The Shawshank Redemption is my favourite movie...

Rating: 10/10 (14 September 2008)

...and I haven't seen another film that affected me nearly as much until now! This film blew me away, I'm still shaken by the powerful emotional effect it had on me.
OK, so I was looking forward to a lazy Sunday afternoon with a new Stephen King adaptation, fully expecting something a bit fluffy like Secret Window, and for the first 20 minutes I got my wish... but man was I ultimately wrong! This is the first King film I've seen without having read the story first and I'm all the more impressed for it.
I think that to get the impact of this film you have to switch off from the slightly goofy CGI and immerse yourself in the all-encompassing humanity of the story. I've only seen Thomas Jane in Deep Blue Sea so wasn't expecting much from him in the acting department, but hats off to the guy... he sold the emotion 100 percent. I felt everything that he felt to an extent where I was questioning the hopelessness of the human condition... at times in this film he rooted a depression in me that shocked and disturbed me! Whilst Jane stood out a mile for me, I also have to shout out to the supporting cast who did an incredible job of selling the emotions in this film... if you don't gasp, scream, cry, cheer, clap and break down into a snivelling wreck at various points throughout then you weren't watching the same movie as me! I've seen most of Darabont's work and until now I thought that he'd more than peaked at Shawshank... watch this film with an open mind and prepare to be stunned.