Mystifyingly adored piece of melodrama

Rating: 4/10 (23 September 2003)

That this film ranks as No2 in the 'all time' list on IMDB says a lot for how folks don't watch films from any era before the 90s anymore, for how else could it genuinely sit atop that list? I suppose in an age where everything on amazon gets at least four stars, good subjective criticism is proving harder and harder to find...but really...is this film better than Chinatown? Better than Casablanca? The Third Man? Mean Streets? Withnail and I? Better than Adam's Rib, Singin' in the Rain, Rear Window, Day for Night, Bande a Part, Taxi Driver, West Side Story, Les Quatre Cent Coups, Some Like it Hot, Seven Samurai?
I've seen this film twice, once at the cinema and once on TV as I lie stuffed with Xmas dinner. The first time was mildly enjoyable, the second pretty turgid. Despite the presence of the ever excellent Robbins (though Morgan Freeman phones in the same performance he's given in every film ever since), this film never transcends the humble source of its story - a Stephen King short - and whilst it's a 'nice' tale with a reasonable twist at the end, can anyone else explain to me why such praise has been heaped on this utterly average experience?
And it's not just IMDB. A recent UK Channel Four poll found Shawshank right up there. Perhaps it's the combination of pseudo-harsh prison story and a buddy tale along with the lashings of on the nose humanism that appeals across genders and other boundaries. I don't know. But believe me, if this were the 2nd best film ever made in the world ever, let's just say cinema wouldn't be the popular influence it is today.
Go out there, people. Find the true 'classics', find the films this piece of sentimentalia stole its every beat, every note, every word of dialogue from. And then come back and tell me this is anything other than a hotch potch, a 50s throwback with a 90s sentiment.