10 Movies That Would Be Outstanding If They Weren't So Long

8. This Is 40

Length: 134 mins Judd Apatow has a knack for capturing the more unfortunate nuances of post-modern life with good-natured, slightly sophomoric humor. And he's rather adept at writing for the male and female perspective, which is a characteristic not often found in Hollywood. One thing Apatow is not so good at, though, is writing acceptably-sized comedies. His worst offender, by far, is This Is 40, the "spiritual sequel" to Knocked Up. Though it's intent is to depict the day-to-day grind of married life--and accomplishes this thanks to some hilarious scenes that may or may not feature his real-life spouse on the toilet--there comes a point where upending the worst aspects of having a family just isn't funny anymore. And that happens about half an hour in. If Apatow wanted to release a drama, he needed to cut out the half hour of his usual dick and fart jokes. If he wanted to fulfill this movie's genre tag of comedy, he needed to cut out at least half an hour of meandering self-loathing. It's just too much. There's a wickedly funny movie hiding in the belly of This Is 40. It just needs a laxative to clear out some of the excess clogging everything up.