Movies with great pacing

Duders can you recommend me a movie? Movies with great pacing that would keep me hooked from start to finish. Examples of movies that I like are: Requiem for A Dream, the Dark Knight, Almost Famous, Inside Man and Primal among others. I don't mind awfully long or old movies as long as they keep things interesting throughout. Thanks in advance.

If you have an interest in westerns, I would suggest The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, A Fist Full of Dollars, and For a Few Dollars More.

Been on a western trip lately so that's what came up. It doesn't ever get boring to me, and the tension in some of the scenes are awesome. Especially the final showdowns at the end of the movies.

Dark City. Running Scared.

Die Hard.

13 ghosts

Pulp Fiction? 12 Monkeys? I have no idea what pacing is, just like immersion.

If you like comedies: Borat.

Action: Die Hard, V for Vendetta, The Avengers

Those are the ones that I came up with. Those have great pacing and will keep you glued to your sofa.

It's a pretty broad question... pacing can mean a lot of things to different people depending on the genre. I guess as far as action thrillers go, Taken is pretty damn tight. Also Trick r' Treat for horror movies.

House of The Devil is also the bloody master of building the perfect pacing for an old-school horror movie.

Pulp Fiction has some pretty good pacing, it's about two and a half hours but it always keeps me engaged in it.

Snatch

Inglorious Bastards, X-Men: First Class, True Lies, Terminator 1 & 2.

The Matrix, watched it a couple of nights ago and it's still amazing

Reservoir Dogs, Blow Out, Top Gun

Brick?

I wrote a long list of movies, with descriptions and all, instead of the usual namedropping, but then it got lost and I don't want to write it again. :(

A Seperation is an Iranian film of a man wrongly accused of crime and is mostly a family drama but let me tell you, the pacing in this 3 hour film is phenomenal. The movie just speeds by, so damn intense, exciting and just amazing.

Fast or slow pacing?

Alien is a great example of slow, Aliens is much faster (though still not that fast).

These are some of my favorite movies made relatively recently. They move at a good pace and kept me entertained from start to finish.

The Bank Job (2008) [Trailer]

Legend of the Shadowless Sword (2005) [Trailer]

Shinobi Heart Under Blade (2005) [Trailer]

Chocolate (2008) [Trailer]

Hanna (2011) [Trailer]

Unstoppable (2010) [Trailer]

The Hurt Locker (2009) [Trailer]

Night Watch and Day Watch but make sure to get the full versions

Michael Clayton, Up in the Air, and The American all have different and a fantastic pace to them. Or it just might be I am a sucker for George Clooney movies............

You already have way too many suggestions from people who didn't even care to add a description or a reason, so I doubt you want more.

I loved Valhalla Rising, but no one else did. Not sure if it is particularly well "paced"

@Dany: A Separation is nowhere near 3 hours long. It's a couple of minutes over 2. It's also the best movie released last year.

@Scooper said:

Snatch

The Usual Suspects

There Will be Blood

Try Children of Men. Very good.

The Rock.

@Brazooka: Agreed.

Also hit up Drive if you like a slooow burn.

If you're into horror movies that move with patience, look into Ti West. His films House of the Devil and The Innkeepers are two of my faves.

Okay, thanks for the input guys. I already watched some of the movies mentioned. I would try out the ones that I haven't watched yet.

The Elephant Man is a master class in how to pace a film.

I believe Rear Window and Alien to be the all-time lords of pacing, but I also haven't seen Vertigo.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is an excellently paced movie as well.

American Psycho.

Watched it three times in a week and it was highly enjoyable each time through.

@RedCream:

Memento, if you haven't seen it yet. It's also a movie by director Christopher Nolan, like The Dark Knight that you mentioned.

check out Run Lola Run

The Princess Bride.
 
Edit: Also, to whoever said Valhalla Rising: FUCKING LOL! The pacing in that movie is sloooooow. That movie's definitely a slow burn. For Nicholas Winding Refn, both Bronson and Drive are much livelier movies.

The 2003 remake of Dawn of the Dead is just a masterwork of great pacing so you should definitely check that out.

@Morrow I've seen that already and all I can say is that it came from a brilliant mind. All films should be as thought-provoking and stylized as that movie.

@EvilKatarn said:

American Psycho.

This guy has the right idea.

@RedCream:

What about LA Confidential?

The Dark Knight had good pacing?

I thought the David Fincher version of Girl with the dragon tattoo had great pacing. I found it really interesting for the entire 2 1/2 hours. I have no idea about the other version, but that film was great. It kinda goes nuts towards the end.

@hoossy said:

The Dark Knight had good pacing?

The Dark Knight was the only flick that occurred to me when I saw the title. I thought about it right after I left the cinema. What is it that makes the film 'move' the way it did, with just the right pacing that it never loses you. Not sure I could name another film that had quite that effect.

I usually judge pacing by whether or not I feel there is a good place to STOP watching a movie. The fewer times I think "yeah, here's a good spot to stop" the better the pacing.

I'm somehow always surprised how hard it is to stop watching Jaws. I remember when it first came out on DVD, and I thought I'd just check out the first couple of scenes to see how good the transfer was, and I just ended up watching the whole thing.

Another similar but less celebrated Spielberg film with great pacing was Duel.

Hitchcock movies

I don't know if it is great pacing but I loved how Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was paced out. It felt like a much longer film.

@Jrinswand said:

The Princess Bride. Edit: Also, to whoever said Valhalla Rising: FUCKING LOL! The pacing in that movie is sloooooow. That movie's definitely a slow burn. For Nicholas Winding Refn, both Bronson and Drive are much livelier movies.

Yeah, but Vikings > pacing.