Home :: DVD :: Horror :: General  

Classic Horror & Monsters
Cult Classics
Frighteningly Funny
General

Series & Sequels
Slasher Flicks
Teen Terror
Television
Things That Go Bump
Stephen King's The Shining

Stephen King's The Shining

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $22.48
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 12 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nothing Is Better than Kubric
Review: A decent yet more accurate version of The Shining based on the novel by Stephen King. I would recomend the original if you are looking for a good scare.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: almost as good as kubricks
Review: this version is, supposedly, closer to the book. some say that the kid didnt play danny that well. i think he did. it wasnt as trancy as the other kid, but he did a very believeable job. so did the wife and jack tourrance himself. steven weber as jack did wonderful job as he didnt, at the begining, have insanity already in his look. nicholsons betrayal was kind of like he was crazy since the begining of the movie. i like the coucket thing instead of the axe(i know i spelt croucket wrong). and while most say, "heeeeeeres johnny" is better than, "boo"...id have to disagree. i think both nicholson and weber did great jobs as crazy people, yet they did it both in their own way. i must warn you though, this is not like kubricks verion as far as the little details go. for instance, the ending was completely different. in kings version, there was no chase through the grass maze. i wont spoil the ending for you, but trust me at this: its happier and also cheesier. if you havent seen the kubrick version or read the book, then go ahead and rent this one just to see what all the rave is about. this movie doesnt have all the cussing and no nudity(although the lady in the shower was much scarier in this version). it does have a nice deal of violence though, yet remember---its made for tv! check this out, i dont think youll be too disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't Be Prejudiced!
Review: Some folks will always be prejudiced against a film that's a remake. This was a great version of the book and what was best is the fact that Stephen King was able to do the film the way he wanted to. So many film adaptations of books suck so it's good to see one being told how the writer intended it to be. The first film was remarkable and a classic horror that's become the mold of many after it. But that's not to say this version wasn't remarkable in its own right. Stephen Weber may not have Jack Nicholson's finesse but he does a wonderful job as Jack Torrence. Stephen impressed me with this role. Since the sitcom " Wings " I didn't expect much from him. He proved me wrong and he'll prove you wrong too if you've prejudged this film before seeing it.

Granted this film is not as scary as the first UNTIL the end. This one was made in 97' so it relies on special effects they didn't have in 80' when the original film was made. The effects didn't bring much to the film. If it hadn't been for Weber's wonderful acting this would have been a horrible remake. I love Rebecca DeMornay but didn't buy her as Wendy at all. She is a better actress than Shelley Devall on any day, but Rebecca just wasn't this character. The little boy that played Doc was cute but unconvincing. The first little boy was more charming and made the part of Danny his own.

I would definitely say give this a chance especially if you liked the first film. Watch it just to compare it to the other versions. This may not be in the calibur of the first but it is definitely not far behind. Give it a chance and hold onto your seats for some hair-rising thrills and chills.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An All Around Decent Miniseries
Review: 1980, Stanley Kubrick adapts Stephen King's novel "The Shining" and makes movie history. Although he changed it drastically, it was well recieved and remebered for it's slow and creepy pacing. Now, in 1997 we got an updated miniseries version of the same novel, this time screen-written by King himself and made for TV. The result, a different movie experience entirely. This version follows King's original story I am told to a hair. Its several hours longer providing enough time to cover every aspect of the book unlike Kubrick's version. It is strange watching the series and not seeing Nicholson as Jack but the new updated actor filled the part suprisingly well. By the third part he had truly grown into the part and was fully developed and dimensional unlike Nicholson who was just plain out crazy with no simpathy or remorse shown. The part in the miniseries when Jack tells Danny to run away from him always gives me chills. A few thigns however that brutally hurt the miniseries include the actor of Danny (who is a joke) and the poorly animated animal shrubs (it sounds stupid already.) Aside from those two flaws, the updated miniseries is an entertaining watch and should be viewed by any fan of the 1980 version. An intersting side note, writer Stephen King makes a small (and corny appearance) as an orchestra conductor and infamous writer/director Sam Raimi (Evil Dead trilogy, Spider-Man) makes a small cameo as a man who gives the cook directions to the Overlook Hotel in part 3. Well, thats it for now. Enjoy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: blech
Review: dont waste your time with this movie. the movie is accurate to the book but a good movie is a good movie. and this is not a good movie. i highly reccomend the 1980 Kubrick version of the shining to anyone who has not seen either. i reccomend this movie to anyone who has recently had a full frontal labotamy. Stephen King is an author, not a director. he should stick to what he does best--writing.

a complete waste of time to even review.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Shine Me
Review: Stephen King needs to leave moviemaking to the pros. His version may be more faithful to the book, but it stinks compared to Stanley Kubrick's version. The creepiness of the latter version gets under your skin and freaks you out (his version just bores you).

