Pete Davidson Knows The Value Of A Good, Short Movie In This Relatable SNL Rap
Pete Davidson and "Saturday Night Live" know what the people want: movies under two hours. While some directors are allowed to go as long as they want (lookin' at you, Martin Scorsese), many big tentpole films have just gotten ridiculously overlong.
Three-hour long epics used to be somewhat rare occurrences, but now loads of movies are clocking in around three hours. Even "The Batman" is 175 minutes long, just five minutes short of the three hour mark. Big, complicated, long epics can be fun in small doses, but sometimes people just want to tune out for an hour and a half.
Enter "Short-Ass Movies," the latest SNL musical skit to riff on pop-culture while getting stuck in our heads. In it, Davidson and some of his "SNL" buddies (Gunna, Simon Rex, and Chris Redd) list off some of their favorite 90-minute films and their reasons for wanting more "short-ass movies."
No one wants a numb bum
Cinephiles love a long-ass movie, but not everyone has the patience to sit through three or four hours of entertainment straight. Even binging a series has some built-in breaks for episode changes, and there are moments to run to the bathroom or grab a snack. In the skit, Davidson is about to hit play on Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" when he notices that it's 3 hours and 47 minutes long. Is it a great film? Obviously. Does everyone have the time, energy, and patience to devote to it? Heck no.
What's great about the movies the guys list is their variety. Everything from "Driving Miss Daisy" to "Good Time" makes the cut, because they're all under two hours. Davidson also points out that "Sex and the City 2" is longer than "Jurassic Park," which is pretty wild when you compare the amount of story told in each. Just as he's making fun of the longer films, however, someone points out that Davidson's "The King of Staten Island" is 2 hours and 16 minutes, and Davidson defends the film by saying they needed every one of those minutes. How long is too long is always going to be subjective, but this little ditty is a fun way to complain about the films that have left us with a numb butt and stiff limbs.
There's also a great moment recollecting all of the "Ernest" films, even the shockingly tasteless "Ernest Goes to Africa," which director James Gunn once claimed is the weirdest thing one could ever find in the Batcave. In the video they mention how concerning the poster is, and that's honestly the least of their worries, given that Ernest does blackface! So maybe don't add that one to your 90-minute movie list, for everyone's sake.