Overlong, Overblown and Over-rated

Rating: 4/10 (3 September 2002)

Come on guys! According to the IMDb Top 250 THIS is the second best film EVER!! Better than Citizen Kane? Better than Godfather Part II? Better than ALMOST EVERYTHING?!?!
No, it's a very, very long, very, very predictable, very, very cliched, very. very old-fashioned and sentimental film, blessed by some good performers (especially James Whitmore, who, alas, does not figure prominently enough.)
It worries me that many of the comments here seem to think the film artistically transcends the usual Hollywood fare, when in actual fact, it wallows in all the conventions of its genre.
I give it 6/10, mainly because I like Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
The only people who could mistake this for a Great Film, would be those who mistake the works of Stephen King for Great Literature.