"Frank?...No man! It's a mistake!"

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2010)

Inconceivable (to quote a great film) that Frank Darabont directed The Shawshank Redemption!
He wrote both screenplays, based on short stories by Stephen King.
The Mist is from 1985, Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption is from 1982.
I was a Constant Reader of Steve's until after his accident, which in my opinion made him bitter and boring - but that's just my opinion.
Not only is Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption one of the finest pieces of poetry I've ever read, but is was brought to the screen brilliantly and true to its source. What a great film that is: Great acting, great cinematography, and yes, great direction.
Now this garbage. I repeat, inconceivable. The source material is not Steve's best to start with (he even repeated it himself in The Langoliers, even in Cell one could argue).
This is baaaaad in every way. Bad script (oh my!), bad acting, bad direction.
A total loss. I'd rather watch 30 Days of Night again, that at least turned bad only in the middle and still has nice cinematography.
Bad characters, bad dialog, bad interaction, non-sensical courses of action, bad facial expressions, bad intonations, bad dialog (so bad it should be stated repeatedly).
I was not scared for a second. I shortly felt bad for the store help, and I hail the mother going home to her kids and she is my hero and I choose to think she made it!:-)
What scares me much more is the high IMDb rating !
Some random thoughts:
Weren't there at least three army guys in the store? Wouldn't they take control?
They are sitting on the floor after the unexplained earthquake amidst fallen groceries - why put them in the shelves, right?!
Guy apologizes for being kissed by girl so we bond a bit before he gets stabbed.
And then, we all sleep a bit!
Reach for the gun, reach for the gun, ooh, creature approaching, will he make it...COME ON!
See your cocooned-up wife, have a blank expression.
Don't try the radio, the army is in control but won't bother to air any reassurances/warnings/advice.
Enough flaws have been pointed out by others, the mist not coming into the store for instance.
The ending was quite funny at least. Nice idea for a different film, for here it made no sense whatsoever. It was uncalled for, they had not run out of options, the least they could have done was wait a few hours. Totally out of character (little as there was) Where were the creatures anyway after leaving the parking lot??? Oh, I forgot, giant spider squid moving slowly and grunting - I thought I was in Return of the King all of a sudden...lol Instead, before being shot, old guy says: Well, we gave it a good shot.
Dross. Did not work at all, did not entertain at all. I've given up trying to understand people. How anyone could like this film is beyond me.
Thanx for Shawshank, Frank, and Steve. Not everything you do is naturally great.
Instead, you insult my intelligence.
Badly done!