Steven Weber is tame, Rebecca de Mornay comes off as a floozy (rather than a devoted wife), and that topiary animal scene was the cheesiest and stupidest thing i have ever seen. It started off well when the movement of the animal shrubs was implied instead of actually seen (they never moved, but they got closer and closer) - that actually was the one thing that scared me. But King ruined it by using that computer animation to make them move. Bad idea.

The media had hyped up that topiary animal scene so much that it made the disappointment even worse. It seems that Stephen King's main interest in re-making the movie was to use the computer technology available at the time (it's much better now) to make the topiary animal scene (since it was the one thing that seemed to bother him the most about Kubrick's version). That's a horrible reason to remake a movie.

If you don't believe me, just watch "The Langoliers" (another TV movie by King). It actually started to get scary until he showed the langoliers. After that the movie fell apart. I thought the computerized plane scenes were bad enough until I saw the langolier scenes. This story would not have been put on film but King seems to have been impressed with the special effects technology of the time.

To reiterate, Stephen King should stick to what he does best: writing books!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the film version closest to King's novel.
Review: It isn't fair for critics to compare this version of Stephen King's "The Shining" to the Jack Nicholson film, because they're two completely different versions that are brilliant in their own ways. This version of the movie is much longer than the Nicholson version, and for fans of King's novel, this will probably be the film adaptation that you prefer simply because it follows the book so closely. Steven Weber plays the role of Jack much differently than Nicholson did: like in the novel, the character's maddness is slow to build, but when the film reaches its climax, Weber is absolutely terrifying. Rebecca De Mornay gives the performance of her career as Wendy, a woman who is desperately trying to keep her family together and is slowly coming to realize the horror that has possessed her husband. They young actor who plays Danny gives a chilling performance, and he always gives me the creeps when I watch the film (I can only assume that's because the kid's a great actor, hopefully not because he's a freak in real life). The film builds and builds, and there are a lot of suspenseful moments. The scene with Danny in the snow where the bushes come to life is probably my favorite scene in the film, and it's especially enjoyable because it was omitted from the Nicholson version entirely. (Also, like in many of his films, Stephen King makes a cameo appearance in "The Shining," so keep your eye on the ghostly bandstand.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of the few scary movies i actually liked
Review: i usually get scared easily so when a group of my friends had a "scary movie friday night" and u chickened out i got mad that i couldnt put up with scary movies.... so i decided o rent a movie that scared the mess outa errbodi in my famil who'd seen it. since the theatrical version was out of stock at the rental place, i got the mini series one. its REALLY good. thurr were sum parts (like the scene with the rm 217 lady) that were freaky. the makeup was REALLY GOOD. the makeup artists shud get an award!!!!!!! i didnt like how some parts that were suposed to be emotional, ssensitive, or scary turned out funni. and also everybody says that its scarier when "tony" is just a voice. but i really liked this movie and i would recomend it, even if u dont like scary movies... oh yeah, the ending could've been better, but it wasnt bad
overall, the movie was really good

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pretty good... But it gets stupid near the end!
Review: This was a pretty decent made-for-TV horror flick. It follows more closely to the original Stephen King novel (e.g. wasps nest & the crochet mallet) However, it is absolutely no where near as good as the original 1980 Stanley Kubrick version. Sure there's more special effects, but the classic orchestrated music, scares, and good acting just aren't there. I admit that there are SOME remakes that really, REALLY butcher the original (e.g. "Psycho) but this is one of them! It started out pretty freaky and edge-of-your-seat intense, but after the second disk, it started getting stupid! They didn't even throw in the famous "Heeeeere's Johnny!" line! I mean, what the hell's up with that?! Jack Nicholson is the one and ONLY actor who was meant to play Jack Torrence, and although this man was decent enough to play the part, he's no where as good! If you want the BEST version of this film, then I suggest you leave this one in the shadows and buy the original! It's 100% better!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Redrum,Redrum!
Review: When I was a little kid I read King's SHINING and loved it!Then I saw Kubrick's "adaptation" and was disappointed at the deviation from the novel.I enjoyed it for it's creepiness and style,but thought that was that.Luckilly King decided to make a tv miniseries of his novel and the results are superb!Very suspensful and credible with brilliant performances.Watching it on dvd or video allows the narrative to keep going and suspense to build without those commercials interrupting.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 12 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates