I watched Zodiac the other day and it got me thinking about the ideal movie length. This movie had a runtime of 157 minutes. I’ve seen 2 other movies this yeah with a runtime well over 2 hours, Blood Diamond and Pirates of the Caribbean: at Worlds End.
Zodiac was not a bad movie, in fact I really enjoyed it, but when a movie takes that long to unfold the mind begins to drift from time to time. It has something to do with momentum. In a interview with Joss Whedon, I saw on the extra’s of the Serenity DVD, he talks about this and how a movie is a lot different from making an episode from a series. The most difficult part was the editing, a lot of great footage had to be cut from the movie just because it slowed the movie down.
The most ideal runtime for a movie, in my opinion, is 100 minutes. It holds up for almost all movie genres, except the historic fiction genre (Braveheart, Troy, Lord of the Rings). Those movies are meant to last longer to give it the epic feel, I guess. Or it might just be that they need that little more time for a good intro.
As I said, I watched three 2,5 hour movies, 2 of those had bad momentum. Zodiac had a part where Jake’s character, a cartoonist, retraced all the steps of the police, which slowed the movie down. They could’ve merged the scenes showing the cartoonist asking about it and then shown the investigation in flashback form. I believe it would’ve kept the runtime under 2 hours and made for a better movie. Blood Diamond had a part in which our heroes visited a schoolteacher in the middle of the jungle who got shot a half-hour later. This scene was necessary to get to the next point in the army base where they would drop the teacher for medical care, but this scene just lasted too long. This was where the movie came to a screeching halt and my mind started to wonder. I even went as far to pick up my laptop and started reading the latest current events on news sites. This should not happen when I watch a movie. And there are tons of movies where it doesn’t. Blood Diamond could’ve been a great movie, instead it’s just a good one. The final half hour redeems a lot, it even got me thinking it was the movie of the year, but then I remembered the part where I had my computer on my lap.
A movie needs to have good momentum, it’s what can separate a great movie from a good one. If you want to watch a great movie, go check the award sites and see which movie won best editing.
donderdag 26 juli 2007
woensdag 25 juli 2007
First Entry
Hi
I started a blog. I don't know if i can keep up writing on a regular basis, but at least i started it on a subject i can talk lot's about. I'm Jero and live in the Netherlands, so if you see bad grammar just think how english isn't my native language.
I love movies. I don't spend much time going to cinema's watching them , but i have a nice and evergrowing collection of dvd's at home. From time to time i'll download a movie, if i can't wait for it to be released on dvd and there is a good dvd-rip out there somewhere. I need the movie to have a basic quality to enjoy it, so i won't download any ts or cam screeners. Downloading isn't illegal here, i don't feel guilty about downloading. In my opinion the movie business has grown thanks to the internet rather than suffered from it, but i'll discuss that some other time. This is just an introduction, and if i like the movie i downloaded it'll probably end up in my dvd collection soon anyway.
I love making lists and you'll be seeing a lot of them here. Perhaps they won't be ranked from 1 to 10. It's too hard to rank one movie over another if i feel they are both awesome. I'll start making a list of movies i realy liked, but you might not have seen yet. Nobody needs to tell you Pulp Fiction was good, the boxoffice did that for you. I'll list a few movies that didn't get the attention they deserverd, well... at least not in the Netherlands.
- Garden State. A movie made and starred by Zach Braff, with Natalie Portman. It's about a quiet actor comming home for his mother's funeral, where he meets a girl who seems to be the total opposite of himself.
Have you ever seen a movie when it ended you thought was just 'meh.' but you couldn't stop thinking about it? This is such a movie. It isn´t a complex movie but the subtle buildup and overall feel of the movie made me remember scenes and putting them with other scenes for 2 days after I watched it.
- Dark City. With Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connoly and Kiefer Sutherland.
I didn't take note of this film until 2004 or something. It was completely overshadowed by the promotions of The Matrix and Star Wars Episode 1. Normaly a movie will be released 6 month after it's released in the US, but for big budget films there's a worldwide premier, that's why i didn't see this beauty until 5 years later. I won't compare this to the Matrix, it's been done to often. I like both movies.
- Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. With Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. Downey a failed criminal stumbles into an acting job for which he is flown to hollywood, where he meets a detective named Gay Perry (kilmer). I just heard the movie was good, not wat it was about. I can't compare any other movie to this one. The language, the humor, overall a great movie.
- Office Space. Without a doubt the best B movie i've ever seen. A computer programmer, Peter, is tired of his job. He visits a hypnotherapist who dies right after Peter is hypnotized. Peter starts to care less and less about his job and more about life, but the more he starts slacking off, the more he is appreciated for it at work.
I'll add some more movies when i think of them. For now, i got to get back to work.
I started a blog. I don't know if i can keep up writing on a regular basis, but at least i started it on a subject i can talk lot's about. I'm Jero and live in the Netherlands, so if you see bad grammar just think how english isn't my native language.
I love movies. I don't spend much time going to cinema's watching them , but i have a nice and evergrowing collection of dvd's at home. From time to time i'll download a movie, if i can't wait for it to be released on dvd and there is a good dvd-rip out there somewhere. I need the movie to have a basic quality to enjoy it, so i won't download any ts or cam screeners. Downloading isn't illegal here, i don't feel guilty about downloading. In my opinion the movie business has grown thanks to the internet rather than suffered from it, but i'll discuss that some other time. This is just an introduction, and if i like the movie i downloaded it'll probably end up in my dvd collection soon anyway.
I love making lists and you'll be seeing a lot of them here. Perhaps they won't be ranked from 1 to 10. It's too hard to rank one movie over another if i feel they are both awesome. I'll start making a list of movies i realy liked, but you might not have seen yet. Nobody needs to tell you Pulp Fiction was good, the boxoffice did that for you. I'll list a few movies that didn't get the attention they deserverd, well... at least not in the Netherlands.
- Garden State. A movie made and starred by Zach Braff, with Natalie Portman. It's about a quiet actor comming home for his mother's funeral, where he meets a girl who seems to be the total opposite of himself.
Have you ever seen a movie when it ended you thought was just 'meh.' but you couldn't stop thinking about it? This is such a movie. It isn´t a complex movie but the subtle buildup and overall feel of the movie made me remember scenes and putting them with other scenes for 2 days after I watched it.
- Dark City. With Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connoly and Kiefer Sutherland.
I didn't take note of this film until 2004 or something. It was completely overshadowed by the promotions of The Matrix and Star Wars Episode 1. Normaly a movie will be released 6 month after it's released in the US, but for big budget films there's a worldwide premier, that's why i didn't see this beauty until 5 years later. I won't compare this to the Matrix, it's been done to often. I like both movies.
- Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. With Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. Downey a failed criminal stumbles into an acting job for which he is flown to hollywood, where he meets a detective named Gay Perry (kilmer). I just heard the movie was good, not wat it was about. I can't compare any other movie to this one. The language, the humor, overall a great movie.
- Office Space. Without a doubt the best B movie i've ever seen. A computer programmer, Peter, is tired of his job. He visits a hypnotherapist who dies right after Peter is hypnotized. Peter starts to care less and less about his job and more about life, but the more he starts slacking off, the more he is appreciated for it at work.
I'll add some more movies when i think of them. For now, i got to get back to work.
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