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The Green Mile (1999)
The Green Mile (1999)
1999 | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Thoughtful, intelligent movie for older teens and adults. (2 more)
Tom Hank's, as usual, is superb.
Well crafted and moving story.
Whilst it's a good movie in it's own right, it will always play second fiddle to the more acclaimed Shawshank Redemption, by the same director. (0 more)
based on King's 1996 serialized novel set in a prison. In 1935, inmates at the Cold Mountain Correctional Facility call Death Row "The Green Mile" because of the dark green linoleum that tiles the floor.
  
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
1994 | Drama
The story is amazing showing how prison life is for some of the inmates from Shawshank and Andy dealing with it. (3 more)
The characters like Andy, Red, Samuel, and Byron are memorable. Andy is a character we want to see succeed as well as Red with his charm. While Samuel the warden and Byron the guard are ruthless.
The acting from Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Clancy Brown, and James Whitmore do an amazing job with their acting and making the characters memorable
The production design from the Shawshank Prison is rally great and the music is amazing.
Nothing I can think of. (0 more)
Shawshank Redemption
The film has a great story, memorable characters, incredible acting, and impressive production design as well as amazing music. This is one of the best films I have ever seen and I watch it whenever it comes on and I also have the DVD. If you’re a fan of Stephen King this movie will make you satisfied as well as non Stephen King fans who never read his books like me.
  
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
1994 | Drama

"Shawshank is one of those films that, every time it comes on television, I watch it — even though I own the DVD, the VHS, the Blu-ray. Every time it’s on. I can?t explain why. It’s a good script, it’s a good story; it’s a story about the human spirit and redemption… it’s beautiful. That scene when the opera plays, and everybody stops for that moment and you just hear Morgan Freeman’s voice come in, that kills me. It’s really great."

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
1994 | Drama

"The Shawshank Redemption. The title threw me at first. Before I went to jail, I started watching [every jail movie]. That was one of them. I was trying to write a book, and I was having trouble. You know, I didn’t have the right publisher; they just wanted a book. I hooked up with this writer, a ghost writer, and he wrote a script for me, like, overnight. It was my story, but told from a bong’s point of view, and the bong gets put in federal prison. A week later the feds come in. There was some weird cosmic thing going on."

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
1994 | Drama

"I guess you got to put The Shawshank Redemption in there somewhere, right? That movie was just so amazing. It’s a wild ride, because it’s very emotional. I just remember the line at the end where he’s like, “My friend.” There’s such an amazing friendship plot in that, and then there’s that line at the end that just makes you bawl your eyes out, you know? So, it’s like, get ready for an emotional… It’s very dark. He gets raped in prison. He’s getting attacked. But that story between Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, it’s just this friendship plot that runs through the movie. I just thought that was really powerful."

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
1994 | Drama

"Shawshank Redemption, because I love that it is about the power of the human spirit. That movie is one that I watch when I think about giving up. And that’s rare. I don’t do that anymore, but when I was first starting out in this industry, I would use that film as a metaphor for life because it was really hard and I was getting told “no” by all the studios and [wondered] if I would ever be a successful filmmaker. I would literally look and I would say, “If [Andy Dufresne] can survive and go through all that and keep his spirit then so can I, dammit [laughing].” That’s one of my favorites."

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Different Seasons
Different Seasons
Stephen King | 1982 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
4
8.8 (18 Ratings)
Book Rating
Very different from Stephen Kings usual work. (0 more)
Just Becasue
Not on my top ten list of Stephen King books that I have read, that is for sure. Different Seasons was completely different from his usual work and I do understand that was kind of the whole point. Sadly as a big Stephen King fan the difference was not really appreciated all that much. Shawshank Redemption is my father's favorite movie so it was past time that I finally read the story it was biased off of and sadly to say I can not understand what all the hype was about. The same goes for The Body as Stand By Me is considered a popular move (again one that I have not seen) yet the book was unimpressive. Apt Pupil was disturbing yes, but it was the one story out of the four that was hardest for me to get through, it just drug on and felt like it got no where. Finally I come to The Breathing Method which I was much happier with. Yet even that final story felt like it could have offered so much more if it wasn't cut short.
  
