Rating: 
Summary: Three cheers for Shelley Duvall!
Review: How's this for a minority viewpoint? A lot of people don't like her performance because they don't like her character whom they see as absurdly passive. Excuse me, but I've known lots of very sweet, very passive women ( like Wendy in the film) who would (and have) put up with exactly the kind of bullying and abuse she puts up with from the creep wonderfully played by Jack Nicholson -- a real louse even before the spooks get hold of him...Ms Duvall played this type of person, desperate to please and be loved and taken care of, flawlessly. This film is a masterpiece. Unlike junk horror films, the fear builds slowly, gradually drawing you in. The camera work (using a technique that Kubrick pioneered, I understand) gives the feeling of being there with her in that haunted hotel. Easily one of the best horror films ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Horror's finest feature
Review: The Shining is an excellent film. It made the AFI's (American Film Institute) top 100 most thrilling films. It is about a struggling writer/alcoholic (Nickloson) who slowly goes crazy while occypying a hotel in the winter months. His wife and son (Duvall and Danny Lloyd) also give great performances. Lloyd's young performance was as good, if not better than Haley Joel Osment's in The Sixth Sense. But be forewarned, this film containes nudity, violence/gore, and language (mainly by Jack).
Rating:
Summary: So here's the deal with this movie...
Review: You cannot try and compare this marvelous film to the likewise marvelous Stephen King novel of the same name, and (basically) plotline. If you do, I suppose that you will be shocked and amazed to learn that Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick are two different people. They likewise had two different ideas about this story, and made it very differently.Getting past this,I would just like to say that this is one of the most frightening movies out there, on par (in my mind) with The Silence of the Lambs and Strangers on a Train. All in all, just great, in Cinematography and screenwriting. I would also like to say thatI think that the conclusion of this film is far superior than that of the novel, and far scarier. I'm a lover of the climactic ending.
Rating: 
Summary: strictly a B-movie
Review: Without Stanley Kubrick's name on this picture, it would have disappeared years ago, never to be heard from again, except when some movie critic wanted to point out that not even Jack Nicholson can make horrible dialogue work. (Heeere's Johnny -- A reminder to myself, should I wake up and find myself a director and make a horror movie, to include some cheesy line, like "Where's the beef" so I'll forever get credit as a great director.) I got the movie on DVD, though I'd seen it years ago as a kid, and I start watching the movie, and I find myself laughing my butt off right from the start. Okay, we have some great fly-by opening sequence shots of the Rocky mountains, and then there's this shot with the shadow of the helicopter plainly visible on the ground below. No one, not even Kubrick, notices this shadow? Or took the effort to EDIT out the shadow, which would have been oh-so difficult, like snip-snip, it's gone. Then we get to the hotel, and the whole top half of the screen is a whirl of helicopter blades. It's so amateur it's almost satire. And the opening credits, what's with them? Did they run over budget and have to con some freshman film major to produce these gawd-awful credits? Okay, I'm still keeping an open mind. This is a great thriller from a great director, with a great lead actor, and so what if Stephen King thought so little of this movie (despite the incredibly long list of bad movies based on his novels, novellas, short stories, and other brain-farts) that he made it a point to have this movie remade for TV (of all things--and I can't say I saw it, so can't compare the two.) Then the movie "starts," we're past the opening credits, and we see Jack interviewing for the job as caretaker of this old, creepy hotel. Now any real director knows that the opening scene(s) set the tone for the entire movie, and however much those opening scenes are strictly plot, those opening scenes are the most important of the whole movie to some extent and any director who knows about "story" isn't going to sleepwalk through those opening scenes, but is going to take extra care to make sure they are perfect. Not Stan, who can't blame Mr. King, as he is in charge of the movie, and is one of the scriptwriters to boot. That opening scene plays out like a bunch of high school actors nervously auditioning for a part, not quite sure how they're supposed to be acting, and not sure if they just can't act or the lines are just so stilted that they can't be spoken aloud without fidgeting from embarrassment. There it goes from there, a camera rolling off in the distance, director asleep in his chair, dreaming of how he's such a genius, actors doing whatever they feel like, which in the case of Shelly Duvall means squeaking out her lines like some pathetic whiner, as they rip off The Exorcist and The Omen (kid speaking demonically, kid speeding through corridors on a big wheel tricycle, respectively,) nobody ever asking themselves, are we making a movie with a point?! Oh, but the kid talks with his finger! I can't forget that. It's so classic and scary and avant-garde. [Please note, that that is sarcasm.] I could go on, but it pains me. This is a class-A B-movie, with all the trimmings. I think I'll go watch Plan Nine from Outer Space now.
Rating: 
Summary: Not THAT good...
