What is the most long an drawn out movie you have seen?

[The Game Guy]

Just asw the title asks, what is the most long and drawn out movie you have ever seen.

Unbreakable is close but the blue ribbon first prize for most long and drawn out movie I have seen goes to:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Does it really take 2 and a half hours to get to the point where Jesse James is killed?!?!

[skeloric]

We are talking about movies that (seemingly) take the whole movie to finally reach the POINT of the movie?
It was called "Dark Inheritance" or "Dark Heritage" and it is based upon an HP Lovecraft story.
I remember this film from the late 70s or VERY VERY Early 80s and even bought a $1 DVD edition of it.
To sum it up, it involves an old house where a vanished family line had a distinctive appearance: A brown eye and a blue eye.
The house is at the center of some dark and mysterious legends and local population knows that the house is the source of all evil and shun it completely.
There are no roads to it and one must hike for several hours to reach it as everyone who could abandoned any all settlements to get further away from it.
Then a reporter notes that certain wild animal attacks in the region seem to be all occur with that house's reputed location as their "center".
So he goes to see his editor about this and connives to get permission to stage an overnight stay at the abandoned residence.
To his surprise, his editor LOVES the idea and assigns to helpers from printing press area of the paper to go along.
They go there.
They spend the night.
The reporter wakes up alone with barely any signs of a struggle and the one of the other guys? MISSING.
He and the remaining other guy spend almost all day trying to find any sign of him but cannot.
Then the remaining other guy vanishes.
He is alone in a house where something is attacking and killing people and eating them, as he soon discovers.
They also live in tunnels beneath the house and lands which stretch all throughout the region.
He barely avoids disappearing himself, escaping back to civilization.
He tells his tale to his editor.
The editor is agitated, surprised and more than a bit horrified by the tale thus decides something must be done.
But what needs to be done?
Kill the survivor of course, after all by his revealed blue and brown eyes he too is a member of that family.
Bing!
We reach the moment the whole film turgidly sailed towards
Granted the story was also slow in its presentation but the story at least relied upon Lovecraft's overwrought use of obscure adjectives to carry the day, the film can't unless it relied heavily upon narration.
Still, I like the film and really only wish that the audio had been cleaned up a little: the BASS is extreme making the whole house shake if you turn up the sound to hear the extra quiet voices in comparison to the rest.

[cheshire]

Gone With the Wind. Bar none.

You give me four hours of that crap for "tomorrow is another day?" I would have hung on for another half hour if they would have just given the movie a conclusion... but no... they just ended it where they were.

I know it's based off of a classic novel, but it doesn't mean that I think it makes good film. Classic, you say? If you say so. Cinema history? Most certainly... just not one piece of history I cared for. The DVDs are now coasters in my living room.

[Stormchild]

The good shephard was at least the one I viewed recently. See the outtakes and you realize it was meant to be a brilliant movie. See the movie and you ask yourself the whole time what the point is.

[The Game Guy]

The good shephard was at least the one I viewed recently. See the outtakes and you realize it was meant to be a brilliant movie. See the movie and you ask yourself the whole time what the point is.

I would agree. I think "The Good Shepard" was very long and drawn out. I saw that one in the theater too which makes it worse.

Though another aweful and drawn out movie I have seen (in the theater no less) was Vanilla Sky. Very, Very bad movie.

[Lee Torres]

For me it's "Legends of the Fall" - great cast; Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt topline - but MY GOD does that movie take forever! By the final reel, countless millennia after the movie began, when rugged frontiersman Brad Pitt goes toe-to-toe with a grizzly bear, I found myself rooting for the bear to triumph and put me out of my misery.

Happily, the bear triumphed...

[The Game Guy]

For me it's "Legends of the Fall" - great cast; Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt topline - but MY GOD does that movie take forever! By the final reel, countless millennia after the movie began, when rugged frontiersman Brad Pitt goes toe-to-toe with a grizzly bear, I found myself rooting for the bear to triumph and put me out of my misery.

Happily, the bear triumphed...

I have never seen that movie. It never looked like something I would be able to get into. And if its long and drawn out I certainly wouldnt be able to get into it.

[Grimace]

The movie that holds that coveted spot for me is "Ishtar". What a steaming pile of sh....aving cream!

I watched it for an hour, which seemed more like just short of eternity, and is the only movie that I've actually turned off to stop watching it without actually having to go somewhere or do something.

[cheshire]

I know I went to see that film, but I seriously have a blank in my memory for any of its contents.

[Jamfke]

What a steaming pile of sh....aving cream!


...be nice and clean, shave every day and you'll always look keen!

[The Game Guy]

The movie that holds that coveted spot for me is "Ishtar". What a steaming pile of sh....aving cream!

