So I'm sure by now you've already heard that Meet Joe Black clocks in at an unmentionable three hours or so. What is the world coming to right? Well, you can bitch and moan all you want, and talk about how the movie's box office performance is evidence that Martin Brest made a pretty big mistake, but I've got one question for you: Why not?

We go to the movies to enjoy ourselves, and who's to say that if we are having fun, it should only last for one hour and 40 minutes and then we're out of there. Do we really have so many better things to do? If I'm watching a movie I enjoy, I don't even really want it to end, just maybe give me a fifteen minute bathroom break and I'm good.

Having said that, I'm not going to argue with the fact that it's got to be a pretty good movie to sit through for three hours. But the common conception that it has to be a pretty important movie, a Schindler's List, Braveheart or Saving Private Ryan, well that's nonsense. So Meet Joe Black is never going to win Best Picture. It's fun. I liked it. Anthony Hopkins is always great. Newcomer Claire Forlani transfixes your gaze when she's on the screen, and Brad Pitt's portrayal of Death himself is interesting to say the least (and you've got to see his Carribean accent). Brest got me hooked, and the whole time, even when the movie does drag a bit, the supernatural element provides something to keep your mind busy if the action on the screen can't keep our modern attention spans interested.

So I for one say let the filmmakers make their epics if they think they've got something worth holding us in our seats. Maybe The Postman was a huge debacle. Do you really think it would have been any better if it had clocked in at 105 minutes?

Go Joe!