Comedy Movies Are Too Long

I am tired of comedy movies that clock in longer than 2 hours.

(Cue old codger voice.) I remember when a comedy was 90 minutes and a drama was 2 hours. Occasionally, dramas were longer, but 2 hours was the norm. (Old codger voice ends.)

The Judd Apatow movies started the trend, but other comedies seem to have jumped on the bloated runtime bandwagon.

Directors, you don’t have to give every one of your friends a character in every movie.

Knocked Up would have been so much better without the roommates. I love Jason Segel and Jonah Hill as much as the next girl, but the pinkeye scene was useless. The beard bet, also useless. The weird “I’m sad that you’re too old to get into the bar” rant, beyond useless.

Dodgeball would have been tighter without the “Ben Stiller’s character used to be fat” diversions. It was a good bit of backstory, and it’s initial use in the film was important to developing the character. But the fat suit crap at the end? Not needed.

Perhaps these writers and directors need to learn a little something from novelists: You don’t need to include every bit of backstory in the pages. Write the backstory and use it to guide your character’s decisions. But don’t bog your story down with unneeded diversions from the mail plot or the important subplots.

Learn to edit and tighten to make your piece stronger as a whole. Let viewers see the deleted scenes as separate entities on the DVD. The different versions of the “You know how I know you’re gay” bit from The 40-Year Old Virgin? Priceless as added features. Speaking of 40-Year-Old Virgin, though, never cut scenes involving Jane Lynch. She is comedy gold.

Your turn to weigh in. Do you think movies have gotten to be bloated, self-indulgent crapfests? Or, do you like the added characters and subplots in your comedies?

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