The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Synopsis: Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is wrongly accused of murdering his cheating wife and her lover. He's sentenced to two life sentences to be served in Shawshank prison. Once there, he meets "Red" (Morgan Freeman) and his crew. For the next, god knows how many years, Andy and Red form a friendship that carries them through their sentence and give them, well, redemption. This story seems quite simple but in actuality, it's very deep and shows how decency prevails in the grimmest of places and the bleakest of circumstances.

Should You Watch It? This movie is pretty great hence the 9.2 rating on IMDB haha. This movie isn't quite as good as that 9.2 might indicate but it's pretty close. This movie is pretty straight up drama and it's longgggg. I mean long as in almost Lord of the Rings long. Even though it is long, the story doesn't drag very much, only in a few places, and by the end of it, you really felt like you've watched two movies in one. Some people might think that this movie is just about Andy and his struggle within prison and his belief in hope conquers all. But really, it's about Red and his change from wanting to stay in prison cause he's afraid of living to gaining that hope of being able to survive in the real world and convincing himself that life is worth fighting for. Hell, that decency is worth fighting for.

Things to Watch Out For: This movie has one of the most clever twists I've seen in a while. It's very cleverly executed and the seeds are planted throughout the whollleeee movie. It's almost Six Sense worthy. You don't really have to watch out for it if you don't want to because they play the seeds back to you in the end when it's revealed but it might be a fun little side activity for some viewers.

Things You Don't Expect: I don't know, prison always seemed like a more violent place to me and sure Andy got it pretty bad in the beginning and it's not a major logic issue but I would have liked to see a bit more violence. It just seemed like when the movie was halfway over, everyone just started being friendly with each other. If Andy wasn't going to get beaten down cause he's a veteren, well, at least own some of the newer fish to keep it real haha. Oh well, not a big deal but it woulda given this movie a bit more grit and bit more contrast with the theme.

Final Comments:
Story: 9.5
Direction: 7.6
Acting: 8.8
Cinematography: 7.0
Music/Sound: 7.5

Final Score: 8.9