The difference between a masterpiece and a near-masterpiece can be as small as twenty minutes. Some of the most celebrated movies of all time run between 150 and 180 minutes, which is long enough to deliver scope and spectacle, but also long enough to test our patience. These aren’t bad movies. In fact, they’re brilliant. But brilliance doesn’t always equal discipline. When a movie lingers on repetition, stretches its finale, or indulges in side quests, the result is a story that feels… almost perfect.
This list focuses on that tricky runtime. Two hours is usually the sweet spot for narrative perfection, and yet, once filmmakers push past that, it feels like indulgence. The extra twenty minutes often come from scenes that reiterate what we already know, or codas that overstay their welcome. Trim them, and suddenly the same movie feels more urgent and more satisfying.
We’re not including true epics that earn their long runtimes (like Lawrence of Arabia or The Godfather Part II). The spotlight here is on movies that are already great, but would arguably be stronger if they had shown a little restraint. These 12 movies prove that sometimes less really is more.
12
‘Boogie Nights’ (1997)
Runtime: 155 minutes
Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakout epic charts the rise and wobble of Eddie Adams a.k.a. Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) in the late ’70s San Fernando Valley adult film scene, and for its first two hours, the movie sweeps us through it all with the confidence of a filmmaker showing off without apology. Shot in relentless long takes and propelled by an era-defining soundtrack, the movie is generous, funny, and a little tragic.
Boogie Nights is essentially a portrait of commerce, community, and performance, but where it overextends its runtime is the middle. Dirk’s confidence curdling into insecurity is already established. So tightening the drug‑deal interludes and recording‑studio gags where Dirk and Reed cut their hopeless tracks would make the contrast between the “family” peak and the come-down more effective without losing any of the thematic weight.
11
‘King Kong’ (2005)
Runtime: 160 minutes
Peter Jackson’s remake of the classic King Kong is both sincere and spectacular. It’s more than a monster movie. It’s a love letter to old Hollywood adventure cinema. Depression-era New York, the voyage to Skull Island, and a doomed beauty-and-beast connection between Naomi Watts’ luminous Ann Darrow and Kong. What more could we ask for? The movie’s heart lies in Ann and Kong’s silent rapport, which is why it’s easy to forgive how thoroughly Jackson indulges his world-building.
Still, King Kong is the definition of “near perfect, but 20–30 minutes too long.” It doesn’t need so many encounters to make its point. The voyage eats time, and the Skull Island section, in particular, stacks creature set pieces back-to-back. The brontosaurus stampede and the insect pit detour are thrilling individually, but repetitive in aggregate. Trimming even one or two of these sequences would preserve the sense of danger and make the final New York tragedy more inevitable.
10
‘The Insider’ (1999)
Runtime: 157 minutes
Slow and clean, Michael Mann’s gripping, meticulously crafted corporate-procedural follows former Brown & Williamson chemist Jeffrey Wigand as he exposes tobacco industry fraud with help from 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman. It’s a movie about ethics told under the fluorescent lights of boardrooms and parking garages, rendered with Mann’s blues and insanely good sound design. The drama is cerebral, but the phone calls and memos really hook you.
Of course, Russell Crowe’s Wigand and Pacino’s Bergman embody their characters best. But where the length shows is when the movie documents repeated roadblocks in the second act. While the behind-the-scenes CBS politics are fascinating, certain boardroom discussions and legal-strategy loops circle the same moral conflict without escalating it. The Insider is already an excellent movie, just slightly more exhausting than it needs to be.
9
‘The Departed’ (2006)
Runtime: 151 minutes
Few crime movies announce themselves with as much confidence as The Departed. Martin Scorsese wastes no time in plunging audiences into a Boston where an undercover cop burrows into Frank Costello’s crew, while a mob plant rises inside the state police. The movie thrives on the duality of Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon’s parallel lives and fraying nerves. Jack Nicholson’s unhinged presence as Frank Costello looms over everything, turning even casual scenes into threats.
The Departed’s popularity was immediate and lasting. It earned Scorsese his long-awaited Best Director Oscar, and it still plays like a greatest-hits mixtape of his gangster obsessions thanks to its sharp dialogue and sudden violence. At 151 minutes, it is rarely dull. But it does get a little longer in its surveillance mechanics. Multiple scenes portray the same cat-and-mouse exchanges (who knows what, who is being watched), so tightening a few of these loops would make the final act feel nastier and even more breathless.
8
‘Lincoln’ (2012)
Runtime: 150 minutes
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln turns the passage of the 13th Amendment into a human drama of pressure and principle. Daniel Day‑Lewis disappears into the character with uncanny physicality. His voice was a gentle rasp, his stories disarming, his resolve granite. Much of the movie unfolds through conversations like cabinet debates, backroom bargaining, and domestic moments, which is how it’s earned a reputation as an intelligent, lived-in historical drama.
