Advantages: Good, original story
Disadvantages: Bit long

...Introduction ~~ Based on the Stephen King novel the Green Mile and directed by Frank Darabont the Green Mile is the finest film of 1999 in my opinion. Though despite it still being an excellent film it doesn’t quite match up to the book and I would recommend that you see the book before the film. It is within the walls of Coal Mountain Louisiana State Penitentiary's death which the prison guards nickname the Green Mile that the majority of the story takes place. **Please don’t read the bottom bit of the opinion if you haven’t seen it as it may spoil it! Story ~~ The story is told almost entirely in flashback form with a few modern-day sequences where we see Paul Edgecomb as an elderly man. The telling of the story in flashback form works well as it matches the structure the Stephen King novel used... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic cast, beautiful direction, great story
Disadvantages: Films running time may be off putting for some

...The Green Mile Director: Frank Darabont Cast: Tom Hanks, David Morse, Michael Clarke Duncan, Doug Hutchison, Barry Pepper Story: Louisiana 1935. Paul Edgecomb is head warden on the green mile, Penitentiary’s death row. Paul and his fellow guards attempt to maintain a pleasant atmosphere while convicted felons await execution at the hands of ‘Old Sparky’. However the line between their personal and professional lives becomes blurred when John Coffey, convicted of murdering two young girls, enters the mile. Appearing as a gentle giant, and with the miraculous power to heal, could Coffey be guilty of such a heinous crime? It must have been a no-win situation for a certain Frank Darabont. It had been five years since his last project, the universally adored ‘Shawshank Redemption’, a film many... Read review

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Advantages: Brilliant, beautifully filmed and acted. A film with many layers of meaning.
Disadvantages: Gruesome elecric chair scenes.

...“The floor was the colour of faded limes’, reminisced Paul Edgecombe, his eyes misting over with the memory. Hard to believe he was talking about the ‘Green Mile’ – the Death Row over which he presided in 1935, such is the paradox of this film, excellently adapted from Stephen King’s novel and directed by Frank Darabont. Tenderness and brutality exist here side by side. Although we would think that a Death Row, particularly in the ‘red-neck’ Deep South, would be a grim place, we find it peopled by men who are fundamentally decent and honourable. Voices are never raised on the Green Mile. “We don’t scare ‘em anymore than we have to – they’re under enough strain as it is”, is the view of Brutus (David Morse), one of the prison guards. “Our... Read review

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Advantages: good film
Disadvantages: not so good ending

...Frank Darabont should be the only person allowed to direct Stephen King adaptations. His The Shawshank Redemption is still the best of the bunch, but The Green Mile manages a close second. This is a highly satisfying character-oriented story that is so compelling, it never even occurred to me (not even after the movie was over - it wasn't until I read Roger Ebert's review, where he brought up the same point I'm making now that I realized) that it isn't very likely the Death Row prison wardens would have acted so civilly toward convicted rapists and murderers (particularly a black man convicted of killing two white girls). It is a great testament to the craftsmanship behind the movie that this unlikelihood is of no negative consequence whatsoever; the story has its own reasons for portraying Death Row as it does, and it's all made... Read review

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Advantages: Great film
Disadvantages: You will cry

...guy wins, and theirs the action hero, we all know that he will come in, save the day and then the movies over. In the green mile the good guy loses, in a very sad way. The Green mile should be held as a representitive of how a good movie should be told. A thing of importance is that the acting is great accross the whole film, every actor plays great. The Green mile is a perfect film, they are nothing wrong with it. This film has got a satisfying story line and i am sure you will not leave the room with a dry eye. The storyline is set in the 1930s, is about crime, punishment, justice and injustice. Its a film that reaches greatness and it is one of the most memorable films of 1999. Please leave your comment.... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent film
Disadvantages: none

...Never before have I seen a film that has done the book justice. The Green Mile was adapted from the book with the same title written by Stephen King. Because I had read the book first, quite some time ago, I wasn`t expecting it to be that good even though I`d read some great reviews about it. Death row is known as the long mile, but because this row had green flooring it was named the green mile. The leading actors in this film are Tom Hanks who plays the character Paul Edgecomb, Michael Clarke Duncan( John Coffey), Sam Rockwell ( Wild Bill), Michael Jeter (Edward Delacroix), Doug Hutchinson (Percy Wetmore), and David Morse (Brutus"brutal"Howel). John Coffey, the very lovable, gigantic black man, is sentenced to death row for the murder of two little girls. This was the only character who was not as I pictured him in my mind... Read review

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Advantages: Beautiful, touching, clever
Disadvantages: Long!

...It would appear as if Tom Hanks can do no wrong. After the gripping Saving Private Ryan, we find him in this, "The Green Mile" : a beautiful adaption of Stephen King's series of Books. Hanks plays a prison warden who trapes the between cells on Death Row - affectionately termed the Green Mile because of the green floor that leads to the exectuation chamber. Jon Coffey, an inmate, is the gentle giant accused of the murder of two younf girls. He claims he is innocent, and Hanks believes him. As it transpires, Coffey is more than a gentle giant, but also a powerful healer, with the ability to bring animals, and people, back from the dead, or to cure terminal sickness. Much is left from King's series, but that's fine. Really: it is. After having read both the series, and watched the film, while some poignant points could have... Read review

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Advantages: Thrilling
Disadvantages: Eh? Disadvantages

...Well, I could just say how great this book was, but reading through the other reviews I decided that this has already been done somewhat. So I decided to just tell you how it made me feel when I read it. You've probably all seen the film or read the book so you know what it's about. But how did it make you feel? For anyone not au fais with the basic plot, here it comes so hold onto your seats! The story is set in a small "death house" in 1932 in southern USA. It's narrated by an old man whom we find out is Paul Edgecombe, the ex-chief of the death row, the cell block where people who were sentenced to death were kept, awaiting execution by electric chair; "Old Sparky." The name Green Mile comes from the fact that the walk is often called the "Last Mile" in other prisons but here it has a green floor, hence the name. Paul Edgecombe... Read review

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Advantages: Makes you sit back and think.
Disadvantages: Invest in some hankies.

...a follower of Edgecomb, a tall quiet guy who simply has a job to do, the smoothly it goes the better for everybody concerned. The film does contain some nasty electric chair scenes and has some moments where you really do need to wipe the tears away from your eyes. The films epilogue is in the now present day with Edgecomb looking back and telling his tale. Some brilliantly detailed scenes with a very clever mouse that befriends most of the guests on the green mile. £14.99 ASDA or check ebay for quality second hand ones. Taken from the book by Stephen King of which i have put on my books to read list. Special Features include interactive menus, scene access, theatrical trailer, documentary on the green mile. I loved this film, as soon as i knew Hanks was the leading character i knew it would be a quality film, and i was right. I... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic film with great special features
Disadvantages: No other film stands a chance against it!

...Paul Edgecomb is a security guard, but he is a prison guard with a difference. He is a prison guard of imminent death - guarding men whose life would end unnaturally, and whose final steps would be taken down the iconic "Green Mile" The scene is Cold Mountain Penitentiary, Louisiana and the time is during the Great Depression. Edgecomb was the head prison guard of death row that had been renamed the Green Mile due to the green floors in the wing. Here Edgecomb and his team of competent and diligent prison guards watch over the men whose heinous crimes have caused them to be tried, convicted and sentenced to death. One day a new inmate joins the "Green Mile" by the name of John Coffey, an incredibly tall, well built black man who has been convicted of savagely raping and murdering two little white girls... Read review

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