1.5 hour movie stretched to 3 hours

Rating: 2/10 (31 August 2003)

I don't understand why this movie is so highly rated. I suspect it's partly a christian-thing given the theme and all. Not being raised christian it doesn't connect with me. But regardless, the movie has several problems:
First, every scene is twice as long as it needs to be. Also include many formulaic scenes when I the moviegoer was supposed to go "ooh ahh" in wonderment, but instead I was so bored. This film could have been 1.5 hours long with no loss of content. Tom Hank's closing line is even something like "the green mile can seem awfully long." Oh the irony.
Second, the writers give the characters a handicap of being incapable of communicating -- JC rambles about "helping people" when he could simply say "hey look I have special powers allow me to demonstrate." If I were in charge of sentencing, I could see myself putting him on death row too -- it is so frustrating. The same frustration comes from the buildup to the scene with the warden's wife -- if Tom Hanks only lucidly told the warden what's up, they could've done the job in 5 minutes without any fuss. Instead, they were cryptic and turned it into a 45 minute production. What a waste of time.
Third, the philosophy of the movie just doesn't seem right. The prison guards all have super-cushy jobs. Compare to the characters in Saving Private Ryan. Which extreme commands more respect? I don't see building heroes out of prison guards. Similarly, the main character JC is wallows in self-pity. Rather than be so depressed about the evil in the world, he needs to swallow it and go out and do something with his life. Take valium if you have to. If you're in trouble with the US government, flee to Yemen.
These problems were on my mind every minute of the film. Most likely you won't be bothered by them, given the ratings. But to be safe, in case you watch The Green Mile and after 1/2 an hour you don't like it, turn it off you won't like the next 2 1/2 hours either.