It tries TOO hard

Rating: 5/10 (2 January 2000)

This starts off as a fine movie. Excellent acting, especially by Michael Clarke Duncan in a marvelous turn as a condemned saint-like man. But as the Steven King plot begins to thicken so does the layers of pathos laid on by writer-director Frank Darabont. This is not a bad movie but an unterminable one that tries too hard to be important. Three hours can make one weary of the best intentioned designs. Framed like Titanic I predict it will also be wildly popular. It seems we can no longer recognize when we are being fed a sour pill.