#50: The Shawshank Redemption – It pays to play the long
game
A man is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. For
the next ten years, he bides his time inside Shawshank Prison, making allies
where he can and waiting for the moment when he can finally escape his
confines. Frank Darabont, co-writer of the previously-discussed Nightmare On
Elm Street 3, has a penchant for bringing the works of Stephen King to the big
screen, but he tends to stick to the less recognisably-Kingian stories. From
this to The Green Mile to his later work with The Mist, he not only chose
decidedly different material but also showed a startingly amount of
understanding of the text to bring it roaring to life on screen. This film,
more so than anything else he has touched to date, accomplishes that goal.
Gnomeo & Juliet is an absolute mess. While aided
somewhat by its genuinely solid animation and a pretty choice voice cast, it
feels like a Murphy’s Law situation where literally every bad decision possible
was made around them. From the insanely ill-fitted soundtrack to the egregious
puns to the incredibly snide attitude it carried towards its source material,
it can easily stand as one of the worst family films I’ve ever sat through, if
not one of the worst full stop. Because money is the root of all things unnecessary,
and the original made plenty of bank at the box office, we for some reason have
been given a sequel. While I struggle to figure what precisely this film is at its core, it is still a marked
improvement in all the important regards.
