Good but overrated...

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2003)

My impression is that since the early ninenties and especially after "green fried tomatoes" was released movies regarding human relations and/or tragedy and using narative as their spine became fashionable..Countless movies followed that i dont care to mention most of them inferior than the original they tried to follow and one of them is Shawshank redemption.Sure it is not a mellow love story but about life in prison that is objectively hard.But somehow the typical ingredients are there.The film is mostly sad and melodramatic and one can even consider it romantic in a way.Despite its strong cast and a good storyline it does not avoid all these characteristic cliches that sadly deprive it from any real replay value.Rent it on dvd and you wont be disapointed by viewing it but the second best movie of all times it aint and you will know this because you wont feel the need to watch it now and then as it happens at least to me with movies that are really classics...Not a bad movie but highly overrated....3 out of five stars.