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Movies / On DVD / The Green Mile
The Green Mile

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The Green Mile (1999)

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Reviews Counted:129

Fresh:100

Rotten:29

Average Rating:6.8/10

Consensus: Though The Green Mile is long, critics say it's an absorbing, emotionally powerful experience.

Runtime: 3 hrs 20 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: "The Green Mile" is told in a flashback narrated by Paul Edgecomb to his friend Elaine Connelly. Edgecomb is now living in an old-age home some six decades after working as the head guard on Death... "The Green Mile" is told in a flashback narrated by Paul Edgecomb to his friend Elaine Connelly. Edgecomb is now living in an old-age home some six decades after working as the head guard on Death Row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary.

Edgecomb’s tour of duty at Cold Mountain in the Depression-era South included watch over a quartet of killers awaiting their final walk down "the Green Mile," the stretch of green linoleum flooring that took convicts from their jail cells to the electric chair.

Over the years, Edgecomb walked the mile with a variety of cons. He had never before encountered someone like John Coffey, a massive black man convicted of brutally killing a pair of nine-year-old sisters. Coffey certainly had the size and strength to kill anyone, but his demeanor starkly contrasted with his appearance. Beyond his simple, naive nature and a deathly fear of the dark, Coffey seemed to possess a prodigious, supernatural gift. Edgecomb began to question whether Coffey was truly guilty of murdering the two girls.

As the story unfolds, Paul Edgecomb learns that, sometimes, miracles happen in the most unexpected places. [More]

Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt

Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, Michael Jeter, Sam Rockwell, Barry Pepper, Graham Greene, Doug Hutchison, Jeffrey DeMunn, Patricia Clarkson, Harry Dean Stanton, Dabbs Greer, Eve Brent, William Sadler, Gary Sinise

Director: Frank Darabont

Director: Frank Darabont
Screenwriter: Frank Darabont
Producer: David Valdes, Frank Darabont
Composer: Thomas Newman

[See More Credits]

Reviews for The Green Mile

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
10/18/08
Sight and Sound
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Though the film drifts off down some long blind alleys, when Darabont exercises discipline the result is highly effective.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
08/24/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The supernatural elements carry an undeniable emotional charge, but the solution to the underlying murder mystery is disappointingly tidy and trite.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
10/30/02
Ben De Haan
Ben De Haan
ViewLondon

There is no doubt that the director has mistaken size for quality with bum-numbing consequences.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Clark Collis
Clark Collis
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Over the epic running time the film inches its way through a complex soap opera of events on the Row, punctuated by three pivotal and grisly executions via 'Old Sparky,' the electric chair.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ian Nathan
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A thoroughly absorbing supernatural fairytale about good and evil living under the same roof.

Full Review Source: UK Critic | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Houston Community Newspapers | comment Comment
10/18/08
Gary Brown
Gary Brown
Houston Community Newspapers

To more than a few viewers, this one will feel like a life sentence.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
08/24/08
Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Dotted with many fine moments, clotted with a few flabby ones.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
02/14/08
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

Overextending its welcome by a whole hour, Frank Darabont's film is the most commercially popular adaptation of a Stephen King novella, but also the dullest and slowest, a retro prison drama with something for everyone and not much for discerning viewers

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
02/05/08
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

...mildly entertaining and in some ways a little frustrating.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
11/15/06
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

Although The Green Mile is a satisfying and affecting movie, it's not The Shawshank Redemption -- not by a long shot.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/26/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

One of the best prison films ever made.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Ron Wells
Ron Wells
Film Threat

Mr. Jingles was robbed! (no mouse-Oscar)

Full Review Source: StaciWilson.com | comment 2 Comments
01/01/05
Staci Layne Wilson
Staci Layne Wilson
StaciWilson.com

Is this movie making an argument for euthanasia and suicide? Should nice folks have the option of giving up the ghost when they get tired of the world's problems?

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
12/06/04
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

Of all the movies based on King novels, The Green Mile ranks near the top -- but below Darabont's first, The Shawshank Redemption.

Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | comment Comment
06/26/04
Judith Egerton
Judith Egerton
Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

Three long hours of wind, an exercise in titanic self-importance intent on passing off klunky rhetoric as poignant drama.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/25/03
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
02/17/03
Hollywood.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Hanks and the other guards' acting is impeccable as would be expected, but Duncan and his fellow prisoners are also disturbingly real.

Full Review Source: Film Quips Online | comment Comment
02/08/03
John R. McEwen
John R. McEwen
Film Quips Online
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
all

Latest News for The Green Mile

November 30, 2007: Frank Darabont and Stephen King Reteam for Long Walk
Directing three Stephen King movies (four, if you count an early short film) wasn't enough for Frank Darabont. Perhaps cinema's biggest fan of the horror author, the Mist... More...

November 21, 2007: Box Office Guru Preview: Enchanted Leads Packed Holiday Weekend
This weekend For the first time this decade, a new release seems set to take over the number one spot during the busy Thanksgiving holiday weekend at the North American box... More...

August 06, 2007: Tom Hanks To Star in Darabont's Fahrenheit 451?
The second trip to the big screen for Fahrenheit 451 -- a long and tortured journey that has seen the project pass through the hands of Mel Gibson and others -- seems to finally... More...

August 01, 2007: Frank Darabont Has Another King Flick in Him?
Frank Darabont is two-for-two when it comes to Stephen King adaptations (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile). His third one, The Mist, looks pretty darn creepy so far... More...

See All

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