minutes).

20th Century Fox

"This movie has a run time of 2 hours and 45 minutes. At the 90-minute mark you start to think, 'Wow, that went by really fast! That didn't feel like a three hour movie at all.' You would be thinking that because the story is clearly wrapping up and the movie is about to end. But no, you check the time and there are still 90 minutes left in the movie. And then the second movie starts.

Baz Luhrmann has just tricked you into watching two movies that are pretending to be one movie. You now get to watch Australia 2.'

—u/Azuretower

26. DIDN'T WORK: Transformers: Age Of Extinction (2 hours, 45 minutes).

Paramount Pictures

"That movie was so awful I never even finished it."

—u/EliseOvO

"My husband won free tickets. We went to the cinema together. I was actually enjoying it. I found the whole thing ridiculous and not believable, but I enjoyed myself. Then, there was a loooooong time of explosions. And then the movie ended, I thought. I was like, 'Great! 90 mutes is a good length for a movie.' But then they went to fucking China and it took another hour to end. It was so incredibly boring, which could all be avoided if they just cut it off at 90 minutes."

—u/Toiletdisco

27. SORT OF WORKED: The Irishman (3 hours, 29 minutes).

Netflix

"I felt The Irishman was too long until I finished it. The whole thing builds up to an ending that is such a gut punch. I'm not sure there's much you could cut that wouldn't take away from the weight of that ending. Definitely hard to finish in one sitting though."

—u/xpinballwizard

28. DIDN'T WORK: Pearl Harbor (3 hours, 3 minutes).

Touchstone Pictures

"There's the climactic attack on Pearl Harbor. It's explosive and tragic, with so many people getting hurt and killed. And then the movie slows down and keeps going...for another hour. UGH."

—u/Snoo-35252

"'Pearl Harbor is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours.' —Roger Ebert." 

—u/High_Stream

29. DIDN'T WORK: Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (2 hours, 48 minutes).

Disney

"I liked it, but it was just so trippy and you think it's building to a big finish but then it keeps making 90-degree turns just when it felt like it was about to wrap up."

—u/Donkey__Balls

Some Reddit submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

What are some other ridiculously long movies that had you checking your watch halfway through? Or perhaps you've got an example of a film that was actually worth its runtime. Let us know in the comments!