SELECT * FROM Not Executing First I executed the following query:

 BEGIN TRANSACTION 
        UPDATE MOVIES
        SET Rating = '777'
        WHERE Title IN 
        (SELECT TOP 1 Title
           FROM MOVIES 
           ORDER BY Title DESC);


Then the simple query to see the change I made to the table:

SELECT * FROM MOVIES;


There are only 18 rows and 3 columns but it's been executing for 15 minutes now. Before that I cancelled and tried executing again but it just won't execute.
Your BEGIN TRANSACTION is holding a lock on the table. You have to either:


Commit it with COMMIT
Roll it back with ROLLBACK
Use an isolation level hint in your query, like add WITH (NOLOCK) after the MOVIES table name
Use a different default isolation level in your database, like Read Committed Snapshot Isolation, where writers don't block readers (although you won't see data that isn't committed yet)
Run the SELECT query from the same session as your transaction (if you're working in Management Studio, that means running the query in the same tab/window)