MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Name good movies that are under 2 hours....

Name good movies that are under 2 hours.

posted 3 days ago by M1sterDoct0r (4530)
21 replies | jump to latest

A movie is good when you don't even notice the run time or you don't keep checking the time every 10 minutes.

We live in the age of long run times. In film & television. Some use the runtime well & others are unnecessarily bloated.

So let's pay tribute to films that tell a complete story under 2 hours. No director's or extended cut necessary.

Here are a few from the top of my head:

1. Get Shorty (1995) 1hr 45mins - Watched it recently. Fantastic film.

2. Usual Suspects (1995) 1hr 46mins - Recommended it to my lil bro & he loved it!

3. Children of Men (2006) 1hr 49mins - Watched it without knowing anything about it. Blew me away.

[–] Stratego (31059) 3 days ago

I actually wanted to name The Usual Suspects as well! I'll just go with Reservoir Dogs instead.

[–] M1sterDoct0r (4530) 3 days ago

Rewatched Reservoir Dogs like 2 years ago & was genuinely surprised it's a 90min movie.

Excellent movie. Uses the low budget really really well.

[–] samoanjoes (58529) 3 days ago

I'll go even further and give you movies less than 1hr 30mins.

Run Lola Run (1998) 1hr 21 mins
Toy Story (1995) 1hr 21mins
This is Spinal Tap (1984) 1hr 22 mins
Zombieland (2009) 1hr 28 mins
Frankenstein (1931) 1hr 11 mins
Phone Booth (2002) 1hr 21 mins
High Noon (1952) 1hr 25mins

[–] M1sterDoct0r (4530) 3 days ago

Wow, Phone Booth is that short?! Damn. Really good thriller though.

Also, Zombieland is a perfect example of a movie that uses its runtime really well.

[–] Rockman4 (1722) 3 days ago

In Bruges (2008)
Wind River (2017)
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
Predator (1987)

All four movies are 1hr 47mins

[–] M1sterDoct0r (4530) 3 days ago

All excellent films.

[–] fourlemons (3554) 2 days ago

The Trip to Bountiful

[–] StoneKeeper (28287) 2 days ago

I just finished watching Zombi 2 and when I saw there was only 20 minutes left I was flabbergasted by how fast it went by!

[–] M1sterDoct0r (4530) 2 days ago

Same thing happened with me recently watching Get Shorty.

The whole thing ran for an hour, 40mins, without credits and the run time flew by.

[–] Nanook (2046) 2 days ago

Gotta use the samoanjoes method here; 90 minutes is a bit less head spinning. Of yours, Children of Men is my favorite. IIRC, I first saw that blind as well, and have revisited it many times since.

All 9/10+ for me:

The Iron Giant (1999)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Rashomon (1950)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
Ernest & Celestine (2012) - prefer the French version, but the English cast is pretty stacked

[edit] And some more gnarly ones for my fellow horror fans:

Maniac (2012)
Inside (2007)
The Living and the Dead (2006)

[–] JoWilli (21559) 2 days ago

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo - 1h 23m

[–] MaximRecoil (4836) 2 days ago

That's an overly broad category. From the dawn of movie making until about the 21st century, the average runtime of a movie was less than 2 hours. There must be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of movies in that category. I have 143 movies on my hard drive and another 64 movies on Blu-ray, and almost all of them are under 2 hours.