Overrated sappy drama

Rating: 6/10 (30 July 2003)

Little more than average drama for popular tastes. Predictable, overly sentimental, and excessively long.
It's a mystery to me that such a mediocre piece of cinematic art is at number 2 in the all time chart! However, predictably it's not in the top 100 more serious 'Sight and Sound' critics and directors polls that are held every ten years. Frank Darabont later proved to be no master with his two following films, the second rate 'The Green Mile' and the truly appalling 'The Majestic'. The fact that this pedestrian movie is, in this chart, ahead of the works of real masters such as Kubrick, Welles, Kurosawa, Fellini and Hitchcock causes consternation.