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The Green Mile

The Green Mile

List Price: $19.96
Your Price: $14.97
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointing after "Shawshank"...
Review: It's not nearly as great as the book with Paul Edgecombe's musings on modern society. I was disappointed in Darabont this time about, just because "The Shawshank Redemption" was so brilliant. There are some good performances, most notably Michael Clarke Duncan, who made an odd couple with Haley Joel Osment when both were nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars, and the scene with John Coffey and Melinda the prison warden's wife is brilliant. But the prison brutality seems recycled and the film is too long.

One of the standouts as usual is William Sadler as Klaus Detterick, the grieving father of thetwo murdered girls.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Warped sentiment
Review: The Green Mile contains the most warped sentiment I've witnessed in cinema. Why does the big chap who's full of spiritual goodness and life have to be a childish simpleton? It's a classic case of Forrest Gump syndrome - pure goodness is only possible if you're naive, infantile and a bit of a dolt.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Magic
Review: Tom Hanks finds himself in charge of Death Row at a penitentiary where a huge but gentle prisoner (played by Michael Duncan) has the gift of healing. The movie is a play of good against evil, but it's more, much more, than such a simplistic explanation. The movie takes its time, and every second is worth gold. Painful to watch in places, but impossible not to. Brilliant.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Felipe Sahurie says "Tom Hanks Best"!!!!!
Review: This is definetely one of Hanks best movies of all time!!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Powerful Movie and a Great Adaptation
Review: The Green Mile is based on the Stephen King novel. It's a powerful movie about John Coffey, a man with strange powers who is on death row for the murder of two little girls- but Tom Hanks's character see's something special in him and is determined to find out the secret behind Coffey. This movie is powerful and emotional and will touch you. I higly recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hard
Review: This movie is hard to assess. There is crisp acting but at the same time all along I had this uncomfortable feeling of something being artificial here. There was an impression of watching a budget TV production disguised as a major cinematic work, I guess mostly because of the low budget decorations and theatrical, not realistic, arrangements of the prison interior and some behaviors. Also the formula of an old man recalling great events of his youth just like in Titanic or Saving Private Ryan.... but boy - this production is not in the same league. Shawshank is. What else hindered me to immerse in the story: the good prison guards are so humane one can't help doubting if such a person would have ever opted for this kind of career. Also way too much giggling around Hank's getting better done by his wife and him; I guess this great actor might have felt a bit off his feet having to play that. And then the executions' scenes are so brutal and realistic that this movie should definitely get the most restricted rating - but why so much realism kind of protruding from an otherwise unrelistic story I do not quite understand. Of course the drama is so powerful that it moved me, however I would prefer to be moved in a more valid manner, artistically.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful Movie
Review: I'm not going to give away the plot of this movie, but this movie takes you through all the ranges of emotion. It includes black humor (If you're not easily offended, you'll enjoy it), among many other things.
You have to take my word for this, Green Mile is a GREAT movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Green Mile is a good movie.
Review: This is a must see for any Tom Hanks fan. CAUTION! - This movie will make you cry.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Few equals
Review: Here is a movie that is destined to become a classic over time. "The Green Mile" is more than just a Stephen King tale (in fact, it's hardly that at all); it's an epic character study, a human drama told against a backdrop of cruelty and violence. Another masterful collaboration between King and "Shawshank Redemption" director Frank Darabont, the movie represents some of the best work of everyone involved -- especially star Tom Hanks.

Over the last decade, Hanks has become our greatest living actor. His work in "Forrest Gump," "Saving Private Ryan," "Road to Perdition," "Cast Away" and "Catch Me If You Can" proves his name worth mentioning with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Marlon Brando. He can effortlessly transform himself into whatever character he plays, yet still remain "Tom Hanks." His best acting may be in "The Green Mile."

As 1930s prison guard Paul Edgecomb, Hanks gradually unveils a wealth of sensitivity beneath an exterior hardened by life on Death Row. Another actor might have killed the role with treacly sentimentality, but Hanks focuses on Paul's tough, sturdy integrity. Only in his more private moments does he reveal second thoughts about his job, making the character all the more compelling.

Darabont did a sensational job directing this movie. What's amazing is that he left so much of King's original story intact; one could easily imagine the studio ordering so many cuts and trims and alterations that it would hardly make sense anymore. But I can't think of a thing that could have been cut that would have improved the film by its absence. Surely we could do without so many details of Paul's urinary tract infection, but look at the expression on Hanks's face as he whizzes for the first time without awful pain. We feel his relief, and understand pretty much everything he does after that point.

"The Green Mile" contains excellent performances from an expert supporting cast. I loved everybody in the movie, from David Morse and Doug Hutchison (as the despicable Percy) to Bonnie Hunt and Sam Rockwell (as a foul-mouthed, truly loathsome killer). Michael Clark Duncan deserved his Oscar nomination for his empathetic portrayal of John Coffey -- but then Hanks also deserved a nod, for which he was unfairly overlooked.

The movie is hard and unflinching in its look at death by electric chair. These scenes are grueling without being exploitative; Darabont gets his point across without turning the movie into "Faces of Death." Darabont (and his surrogate Hanks) treats the condemned men with the utmost reverence and respect, allowing each a chance for redemption. The most harrowing scene in the film is Paul's realization that he may be executing an innocent man -- worse, a man blessed with the healing powers of God, and that the fires of hell may be stoked for him, as well.

The movie never tells us whether Paul himself receives deliverance. His own long walk -- an unnaturally extended life --becomes a form of punishment. We are left with so much to ponder at the end of "The Green Mile." It is worth every minute of its running time, and is now one of my all-time favorite films.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Coffey, like the drink, only spelled with a 'Y'. . ."
Review: The real star of this Stephen King adaptation is director Frank Darabont, who weaves a powerful, fascinating story that effortlessly eats three hours of the clock. That's no small task, and THE GREEN MILE is no small movie.

There's not anything small about Michael Clark Duncan, either, who is the focal point of this film as John Coffey, a gentle giant sent to "The Green Mile" to await his execution. Duncan literally towers over everything--physically and figuratively--as a soft-spoken man with a miraculous "gift," a gift so selfless the viewer immediately knows John Coffey isn't guilty of the horrible crime he's alleged to have committed. His kindness, his inherent goodness, wins over the hearts of the prison staff assigned to guard him--to eventually execute him.

Nothing quite like compelling conflict and drama, is there?

The cast, led by Tom Hanks as Green Mile guard Paul Edgecomb, is first-rate; Sam Rockwell as inmate "Wild Bill" Wharton almost steals the show, while Doug Hutchison is nauseating as the repulsive Percy Wetmore, the "governor's nephew." THE GREEN MILE is a formidable visual event, which is also its only weakness, as some of its scenes (an electrocution gone awry, Coffey's discharge of pestilent "evil") are over the top, to the point where you're rolling your eyes. But the flaws are dwarfed by the magnificence of the story--by the director's storytelling ability.
--D. Mikels


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