I watched it for an hour, which seemed more like just short of eternity, and is the only movie that I've actually turned off to stop watching it without actually having to go somewhere or do something.

I have only seen bits and pieces Ishtar but I have never seen the whole movie. I know most critics call it the worst movie of all times.

I guess I am not missing anything

[Kalzazz]

The Good Thief is the one I recall

[The Game Guy]

The Good Thief is the one I recall

Never heard of that movie. What is it about?

[skeloric]

Never heard of that movie. What is it about?

It might be this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281820/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Thief

[Whill]

I had an ex-girlfriend that made me watch Gone With The Wind with her because it was her favorite movie. I tried my best to stay awake and mostly succeeded. At the end of the movie, she asked me what I thought. I replied, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

[Stormchild]

I had an ex-girlfriend that made me watch Gone With The Wind with her because it was her favorite movie. I tried my best to stay awake and mostly succeeded. At the end of the movie, she asked me what I thought. I replied, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

I tried it three times and always failed. It makes for a good sleeping pill. Maybe I buy the DVD for emergencies when I just can't find sleep.

[Whill]

I tried it three times and always failed. It makes for a good sleeping pill. Maybe I buy the DVD for emergencies when I just can't find sleep.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture has worked as a sleeping pill for me more than once. I'm a Star Trek fan in general, but come on! The flippin' movie is rated G.

[skeloric]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture has worked as a sleeping pill for me more than once. I'm a Star Trek fan in general, but come on! The flippin' movie is rated G.

Most "Trekkies" ignore the first film and move onto film 2.
I don't blame them either.
It was a script for a 40 minute episode of an aborted attempted at a mid-70s Star Trek series relaunch that was then stretched out into 143 minute 1979 film, then cut down to 132 minutes for actual release in theatres.
It was great in the year 1979, but it did not do well beyond that moment in time. (AKA: it aged very poorly)

The first film also began the very noticeable trend of the even numbered Trek films being good while the odd numbered films were lousy.

[The Game Guy]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture has worked as a sleeping pill for me more than once. I'm a Star Trek fan in general, but come on! The flippin' movie is rated G.

Well 2001 was a long, drawn out and confusing movie as well. I am surprised it is such an acclaimed movie.

[Whill]

Yes, 2001 is long movie. And I do feel it was a bit drawn out and could have benefited from a little more editing. But I'm a big fan of the novel and overal I like the movie, which consider it a classic, like Psycho or the original Planet of the Apes. Not really that entertaining by today's standards, but great film for the eras of release.

[Whill]

But I also have to say I have a love/hate relationship with 2001: A Space Oddessy. Before she met my Dad, my Mom went on a date with a guy that took her to the theater to see that movie, and she didn't understand it so she hated it. That experience permanently biased her against all sci-fi, which calls "space" movies. So I've never been able to get my mom to even watch the original Star Wars, my favorite movie of all time.

I'm gonna wait until she retires or maybe even when she's so old she can't move around very well and make her watch it with me. I think she'll like it if she watches it because it is adventure, and so drastically different from 2001.

[pathfinderap]

Well 2001 was a long, drawn out and confusing movie as well. I am surprised it is such an acclaimed movie.

Yeah not a fan, can't stand any Kubrick,

But 2010 was a tad better ;)

[The Game Guy]

Yeah not a fan, can't stand any Kubrick,

But 2010 was a tad better ;)

I wouldn't consider myself a Kubrick fan, but I liked some of the work he did. I really like Dr. Strangelove, The Shinning and Full Metal Jacket.

2001 was just a movie that didn't do it for me.

[HoracePeabody]

I kinda liked Ishtar....lol

"Kareem Abdul, Kareem Abdul, Kareem Abdul"..."Jabar!"

[skeloric]

The Golden Compass.
Background:
The books are supposedly a long drawn out Atheistic rant aimed at turning children into Atheists -- a claim made by the writer himself and was locatable on the internet, at least up until just before New Line started a campaign to get all such references expunged from the internet.
There was one site that explored such information about the trilogy in depth and if I could recall that site, I'm certain it could still be retrieved by the Wayback Machine but even so it was some obscure British site which had the info and likely not 'Waybacked".

So I was tapped by my local church as one who is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy buff to critique the film and report back on it.
Maybe that colored my perceptions a bit, i don't really know for certain.
But I saw the film, aware and awaiting anything to give a full report about.
Overall, there was nothing objectionable about the film that might get a Christian in an uproar about -- which is nice because I was really loathing discovering such a unfortunate result anyway.
BUT!
There wasn't much to commend the film for either.
Without the spectre of controversy driving up its sales, there really wasn't much else to the film.
It was exceedingly bland and at times poorly edited to produce a rather "jumpy" feeling to the film.
I walked away relieved the film was over.
Also, when I saw the film there were about 20 people there with me at the start but only 3 were still there at the end -- the rest had left to get a refund roughly a fourth/third of the way in.
There I was stuck in my seat trying to compile an overall appraisal to the film while the others all jumped ship.
I went back and said, "I dunno about the book, but the film's only threat is putting you to sleep."
"Ignore it," I said to them, "It will go away."

