No, movies aren't "becoming long nowadays", your attention span just sucks.

When I say a movie is too long, I generally mean it has editing issues: often there's stuff in it that could've been cut without losing much value, other times it has accumulating pacing issues across its runtime.

What I don't ever mean is X number of minutes is too long for a movie to be. Satantango, for example, isn't 'too long'.

So I think I'm agreeing with you. However, I do enjoy a good 90 minute (or less) movie. I do like the old Roger Corman philosophy of 'get in and get out as quickly as you can'... because it leads to good editing discipline.

You're talking to the wrong person:) I fast forward through the credits, I'm so impatient. However, I don't used my phone for anything other than calling people.

Sorry, your rant was too long. I zoned out.

I got through like 3 sentences

Which is why we should have metal in the walls of theatres to jam the cellphone signals. Too many people can't handle watching a simple movie without reaching for their phone.

dramas seemed longer today. horror and slashers movies seem to be the same.

i have no idea what the actual stats are. generally speaking, when i watch older films on criterion, they're short and pacey and efficient. there certainly were lots of long epics in the early days. and maybe this is my own selection bias in what i choose to watch from older films, but in my experience it's very rare for the standard dramas of the 30s/40s/50s to exceed two hours, and most of them hewed closer to 90 minutes.

if you look at modern indie films, most of them are that time as well. your standard mumblecore no-budget indie is gonna generally clock in at 80-90 minutes, which is my sweet spot. but for major studio releases? they're all needlessly long. far far far too long. i've been in the theatres 23 times this year, and even with my own bias to shorter films, almost all of them have been 2+ hours. & there's just no need for that.

has my attention span been eroded? maybe. but i prefer to phrase it this way: i have lost my tolerance in middle age for things that waste my time. i've read far too many books that were needlessly padded, far too many books that should have been magazine articles, too many magazine articles that should have been half the length.

and i've seen far too many senselessly long movies.

brevity is a gift to the world.

i don't appreciate it when someone takes too long to make a simple point. i don't want that out of movies either.

keep it short is always a good life strategy. apply it to your emails. apply it to your message board posts. and apply it to your movies.

short short short short short.

Movie theaters used to show two movies, a featurette and cartoon. The average movie was shorter at that time.

A boring movie is going to be difficult to watch. Today, movies rely on "action scenes" which aren't as interesting as the director believes. I watched Titanic, Gone with the Wind and The Ten Commandments in the theater with no problem. All of them needed an intermission. Good storytelling isn’t boring.