Nice try, but NO.

Rating: 2/10 (11 December 1999)

For anyone interested in seeing The Green Mile, I have a recommendation: stay home and watch The Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time.
Frank Darabont had simply amazed me with The Shawshank Redemption, and so I had high expectations from this film, which came from the same author, same director, same screenwriter, and an impressive cast. In fact, it left me nowhere near tears, except possibly those shed for spending three hours wading through excessive (and missed) sentiment.
Let me stress something. If you happened to like The Green Mile, I can understand...to an extent. In fact, if this film had been an hour and a half long, I would have left throwing Academy Awards at it. If such a film had been accomplished within a humane amount of film, I'd have been impressed. But accomplishing this little dramatically when dealing with such a difficult issue as the death penalty over such an immense amount of time is simply inexcusable.
There are some individual performances that stand out, particularly Michael Clarke Duncan and David Morse's. However, they are overshadowed by Tom Hanks playing Forrest Gump a second time (although a little brighter this time) and two altogether too evil to be believable villains (played by Doug Hutchison and Sam Rockwell).
I think this film had great potential after seeing it. Nonetheless, in its overzealous chase for Academy Awards, it ruined its own legitimacy and pounded the viewer with more and more attempts to suspend disbelief.
I, for one, am like a certain character in the movie. I'm more than willing to walk "the green mile" to end all the pain.
2 1/2 (out of 10)