I would agree with others that this movie isn't anything particularly special. It certainly doesn't rank up among Godfather or Casablanca IMHO. But it is a good movie, it has it's heart in the right place, and works on a lot of different levels. Morgan Freeman is perfect and Tim Robbins is servicable as two people who meet in prison and develop a friendship. I also found the film to have good re-watchability value.
I found this movie to be flawed in two main areas. First, time simply does not seem to pass at all in prison. No effort is put into making the characters age at all, even though twenty years passes over the course of the film. The second is that the ending occasionally strays into tedium as the film struggles to get every payoff in. But the heartfelt message is not forgotten, nor is the depiction (although obviously sanitized) version of prison life.
All in all, this is Hollywood, and considering Hollywood films, this is one of the better ones.
8/10
I found this movie to be flawed in two main areas. First, time simply does not seem to pass at all in prison. No effort is put into making the characters age at all, even though twenty years passes over the course of the film. The second is that the ending occasionally strays into tedium as the film struggles to get every payoff in. But the heartfelt message is not forgotten, nor is the depiction (although obviously sanitized) version of prison life.
All in all, this is Hollywood, and considering Hollywood films, this is one of the better ones.
8/10