The movie that wouldn't end

Rating: Null/10 (8 February 2003)

Ok. It wasn't that bad. In fact, there's a lot to like about this movie. But there was absolutely no reason why this movie needed to go on and on and on and on.
Excellent acting of course: Freeman is always right on target and Tim Robbins is very good (although I happen to dislike his political views and that inhibits my ability to imagine he's anyone else but Robbins up there on the screen).
Its a movie that makes one think about the important things in life, and it does that without being preachy.
However, I don't like the way it uses cliches all the way through, i.e. the bad warden who is a pseudo-Christian. Hollywood has shown much hatred towards Christianity, and this is only one more movie in a long string which tries to make Christians look bad.
****spoilers ahead********

Also, it is simply not believable that (a) the prison would not have moved Andy in 19 years of prison life, and (b) the sound of his rock scraping wouldn't have been heard and (c) he wouldn't have been seen "underneath" the poster, working away at the wall.
I find it hard to believe furthermore, that Andy would go back into the town where he proposed, just to leave money under that rock. An escaped convict would not want to be anywhere near where people may recognize him, if he had any smarts, which Andy did.
But those things alone did not prevent me from enjoying the movie, I just don't think the movie lived up to its hype, and I would feel no need to ever watch it again (and I always watch my favs over and over again!).