Review: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is about three people who live in an old hotel for nearly a year, alone, with almost no outside contact. The main character, Jack, goes absolutely beserk after living in the hotel for about three months and tries to kill his family, Danny and Wendy, who are there as well. The film is very slow-paced, and it is really hard to get into. The film doesn't get really interesting until about an hour and a half in, when Jack starts going crazy. Danny, Jack's son, has this magical power called The Shining and can see into the hotel's colorful past, bringing up disturbing images of chopped up girls, nude old women in bathtubs and ten gallons of blood pooring out of a elevator. The film is definitely not for children, hence the R rating, due to graphic violence/gore, full frontal nudity, tons of strong profanity, and deeply disturbing images. People 14 and under - stay away!
Rating:
Summary: The Shining
Review: This is by far one of Kubricks best pieces of film direction. Jack Nicholson brings to the screen an unforgetable performance as the possesed psycho who is overcome by the spirits that stay in The Overlook Hotel that he decides to look after with his family over the winter peroid. no one else could have played the part any better than Nicholson himself. Watch out for the unforgetable scene where his character eventually begins to snap and the camera slowly zooms in on his face as he glowers out of the window as his family play in the snow or when he smashes his way through the bedroom door with the axe. The original book that the film is adapted from is more complex and carries a lot more detail but Kubrick manages to deal with this problem and condenses the film while still making it enjoyable and make sense. The supporting cast also do a good job and act magnificantly with Nicholson.
Rating:
Summary: "Wendy....I'm home!!!"
Review: If you own the earlier DVD of "The Shining", trash (or sell) it; this is the definitive version. Completely remastered from the original negative, the image is incredibly smooth and free of the analog noise and dirt, grain, etc., that plagued the sorry earlier effort (taken from the same aged master used to strike the old VHS and Laserdisc editions). The image is unbelievably pristine, considering Kubrick's fondness for "pushing" the film stock, usually resulting in a bit more grain than usual. This is a wonderful picture, and Kubrick, were he still alive, certainly would have approved. Added to this is the terrific new 5.1 sound mix; subtle, but giving the film a newfound, creepy edge (something the old mono-only soundtrack simply couldn't do) and enhancing the jarring musical cues and overall atmosphere of extreme disquiet. As for the issue of widescreen - particularly another reviewer's ill-informed and naive statement that no DVD is worth owning unless it is in widescreen - Kubrick did not shoot any of his films (with the exceptions of "Spartacus" and "2001: A Space Odyssey") in scope; all were shot "full frame" and "soft" matted for theatrical display. In short, you're seeing all (if not more, since the theater matting chopped off the top and bottom) of the image Kubrick composed in-camera. Warner's deserves high kudos for these fine remasters of Kubrick's films.
Rating:
Summary: Great cinematography, and O.K. story...
Review: Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' is based on Stephen King's 1978 novel of the same name. I personally think Kubrick's version is better. King's version is quite slow-paced, and the little "sub-plots" which plague King's version are distracting. The film stars Jack Nicholson (one may think Mr. Nicholson really is crazy after seeing this film) Shelly Duvall and newcomber Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrence. The film is much scarier than the novel (girl's hacked to pieces in a hallway, a rotting old lady in a bathtub...) and it is more entertaining than the novel. The film gets a tad boring in the middle but more than makes up for it in the mind-blowing climax. Overall, if you're interested in the hotel more than you are the characters, read the book, however, if you are more interested in the characters, then by all means, see the film.
Rating: 
Summary: The Shining
Review: This film, in my opinion, is the best horror film ever made. The historical hotel setting is perfect. Hundreds of miles from anyone, on the side of a mountain, the "Overlook" hotel waits, with the icy snow piled high againt the doors outside, the art deco Native American furnishings indoors, a fire crackling in the huge fireplace, a typewriter....is that "Midnight with the Stars and You" playing in the Gold Ballroom? Can't be. You are the only one here...or are you? There is an evil presence from the 1920's in the Overlook. The hotel seems to take over your husband's/father's mind and he is hunting you down like a wild animal. The hotel wants you to check in and stay forever and ever and ever. Who will be added to the Overlook's "History" next? Jack Nicholson (Jack Torrance) is excellent! As are Shelley Duvall (Wendy Torrance) and Danny Lloyd (Danny Torrance). This is one film that will stay with you for quite some time. So "go check it out!".
Rating:
Summary: Shelley Duvall re-defines the word TERRORIZED
Review: I've never seen a film starring Jack Nicholson that I didn't like, so I wasn't surprised when I loved this one! I saw "The Shining" at the theatre ca. 1981, then rented the VHS tape. This DVD adaptation is the next best thing to seeing it at the movies once again. -- Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall take their young son along as they play "house sitters" at a resort that closed for the winter. Little does Duvall (nor the audience) know that Nicholson has a mysterious (and unbelievable) secret. When he runs after his bewildered wife with a hatchet, Duvall gets her first clues. I won't give away the bizarre ending, but I promise you will sit by the edge of your seat (or stand in the doorway for a quick get-away!) for the entire running time. This is one of Hollywood's best horror thrillers! Enjoy!
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