'When in doubt, cut it out'

One maxim of post-production is "when in doubt, cut it out".

If a guy gets out of a car and walks to the front door of a house, we don't need to see him walk the whole way (slowly!). If a women in an outdoor cafe asks another woman if she'd like a cup of coffee, we don't really need to see her get up, approach the waitress, ask her to bring a cup of coffee and return to the table.

This movie reminded me of a high school term paper padded for length. (Very, very, very padded with many, many unnecessary words that weren't really needed...) No wonder so many people in these message boards say it was boring, or "5 Yawns". The movie had a few good scenes, but they kept repeating as flashbacks, to the point where they lost all of their punch.

The real giveaway was at the end, the credits. They LITERALLY crawled, as if post-production was trying to make them last as long as possible. The problem is absolutely clear. They shot WAY too little footage. They were trying to stretch the movie out by not cutting any of the crap that's normally cut. Even when they were done, they still had time to fill.

What a waste of a good looking cast. Just awful.

Radio/TV/Film students, here's a fun project for mid-term: Recut this movie to an exciting pace, using the entire movie as raw footage. How long should it actually be? 40 minutes? 20 minutes?