# Starting off slowly: movies that paid to stick with, and those that didn't
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 18, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376 "2012-12-18T00:14:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/1 "2012-12-18T00:14:11Z")
What “slowly” is is of course subjective, but I’m curious about movies you thought started off slowly and made you glad that you kept watching, and those that you considered an all around waste of time. Specific spoilers in boxes, please.
Anyway, I’m asking because I watched one of the latter today: **Lovely Molly**. I should have bailed after the slow start…just gave up on **The Eclipse** right now, though maybe I’ll go back to it someday.
Which ones stick in your mind?
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/2 "2012-12-18T01:58:27Z")
After the first hour of Blue Velvet I started skimming to see if anything was going to happen. All that did was the end credits.
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### Author:  [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/3 "2012-12-18T02:09:36Z")
\*Solaris \*is the slowest movie that ever flowed uphill in January, but if you are prepared for that, and for the fact that it’s kind of cinematic poetry, rather than plot-resolution-driven storytelling, it’s worth watching.
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### Author:  [@hamwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hamwater)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/4 "2012-12-18T02:19:29Z")
_Life as a House_. I watched it because I was sick and didn’t have the energy to turn the channel. I had never even heard of it but it turned out to be a great movie.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/5 "2012-12-18T02:24:21Z")
I haven’t watched _The Following_ in years, but I watched it enough times in college that I know when I recommend it to someone I tell them that it’s slow and they really have to stick with it for a big payoff at the end.
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### Author:  [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/6 "2012-12-18T02:54:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Solaris is the slowest movie that ever flowed uphill in January, but if you are prepared for that, and for the fact that it’s kind of cinematic poetry, rather than plot-resolution-driven storytelling, it’s worth watching.
Much of Tarkovsky is like that. You definitely have to be in the right frame of mind to watch films like Solaris, Stalker and The Sacrifice. They’re quite worthy if you’re in that zone but if not…zzzzzz…
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/7 "2012-12-18T02:56:12Z")
Into Great Silence is one of the very slowest, yet most thoroughly rewarding films I’ve ever watched.
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### Author:  [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/8 "2012-12-18T02:57:09Z")
Disagree on Blue Velvet - I found it mesmerizing. Surreal and dream-like, but not really slow.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/9 "2012-12-18T03:02:47Z")
The house of the devil started slow and got better.
Avatar was terrible all around.
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### Author:  [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/10 "2012-12-18T03:43:54Z")
> [@stegon66](#):
>
> Disagree on Blue Velvet - I found it mesmerizing. Surreal and dream-like, but not really slow.
Yes, _Blue Velvet_ is one of my favorite movies. I’ve probably watched it at least 25 times.
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/11 "2012-12-18T03:50:03Z")
Adaptation bored the hell out of me at first, but it became watchable then good.
Eyes wide shut, however, landed in suck town and bought a condo.
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### Author:  [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/12 "2012-12-18T06:38:23Z")
_Barton Fink_ starts out slowly and steadily getting weirder, but there’s no decent payoff. It’s just, “Yeah, it guess it would be this weird by now.”.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/13 "2012-12-18T15:21:28Z")
_The Full Monty_ was hideoously slow and boring until the part at the end when I cheered.
_Gallipoli_ was pretty slow until the end too.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/14 "2012-12-18T15:31:16Z")
> [@stegon66](#):
>
> Disagree on Blue Velvet - I found it mesmerizing. Surreal and dream-like, but not really slow.
Blue Velvet was worth watching to the end. But on the other hand, I thought Eraserhead started off slow, ended slow, and had no pay-off.
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### Author:  [@Time\_Stranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Time_Stranger)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/15 "2012-12-18T15:43:17Z")
I thought _The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford_ was excruciatingly slow. Then it ended and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and in retrospect I really love it. So I’m glad I kept with it, but it was tough (and I know in general it seems to be really well regarded).
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### Author:  [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/16 "2012-12-18T20:44:04Z")
> [@stegon66](#):
>
> Much of Tarkovsky is like that. You definitely have to be in the right frame of mind to watch films like Solaris, Stalker and The Sacrifice. They’re quite worthy if you’re in that zone but if not…zzzzzz…
Yes, and Tarkovsky’s _Nosthalgia_ as well.
I vividly remember Vincent Canby’s review of the latter in the NYTs: “Nothing happens.”
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/17 "2012-12-18T20:49:05Z")
[The Prime Gig](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223954/) is slow, but worth the wait.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/18 "2012-12-18T21:22:06Z")
> [@stegon66](#):
>
> Much of Tarkovsky is like that. You definitely have to be in the right frame of mind to watch films like Solaris, Stalker and The Sacrifice. They’re quite worthy if you’re in that zone but if not…zzzzzz…
Yep I always say Stalker needs to be watched at night, possibly with intoxicants.
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### Author:  [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/19 "2012-12-18T22:38:36Z")
_Seven Samurai_ is very slow to get going but it might be the best movie ever made. I find the slow initial pace to be hypnotic, like many other Kurosawa movies.
> **[Seven Samurai (1954) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047478/)**
>
> Seven Samurai: Directed by Akira Kurosawa. With Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki. Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-off-slowly-movies-that-paid-to-stick-with-and-those-that-didnt/644376/20 "2012-12-18T22:43:36Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#):
>
> _Barton Fink_ starts out slowly and steadily getting weirder, but there’s no decent payoff. It’s just, “Yeah, it guess it would be this weird by now.”.
I just watched that last week and I agree. I never got quite tired enough of it to shut it off, but there was no take-away from it for me other than “that was a couple hours of weird cinema.”
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