10 Movies That Should’ve Ended 5 Minutes Earlier
These films, from classics like Superman to Nic Cage's finest garbage, all last a bit too long.
There are hundreds of films, good and bad alike, that really just could’ve done with knowing when to stop. Now it’s not even that these films are hours and hours long, just that sometimes those last few scenes really can feel like a lifetime of pain.
A key part of film-making is knowing when to make that crucial final cut! Unfortunately for us, there are too many movies out there that didn’t get the memo.
From dragging out boring finales to introducing ridiculous concepts far too late, films that end on a bad note often mean their good parts are forgotten instantly.
If you leave a sour taste in the audience’s mouth, you ruin the chances of a sequel being enjoyed or the original earning a rewatch. It really can be the most disappointing thing for an otherwise ok movie to end with an absolutely rubbish conclusion.
Whilst some of these may be controversial, there’s definitely enough discourse out there to prove that perhaps these film-makers shouldn’t have just hit snooze for five more minutes. Here are 10 movies that really should’ve just called it a few minutes quicker…
10. Psycho
This list would be remiss to not include such a famous movie- especially when it also includes one of the most condemning pieces of criticism Hitchcock managed to gain.
At the end of this beloved, classic film, there is one scene so heinous that one critic named it "arguably Hitchcock's worst scene."
Right toward the end we are forced to sit through several minutes of the psychiatrist telling us, in depth, what is wrong with Norman Bates.
Screenwriter Norman Stephano explained that this scene was there in all its expositional glory to make sure audiences understood Bates correctly, and didn't attribute his criminality to the wrong things.
Fair play, Norm- but did you have to make it quite so boring?
With the explanation in mind that audiences at the time wouldn't understand what Hitchcock was going for, the scene feels a little more acceptable. However, this doesn't take away from the fact that the ending would've been much punchier and more impactful if we'd skipped the psychoanalysis and gone straight to seeing Bates, sat in a white room, wrapped in a blanket and completely consumed by his Mother personality.