Watching movies can sometimes feel like hard work. Whether it's because something's long, relentlessly paced, filled with numerous characters and subplots, emotionally intense, or all of the above, some movies are a bit tough to watch. Of course, this isn't always a bad thing. Some of the most rewarding films out there require a lot of time and emotional investment from their viewers.
Select titles all fall into that camp for one reason or another. All are great movies, but thanks to their long duration or maximalist style, they may prove exhausting to some viewers. When watching one of them, an intermission may be needed, or at the very least, some viewers may choose to sit down to watch them with a couple of caffeinated beverages.
1 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)
In a manner that befits its title, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie that throws a variety of genres and alternate universes at its viewers while daring them to keep up. What starts as a family dramedy about a woman trying to complete her taxes balloons into a dimension-hopping, mind-expanding science-fiction/action/adventure/comedy about preventing the collapse of the universe and time itself.
Truth be told, it's not too hard to follow once the film establishes its rules and world(s), but it still crams a great deal into its 140-minute runtime. Few movies have ever attempted such an ambitious premise at such a fast pace and with a relatively modest budget, making Everything Everywhere All at Once an experience that's equal parts exhilarating and exhausting.
2 'Scarface' (1983)
Scarface is a movie about excess, from its nearly three-hour runtime to its protagonist pursuing all the wealth and power in the world. Tony Montana is his name, and he comes from nothing and soon seems to gain everything, working his way up the criminal underbelly of Miami in the 1980s.
Yet a good thing can't last in a rise-and-fall gangster movie, and when things crumble down around Tony, they crumble spectacularly. It's all presented with over-the-top violence, flashy montages, plenty of loud 1980s music, and bold, stylish visuals. It's a movie with a lot going on, but it fits the narrative and the state of mind of its flawed and endlessly power-hungry protagonist.
3 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (2022)
The long-awaited sequel to 2009's ground-breaking Avatar would always be a big movie. It had been 13 years since that film's release, so the sequel had to re-introduce viewers to Pandora, establish what had happened to the characters in the years since the first movie, and also set up new locations and characters that would enable even greater spectacle than what had already been seen.
That all contributed to Avatar: The Way of Water exceeding its predecessor's already lengthy 162-minute runtime by exactly 30 minutes, but the end product is more than worth viewers' time. With three distinct acts that all take up an hour or more, it almost feels like multiple movies in one, making it an understandably huge movie that might tire some viewers, even if they get wrapped up in the film's visuals, characters, and action sequences.
4 'Gangs of Wasseypur' (2012)
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Gangs of Wasseypur is a crime epic that's split into two parts, with both being approximately 2.5 hours long. Some may balk at the idea of a movie being five hours long, but thankfully, this is one film that earns such a runtime, telling a mammoth story that spans about 70 years and three different generations revolving around a violent conflict between two gangs in the Indian city of Dhanbad.
Its scope, ambition, and relentless pace make it one of the best crime movies of the 2010s, and it's a rewarding watch for anyone who has the time to get invested in it. Packed with interesting characters, shocking twists, action, and a story that doesn't stop surging forward for even a second, it's a breathless and exciting movie that's essential viewing for fans of gangster movies.
5 'Casino' (1995)
Even though Casino clocks in at just under three hours, and therefore 30 minutes shorter than Martin Scorsese's longest film, The Irishman, it's probably more exhausting. The Irishman isn't a slow film necessarily, but it has a slightly gentler pace befitting its older characters and generally downbeat story.
Casino, on the other hand, takes the dynamic editing and brutal violence of Goodfellas (1990) and dials each up to 11. It's a fantastically made crime epic about the way the mob used to run Las Vegas by being in control of its various lucrative casinos, but the breakneck pace and constant brutality do eventually become exhausting to watch. Some may see this as a feature rather than a bug; it probably depends on the viewer.
6 'RRR' (2022)
It's hard to imagine an action movie getting much more epic and over-the-top than RRR. It clocks in at just over three hours, features large-scale action scenes filled with stunning special effects, and tells a sweeping story about two historical figures meeting and rebelling against British colonial forces in India during the 1920s.
The first action scene features one of the main characters battling a small army and winning, and things only get wilder from there. Eventually, there are large-scale fights featuring (thankfully CGI) animals getting thrown at the bad guys and another action sequence featuring one main character firing guns while riding on the shoulders of the other. There's also a dance-off scene that must be seen to be believed. It's bombastic and entertaining from start to finish and tiring in the best way possible.
7 'Babylon' (2022)
A movie that was as wildly misunderstood as it was just plain wild, Babylon was a three-hour-long condemnation of the film industry and a love letter to cinema as an art form. It features numerous characters tied to the silent film industry in the 1920s who then have to deal with the advent of the talking picture and how it reshaped the industry in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
It's a movie with a tone that's all over the place, featuring plenty of gross-out humor alongside a good deal of disturbing content and genuine tragedies. It's long, loud, and exhausting, but it's to the film's benefit, as it all adds up to something unlike anything anyone's ever seen.
8 'The Raid 2' (2014)
2011's The Raid was a fairly simple (yet satisfying) action movie. It was gritty, down-to-earth, and kept all its action to a single apartment building that the main character - a highly-trained SWAT officer - had to fight his way out of.
Its 2014 sequel on the other hand, was far more complex, being about 45 minutes longer than the original while featuring an intricate crime storyline, bigger action sequences, and far more locations. It throws a ton of brutal violence at its audience and is quite lengthy for an action movie, meaning that while it's immensely satisfying and frequently jaw-dropping, it's also quite a lot to take in.
9 'Elvis' (2022)
Baz Luhrmann is known for making large-scale movies with lightning-fast editing and over-the-top visual flourishes, with his 2022 film Elvis being no exception. Structurally, it might follow a recognizable music biopic formula in telling the life story of the legendary Elvis Presley, but stylistically, it stands out from the crowd.
It runs for over 2.5 hours and almost feels like a feature-length montage, continuously jumping from new scene to new scene, successfully putting viewers into the shoes of a musician whose lifestyle never seems to give them a moment's rest. It's a lot to handle for such a long runtime, but it ultimately makes Elvis one of the boldest and most memorable movies of 2022.
10 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013)
Like Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street is another Martin Scorsese movie that runs for approximately three hours and throws viewers into a wild, fast-paced criminal lifestyle. Here, the movie focuses on stockbroker and conman Jordan Belfort and how he earned a considerable fortune by swindling people and engaging in corrupt activities on Wall Street.
Belfort's lifestyle is full of excess, infidelity, drugs, and partying, and the film spares no expense in giving viewers an insight into that world. It's a movie that's likely to wear its audience out because of how full-on it is, but the movie's excessiveness serves a point and, in a way, expertly highlights the excessive tendencies and moral degradation exhibited by many of its characters.