The Mist (2007)
The Mist (2007)
2007 | Horror
The creatures (2 more)
The feud
The ending
When walking into The Mist, I was hopeful and skeptical at the same time.

I knew director Frank Darabont could product a great film as he did with The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Even being comfortable with Stephen King material was a plus. However, I just thought another lame creature feature with no real development or point and just a lot of senseless gore.


I could not have been more wrong.


The visual effects, creatures and scares in this film are definitely A+ for sure, but what makes the film work without a doubt is the fantastic screenplay.


When people start dying, it doesn't really matter unless you care about them first as people and get invested in their circumstance and fate. Once the townspeople are trapped by the mist in the grocery store, some of their true personalities start to emerge as the tension builds.


Much has been written about the ending whether plausible, not necessary, too much of a coincidence or just right. In the day of carbon copy, nonoriginal storytelling, I would definitely reward a film that takes risks vs. one that doesn't.


The risks in this film pay off big time.



  
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead
2010 | Drama, Horror
On Halloween Ron and I sat down to watch the premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC. I was quite hopeful when I saw that Frank Darabont the director of Shawshank Redemption was directing The Walking Dead. I was not disappointed. It stayed true to the first volume, Days Gone Bye right down to the scene with Rick Grimes showing mercy to a zombie with no lower torso dragging itself along and the scene with the tank in the city. I was delighted to see that Frank Darabont not only read Robert Kirkman's comic, but that he loved it and wanted to do it right the first time when it was presented on television.
 Kirkman's brilliant writing and character development shined through in this first episode especially with Andrew Lincoln playing the role of Rick Grimes, the father (Lennie James) and son (Adrian Kali Turner) that Rick meets who are in emotional torment due to the father's now zombie wife roams the street in front of the house they're hiding in. You come to care about these characters so much and your heart goes out to them when you see their emotional struggle with a family member, a friend, or a loved one becoming a zombie.
 Two things are certain. Frank Darabont got it exactly right and Ron and I will definitely be watching it and loving every minute of it.
 The Walking Dead is on AMC Sunday nights at 10:00 p.m. and you can watch full episodes on the AMC website.
  
The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers (2012)
2012 | Action, Sci-Fi
The first Avengers movie is a real treat - it was at the time of the release and it is now. In 2012, the culmination of the first handful of MCU movies was just glorious, seeing all these heroes together for the first time. Now in 2020, we've become accustomed to that, spoilt by the more recent Infinity War and Endgame, it's easy to forget just how special Avengers is in it's comparative humbleness, especially for people who grew up reading these stories in comic books.

The main bulk of the cast, comprised of Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo (in his first appearance as Bruce Banner/Hulk), Samuel L. Jackson, and Jeremy Renner all bounce off of each other so naturally. The balance of dramatic moments and back and forth humour on display laid the blueprint for many MCU films to come, most notably Guardians of the Galaxy.
Tom Hiddleston steps up his game from the first Thor film and gives us an instantly iconic villain in Loki, one that has only been rivalled since by Thanos in terms of character development and story.

The set pieces are fantastic as well, most memorably, the Hulk and Thor battle on the Helicarrier, and of course the huge and ridiculous final show down in Manhattan, and the CGI still looks great 8 years down the line. A big event movie such as this was only made possible by introducing the individual characters slowly over a number of years, and it's proof that patience pays off. A formula that Marvel Studios have since mastered.

I know that none of these films are The Shawshank Redemption or Citizen Kane, but fuck me, films like Avengers Assemble (it's UK title) are so stupidly entertaining, and everything a kid who grew up reading comics could possibly want.