There are a lot of movies out there with great pacing - and it usualy means it was well-directed and edited, and that in turn means the actors generally played well. I’m think about:
The Fifth Element: its not everyone’s cup of tea (and its a little corny at times) but there’s a lot of wierdly situational humor goin on all the time, while the beat of the flick never lets up. Something’s always happening.
The Princess Bride: Slower pacing, but just as good and more accessible. The interruptions with grandpa kept the flavor of the book intact while also giving periodic kicks to the audience.
I was pleasantly surprised by the pacing of The Bourne Identity. It could have easily been much less enjoyable than it was, just another forgettable action movie. The quality of the movie hinged on the pacing, and the director didn’t miss a beat.
My friends and I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade last week for the first time in a long time.
One of the things that all of us agreed on after watching was that it was brilliantly paced. Everything just seemed to go at the correct speed.
Highly impressed.
On the flip side I would agree that LOTR has awful pacing, on second viewings i found all three of the movies to be incredibly boring in parts.
Spiderman one was good until about two-thirds in. The last third was kinda boring, but I suppose you can’t blame them as they had to change it because of 9/11.
exactly, and they had to top it off with the repetitive fade in fade out endings. Aliens. despite the lengthy buildup it never feels long, even after watching several times.
Twelve Monkeys. I’m not bored for a minute of that movie. There’s always something happening, and the constant switching between times and storylines keeps it really interesting. One of my favorite movies.
I also thought Being John Malkovich was well-paced, though I know some people who disagree.
That was my pick. It’s still my pick for the best action/suspense movie ever, because it was just so perfectly paced. I go back and watch it again and again, and every time it still works when it’s supposed to work, and I still get tense at all the right moments, even though I already know what’s going to happen. The tension just builds and builds, and they throw in complications at exactly the right times.
And the interesting part to me: when I got the DVD, I watched a couple of the deleted scenes and was even more impressed. They were well-done, well thought out, and actually added quite a bit to explain the storyline, give background to the characters, and further the whole Alien “mythology.” But they messed with the pacing, so they were removed. And I wouldn’t even call myself a fan of James Cameron’s; he just happens to have made one of my favorite movies of all time.
The Day Of The Jackal - the original, not the awful Bruce Willis/Richard Gere re-make: tight as hell and runs like a Swiss watch; not a single wasted line or scene. Utterly compelling in its depiction of the Jackal - both attractive in his cool professionalism and utterly repellent in his cold ruthlessness - and in the relentless build-up to the “hit”: half of you wants him to succeed, the other half is screaming “For Christ’s sake, catch him!” One of my all-time favourite movies.