Posted by Howard Beale at spider-wn014.proxy.aol.com on February 13, 2000 at 04:32:21:
In Reply to: Kevin....comedy movie length? posted by the new guy on February 13, 2000 at 03:44:13:
: I just happened to be watching the Clerks laser recently, and I noticed your quote " a comedy needs to be 90 to 100 minutes" in length.
: It didn't strike me when I first watched it, but now after Dogma (2hours +) I was wondering if your views have changed?
: Obviously they have a bit, but why now did you make a comedy that was more than 100 mins.?
DOGMA attempts more than comedy, and therefore, has an extended length.
In general, as far as comedies are concerned, unless you're particularly brilliant and innovative, it's a good idea to keep it short...hence, it'll be consistently funny, as opposed to intermittently funny. Also, a lot of comedies will recycle jokes (which is okay to do) or use similar situations for comic mileage...that works in a 90 minute movie, but in a two hour movie, an audience is going to be sick of it...and generally, comedies are more about audience than about art.