Lincoln is one of Spielberg’s most mature works, but it also lingers. Several vote-counting sequences run long, with repeated variations of the same persuasion tactics and the same uncertainty without adding new emotional or strategic insight. The closing elegy (including the flame dissolve) over‑explain a legacy that the final vote has already sealed, so a sharper edit turns the procedural into a tighter moral thriller.
7
‘Dances with Wolves’ (1990)
Runtime: 161 minutes
There is a patient, almost defiant calm to Dancing with Wolves, a movie that asks us to slow down and meet it on its own expansive terms. Kevin Costner’s western is both a Best Picture winner and a cultural masterpiece. It follows Lt. John J. Dunbar towards self-redefinition, as he discovers the frontier and unlearns everything he thought civilization meant. His tentative connection with Kicking Bird, the romance with Stands With A Fist, and the buffalo hunt build a portrait of trust and belonging.
Costner, directing and starring, favors long takes and environmental detail. He lets silence, wind, and horizon do narrative work. It is generous and earnest, and for many viewers, that generosity lands. But generosity sometimes invites overreach. Frontier routines like Timmons’ trek, fort inventory, and extended journal entries run past the point of establishing Dunbar’s perspectives. Tightening the Fort Sedgewick stretch could keep things vivid while preserving their intent.
6
‘Interstellar’ (2014)
Runtime: 169 minutes
Interstellar is a space epic, but it does not open like one. Christopher Nolan grounds most of his cosmic film in dust, farms, and despair before launching it towards wormholes and black holes, and it’s that emotional tether (anchored by Matthew McConaughey’s phenomenal turn as Cooper) that keeps the movie so beloved. The science-forward ambition, boosted by Kip Thorne’s involvement, Hans Zimmer’s organ‑heavy score, and Hoyte van Hoytema’s sweeping cinematography, only makes the journey grander.
The docking sequence remains one of Nolan’s most breathtaking achievements. Few movies aim this big and still feel this intimate. But where Interstellar starts to strain is in how many ideas it insists on carrying to the finish line. The third act piles emotional payoff, theoretical physics, and metaphysical explanation into a stretch that asks audiences to feel and calculate at the same time. If certain expositions were trimmed, the film’s core would breathe more naturally.
5
‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ (2008)
Runtime: 166 minutes
David Fincher’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story plays out like a memory, but you’re not sure if it belongs to you. It centers on Brad Pitt’s Benjamin, who is less a traditional protagonist and more a vessel for time itself, as he ages backwards from infant to elder, moving through decades of American life with tender grace. Cate Blanchett’s Daisy is the romantic interest who brings warmth and regret to a love story defined by misalignment.
The movie is a technical marvel, complete with Pitt’s digital de‑aging, Claudio Miranda’s cinematography, and Alexandre Desplat’s score. Fincher’s usual precision is wrapped in period detail and a reflective tone that earned it critical acclaim and multiple Oscar wins. But overall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a movie people remember less for the plot and more for how it feels to sit with. And that reflective quality (in the hospital framing device, the tugboat interlude, and the romance) is also where the film runs long.
4
‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016)
Runtime: 151 minutes
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice arrived with the weight of expectation. Zack Snyder’s crossover event frames superheroes as symbols that people fear, project onto, and weaponize. Ben Affleck’s weary, brutal Batman, introduced through the rubble of Metropolis, meets Henry Cavill’s earnest, heavily scrutinized Superman in a movie that’s obsessed with its own image and accountability.
Jesse Eisenberg’s jittery Lex Luthor is the provocation, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman arrives mid-movie, the warehouse fight is a bone‑crunching showstopper, and the Hans Zimmer/Junkie XL score is thunderous. Polarizing? Definitely. But time has been kind to its ambition. What holds it back isn’t ambition, but the fact that it juggles political allegory, personal vendettas, franchise setup, and myth-building all at once, when not every thread needs the same amount of time.
3
‘West Side Story’ (2021)
Runtime: 156 minutes
Another Spielberg entry on the list is this electrifying adaptation of the classic Broadway musical. The good news is, 2021’s West Side Story feels lived-in and current without losing the musical’s bones. It’s not interested in reinventing the original, but more focused on restoring its urgency. The familiar Romeo-and-Juliet narrative is still there, but from the opening prologue that turns city planning into a silent war to the way the Jets and Sharks are rooted in a specific, vanishing New York, the movie feels grounded.
The song “America” pops with street‑corner electricity, and even the camera seems to dance. Rachel Zegler’s Maria brings natural warmth, and Ariana DeBose’s Anita becomes the emotional engine. Where it stretches is the repetition and placement. The musical numbers and transitional scenes are staged with reverence, but they play for long enough to steal energy from the build towards the upcoming tragedy. A leaner cut could sharpen the impact, let the heartbreak hit faster, and leave a stronger aftertaste.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
