The Shawshank Redemption Reviews

It wanders down subplots at every opportunity and ignores an abundance of narrative exit points before settling on the aforementioned finale.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Why are these men in jail?

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The Shawshank Redemption continually abandons plausibility in order to celebrate the triumph of hope over despair, of decency over cruelty, of justice over injustice.

| Original Score: 1.5/4

Beaches for straight men.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

Drawn in straight, brutal lines.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

In truth it's the purest Hollywood hoakum--a sunny, heart-tugging hymn to that old chestnut, the indomitability of the human spirit.

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The Shawshank Redemption is most memorable thanks to its ingenious surprises.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

If the film is perhaps a little slow in its middle passages, maybe that is part of the idea, too, to give us a sense of the leaden passage of time, before the glory of the final redemption.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

The Shawshank Redemption is all about hope and, because of that, watching it is both uplifting and cathartic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

An unhurried, engulfing prison drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

By blanketing the prison experience with a sepia-tone haze of nostalgia and placing it in a time that's part history, part Normal Rockwell, the film provides a trip through the belly of the beast that isn't too icky...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

| Original Score: 5/5

I love this film. It's a story about hope and dreams and one whose emotional impact is as great as the Pacific Ocean is blue.

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This is a film with excellent production values almost without exception.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/8

It's an old-school melodrama at heart, sturdy and forthright and upstanding, but without a whisper of complexity or wit.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Gritty but comforting story of friendship.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A passing reference to 'The Count of Monte Cristo' offers a partial clue to what makes this movie compelling.

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Manages to be sentimental without sugar-coating.

| Original Score: 3/5

The Shawshank Redemption sprawls out over a leisurely 142 minutes, operating with the same unflagging patience of its protagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

It is able to sustain itself throughout its duration and to keep you enraptured with its remarkably hopeful story.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5