So that is my experience with the golden Compass.
I hear there is talk yet of doing the other two books as well to complete the trilogy, I'm somewhat surprised because by all accounts they LOST money on the first.
I know that I'll avoid them, however, should they arrive.
Once was enough.

[Whill]

My wife and I saw it, and neither one of us had read the books or were aware of the controversy when we saw it. Not that that would have detered us in the slightest way, because some factions are vehemently opposed to Harry Potter and we love Harry Potter. We don't let anyone else determine for us what is evil.

My wife said she actually liked the movie, but I thought it was lame. I was further disappointed because of the great actors and large special effects budget, but it was a waste of film. Maybe the books are better, but I won't ever find out. I was also surprised to hear talk of sequels.

And skel, I think it's funny that you and people in your community get a refund if you don't like a movie. It's not like that in Ohio. From a business perspective, the idea of that seems absurd to me. Here, watching a movie is like the lottery - it may be a winner or a loser, but either way, you don't get your ticket price back. Spending money on a movie is taking a chance on whether you will like it or not - there is no way to know for sure until you watch it.

Now if there was some technical problem with the presentation and that caused you to miss part of the movie, I can understand maybe asking for a refund for that. I'm a big movie buff and that has only ever happened to me twice, once in 86 and once in 97 (very minor). I didn't bother asking for refunds, but I did voice a complaint in 86 because the screen went black during the dramatic ending of the movie. And I also complained to the management about the mothers that just had to bring their noisy babies to Spider-Man. What selfish inconsiderate idiots! But even then I didn't ask for a refund. Maybe I should of.

But a refund for simply not liking a movie when you had no way of knowing that until after you already agreed to spend money on it? Maybe you do live in another cosm. :cool:

[skeloric]

My wife and I saw it, and neither one of us had read the books or were aware of the controversy when we saw it. Not that that would have detered us in the slightest way, because some factions are vehemently opposed to Harry Potter and we love Harry Potter. We don't let anyone else determine for us what is evil.

i like Harry potter as well so I was probably the best one to ask to do the task.
I actually would go and see it and give a very balanced report.
I also used to defend AD&D back in the day.
Every time I would pitch the game to a "Concerned Christian", they'd look at me funny and suddenly uncomfortably demur that it didn't really sound as bad as they had heard.
So I went in with trepidation, wondering what I would see and how I could express it in a way that wouldn't be "loaded" so to speak.



My wife said she actually liked the movie, but I thought it was lame. I was further disappointed because of the great actors and large special effects budget, but it was a waste of film. Maybe the books are better, but I won't ever find out. I was also surprised to hear talk of sequels.

Sounds like you and I are pretty much in agreement on the film.
I did get a cheap $1 copy of the collected trilogy and will read it to see what its like as well yet.



And skel, I think it's funny that you and people in your community get a refund if you don't like a movie. It's not like that in Ohio. From a business perspective, the idea of that seems absurd to me. Here, watching a movie is like the lottery - it may be a winner or a loser, but either way, you don't get your ticket price back. Spending money on a movie is taking a chance on whether you will like it or not - there is no way to know for sure until you watch it.

Now if there was some technical problem with the presentation and that caused you to miss part of the movie, I can understand maybe asking for a refund for that. I'm a big movie buff and that has only ever happened to me twice, once in 86 and once in 97 (very minor). I didn't bother asking for refunds, but I did voice a complaint in 86 because the screen went black during the dramatic ending of the movie. And I also complained to the management about the mothers that just had to bring their noisy babies to Spider-Man. What selfish inconsiderate idiots! But even then I didn't ask for a refund. Maybe I should of.

But a refund for simply not liking a movie when you had no way of knowing that until after you already agreed to spend money on it? Maybe you do live in another cosm. :cool:
In Rochester it is still deemed good business practice to keep customers happy.
So if a person comes charging back out before the halfway mark demanding a refund, they actually get a refund.
Easier than getting someone with a vendetta and a whole lot of friends to pull a boycott, which did happen up here in the 1970s.
After 3 months of empty seats, they made a big show of presenting rules for receiving refunds -- right ahead of a city ordinance making it illegal not to.
It happens rarely but when it really becomes an issue -- suffice to say, they also get rid of those films damn quick.

[BigKyle]

Easy.

The Postman, with Kevin Costner.
The only movie that, while it played on TV, I stood up, walked to the kitchen and actually cleaned the dishes.