Best all-time movie

Rating: 10/10 (10 August 1999)

I've recently been going through my vast collection of videos, replaying my favorites in an effort to determine which is best.
Without question, "Shawshank Redemption" towers above all the others, even "The Godfather," which slightly outranks it in the IMDb list of 250 best movies.
I have also taken the trouble of looking up most of the reviews of the movie, and I remain puzzled at the criticism that even such respected critics as Roger Ebert gave the movie. The most prevalent criticism is that the movie is too long. I don't agree. "Shawshank" is perfectly paced. Another criticism, that the story-line is predictable, is absurd. What makes "Shawshank" stand out from all other movies is that nothing that happens in it has ever happened in a movie before. It is sui generis, in a class by itself. If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't seen it, drop everything else and get ahold of it.