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The Shining

The Shining

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: all work and no play.....
Review: this movie scared the (...) out of me when i first saw it, and it's still creepy as hell. (what's scarier than your one of your parents trying to kill you?)this is true horror.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Full screen? YES, because that IS the original format
Review: The main reason I'm writing this "review" is to make sure people know that "The Shining" was originally and still is a 'full screen' flick. It always was intended to be displayed as a 4:3 image. I love widescreen movies, but this one isn't!

Anyway, the movie's great. I haven't read the book so I won't try to compare the two. I loved the cinematography. And the music is pretty engaging as well. And for those of you out there who don't really like horrors because they tend to be gore fests you need not worry about this film. It does contain some interesting (maybe disturbing is a better word) scenes, but mainly the movie is just beautifully creepy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Here'ssssss Johnny!
Review: Stanley Kubrick did a fine job on the Stephen King story with this Horror classic of the Bizarre. It deals with Jack Nicholson
who is a family man who takes his wife and kid to a haunted
Hotel where suddenly things turn to the worst when their vacation
turns into a nightmare of Screaming terror.

A Must see.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: cold-as-the-grave genius
Review: Jack Nicholson's terrific leering insanity, and two little girls who will wander hauntingly through your mind. Add Stanley Kubrick's cold-as-the-grave genius, truly spine-tickling scenes, and complex, oblique riddles which call for repeated viewing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great movie on an OK DVD
Review: The person who bashed this DVD for being in full frame probabley didn't know it was not shot in letterbox. "Not in it's original widescreen", actually this movie wasn't even shot in widescreen, but in full frame (in fact, none of Kubricks films, with the exception of 2001 and Spartacus, even were). Although I prefer widescreen myself, I don't deduct marks if a film is shot in full frame with the DVD also being so. I know this isn't much of a review, just not to get you confused on this DVD.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: FULL-SCREEN?
Review: I have enjoyed this movie ever since I can remember. And years later it's finally available on the best (so far) video format around. And it's in the FULL-SCREEN format?! I don't understand why Warner Brothers would bother releasing such a classic and it not being in it's orginal widescreen version. I give the actual movie five stars. But the lousy full-screen version drives me nuts! I'm glad I rented it! I just hope they re-release it like they did Willy Wonka. I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Like most King movies, not even half as good as the book.
Review: Stephen King's THE SHINING, is one of the less suspenseful and less action-packed novels compared to most of his others. Unfortunately, -as with most of King's flics, which are, generally-speaking, one-star debacles- the movie, "The Shining" isn't even half as good as the mediocre novel was.

The Shining is flawed in about every conceivable way: With the exception of Jack Nicholson, the remaining actors are far more insipid and less interesting and solid as the book would have you imagine them being. The movie omits some of the novel's best moments, and when the movie DOESN'T omit suspenseful moments from the book, it either shows it in a very cheesy, unsuspenseful manner and/or doesn't follow the book accurately. (E.g., Jack Nicholson was supposed to be using a mallet to injure people, not an axe; the black man arrived at the hotel by way of a snowplow with a roof, but in the book it was a snowmobile, etc.) All in all, The Shining ends up being the most boring, suspenseless, and one of the cheesiest Stephen King flics I've ever seen.

The movie may be worth purchasing if you are an extremely die-hard King connoisseur, but if not then don't even consider this disastrous film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Heeeeere's Mediocrity!"
Review: In an introduction to a new edition of Stephen King's book, The Shining, he says that he reached a point while writing the book where he could leave the main character as just an every day crazy villian, or he could go deeper, and create someone who was not only driven insane by the ghosts of the hotel, but by his past (pariticularly his father, and memories of certain things he did while he was drunk-read the book for specifics). Not only would he be DRIVEN to kill, he would start to WANT to kill. Mr. King did decide to go deeper, and the result is one of the best books around. Unfortunately, Mr. Kubrick decided not to go deeper. In the movie, Jack Nicholson plays a guy who is insane from the get-go. Nothing really interesting about his character really, but it provides for some cool movie lines.
I'm not saying that this is a horrible movie, though. As evidenced by my four star rating, I think this is a pretty good movie. It definately is scary, using kind of subliminal images (flashing the dead twin little girl ghosts on the screen) much like The Exorcist, to provide an air of real spookiness that will have you looking over your shoulder if you watch this alone at night, to make sure there isn't a ghost behind you or something.
However, Kubrick could have elevated this to the rank of a classic. In the book, the main character slowly is driven mad by the hotel. He doesn't just go nuts, though. He fights (not literally-in his head) the influence of the hotel. He actually has times where he comes out of the trance it has him in, usually after he does something he normally wouldn't do, like hitting his son-and he thinks to himself "What the hell did I just do?". He also kind of redeems himself in the end. The book also has some great sequences that would have been great in the movie. Like the whole thing with the hedge animals. I read that part and was totally freaked out. I jumped when I heard my heater kick on! It also included the boiler which needed to have the steam knocked down everyday, or else it would explode. There are just so many elements of the book that could have made this movie into a masterpiece! What was Stanley thinking?!
Anyway, enough of my b#tching. This was a very entertaining movie, and it held my interest throughout. It definately can be watched over and over again without becoming boring. A great effort by Kubrick, but he could have made it a sensational effort (there I go again...I just can't seem to stop my p*ssing and moaning about this). I highly reccommend that you see it, and on second thought, I think the title of my review is a little harsh, but it is a cool title and I like it too much to change it. If you feel that I just bashed one of your favorite movies, feel free to click "NO", but really, this is a good movie and I DID like it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great book, incomplete movie
Review: I love Stephen King's book, the Shining, so I wanted to see the movie. I found it startlingly imcomplete. I watched it with my parents, who hadn't read the book. They kept asking questions, and I understood that, because so many vital explanations were left out. Don't get me wrong- it creeped the hell out of me and some parts were even better than in the book, but it was just too incomplete for me personally. Pick up the book, if you want a true masterpiece in horror.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A MARVEL OF HORROR
Review: Stanley Kubricks interpretation of Steven Kings novel is excellant. Even though Mr.King might now think so himself, this is a hauntingly scary movie. The first time i watched it, i was dumbfounded by the shear brilliance of the work. I was not yet convinced though of it's triumph over the large "main-stream" horror hurdle. When i was not able to get the movie out of my mind, it struck me that this movie created a new standard in the motion picture business.
You will NEVER forget The Shining.


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