The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Dir: Frank Darabont

I'll let you in on a secret.
I have avoided watching this movie simply because I was sick and tired of being told how fantastic it is.
I was sick to the back teeth of the hype, of the fact that it is at #1 on IMDB, by the film critics banging on about it in a seemingly endless back-slap-a-thon that brought tears flowing out of my ears, such was the build up of pressure in my cranium.
But you know what?
It's bloody great.
I'll forsake the usual plot details here as, frankly, if you don't know what this is about by now, you're really not trying. Suffice to say there's a whole bunch of time spent in Shawshank, then we get fifteen minutes or so of redemption at the end.
The performances all round are exceptional, the stand out for me being Morgan Freeman, just slightly ahead of Tim Robbins.
But the real star turn here is by Frank Darabont, writer director and all round good egg, he seems to have a real passion for the writings of Stephen King (he also directed The Green Mile and the stunning The Mist), on whose short story this is based.
Compelling, funny, violent, harrowing, heart-warming (though in a good way), this is complex and riveting from start to finish and, frankly, I now feel I have wasted 17 years of my life that could have been spent watching this every few months.
Magical stuff.

5 out of 5

The Mist (2007) Dir. Frank Darabont

Based on a novella by Stephen King first published in the anthology Dark Forces this is, quite simply, an astonishing movie. Directed by Frank Darabont, a man with a clear love of King's output (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were also adaptations of King's work), this is bleak, thought provoking and challenging movie making.
The plot: A small town in Maine (where else?) suffers a severe thunderstorm, with trees blown down and general chaos wrought. The following day, the locals are packing the supermarket, picking up supplies to clear up the weather borne detritus when a mist rolls into town from the nearby hills, with one man racing into the supermarket, blood dripping from his face, claiming that there is 'something' in the mist. The natives are skeptical, right up to the point when tentacles emerge and snatch one of their own from under their noses. The place is locked down, with stocks piled up against the glass front of the building but, within, a new threat emerges: a vehemently religious woman who claims it is God's vengeance for our impure ways.
Tense, with an atmosphere so sharp you could shave a fourteen year olds scrotum with it, this is less a monster movie and more a focus on the extremes we will go to when pushed.
Several things about this movie stand out and elevate it above standard 'creature feature' status, not least of which are the performances. A cast of relative unknowns deliver excellent, believable portrayals of normal folk in peril, and the heart strings are plucked throughout, though in an intelligent, logical way, not in a 'make's you want to puke out your own kidneys' sense.
Darabont makes fine use of lighting and, crucially, the score is an accompaniment, not the dominant feature, adding substance to scenes rather than overwhelming them, something that the Michael Bay's and Zack Snyder's of this world would do well to note.
It's impossible to talk about this movie without mentioning the ending (I won't ruin it, but skip the next sentence if you'd rather know nothing) which is nothing short of astonishing. Poignant, heart wrenching and with such humanity it brings a tear to the eye, something few, if any, horror movies achieve.
Whilst delivering the goods in terms of gore and violence, this movie is so much more than that and one I would recommend to all, not just the usual sick in the head blood fiends.
You know who you are.