12 Modern Movie Gems Under 90 Minutes

By Jacob Trowbridge / December 3, 2015

"Brevity is the soul of wit." A famous guy named Bill said that once. It turns out he was a pretty smart, because modern entertainment has proven his theory to be true time and time again. Any time a filmmaker is able to trim the fat and deliver a concise, tightly-crafted bit of movie magic, it's all the more impressive. Sure, three-plus hour epics have their place in cinema, too, but given how overblown and excessive movie runtimes have become lately (Chris Nolan's Memento was a crisp 113 minutes, while The Dark Knight Rises was 164 minutes and not any better for it), a short, well-edited feature film is a real godsend. For our purposes, a "modern" movie equates to anything released after 1980. In order to qualify, the film also has to clock in at less than 90 minutes. The number of minutes must not be 90 or 91. 92 minutes is right out. Also, we'll rule out any cartoon movies, because those are aimed primarily at children who obviously wouldn't sit through a three hour movie about a talking ogre, even if he does speak in a Scottish accent. To honour the brevity of these movies, the descriptions will be kept equally brief...

12. Ace Ventura

Runtime: 86 minutes Some of the snootier film critics among us will be quick to disregard Ace Ventura as an iconic comedy on the grounds that it's too manic, hyperbolic, and obnoxious. In response to such dastardly accusations I simply suggest this: "Warning! Assholes are closer than they appear." Because one of these critics might even be someone you've long considered a friend. Ace Ventura is a prime example of how glorious his brand of slapstick could be when packed into small doses. At a mere 86 minutes, his goofy antics and facial acrobatics don't have the opportunity to stretch themselves too thin. Honestly, the only reason I'd want to risk ruining the brief magic that is Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is to extend the scene in which Jim Carrey cases a mental institution by posing as a mentally unstable man in a tutu who loves to play football. That could go on for another 25 minutes and I wouldn't mind one bit.