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Plot:
Frustrated writer Jack Torrance takes a job as the winter caretaker at the ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. When he arrives there with his wife and son, they lear...( read more
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The Shining Recent Reviews
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:December 29, 2008Ostensibly a haunted house story, it manages to traverse a complex world of incipient madness, spectral murder and supernatural visions ...and also makes you jump.
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MCT:December 22, 2008"Here's Johnny!"
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MCT:November 21, 2008
I thought this was very stylish but not frightening in the way I expected. I guess I expected more from Kubrick.
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MCT:November 3, 2008Kinda' long. Of course, Jack Nicholson and Danny Lloyd are both great. As an added plus, Danny, at that age, was just like me at that age--same haircut, similar behavior, similar overall appearance, and his voice as tony sounds just like I did all the time.
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MCT:October 29, 2008
"He Came As The Caretaker, But This Hotel Had Its Own Guardians - Who'd Been There A Long Time"
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- or, rather, a homicidal boy in Stanley Kubrick's eerie 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel. With wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and psychic son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker at the opulently ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. Before the Overlook is vacated for the Torrances, the manager (Barry Nelson) informs Jack that a previous caretaker went crazy and slaughtered his family; Jack thinks it's no problem, but Danny's "shining" hints otherwise. Settling into their routine, Danny cruises through the empty corridors on his Big Wheel and plays in the topiary maze with Wendy, while Jack sets up shop in a cavernous lounge with strict orders not to be disturbed. Danny's alter ego, "Tony," however, starts warning of "redrum" as Danny is plagued by more blood-soaked visions of the past, and a blocked Jack starts visiting the hotel bar for a few visions of his own. Frightened by her husband's behavior and Danny's visit to the forbidding Room 237, Wendy soon discovers what Jack has really been doing in his study all day, and what the hotel has done to Jack.
Review
Holy fishpaste. That's all I can say after watching "The Shining". This is perhaps Kubrick's best work ever, even toppling my previous Kubrick fave 'Full Metal Jacket'.
What I liked about the film is that Stanley Kubrick delved in the evil-ness of one man and what isolation can really do to you. Isolation, loneliness, the sense of not failing and doing and achieving what is given to you no matter what the cost is, it is all here.
So, the film is about this family going up in this hotel located in the most isolated of all places and they are given the task of caretaking the hotel during the winter season. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is a former schoolteacher turned writer and he brings his family, little Danny boy, his son and his wife Wendy.
As the months pass, strange things starts to happen, ghosts appear here and there, things start to move on its own and the walls starts to bleed (well, not really but you get my point) but the real kicker is, as the months pass in this shithole of a hotel, good olde Jack starts turning into a nuthouse. The Overlook (the hotel) starts talking to him about stuff and whatnot and it made the screws in his head loosen. And as he flies closer and closer into the cuckoo's nest, his wife and kid cannot be more eager to get the hell out of the place. Little Danny boy starts to "shine" (its this ESP thing where you can see shit you're not supposed to see) and he has this vision of two little girls who was murdered by their father in the hotel (who by the way shits on the well-dwelling, long-haired little girl on so many levels, those two girls are the scariest thing I saw. Ever.)
Wife and kid wants to get the fuck outta there but good old Jacky wants to stay. He wants to fulfill the task given to him and that is to take care of the place no matter what. The Overlook tells good old Jack to "correct" his wife and kid and he must accomplish the "correcting" task no matter what. For those of you who still don't know what "correcting" is, it means "kill those bitches".
So, yeah, good old Jack completely turned into an axe-wielding maniac and goes "Here's Johnny!" on his wife and he starts chasing his family all around the hotel. I will not delve deeper into this part because I want you to watch it on your own. Trust me, you wouldn't want me spoiling the best ending ever. Ever. And if I say the best ending ever I mean the most mind twisting, most mind bending and the most shocking ending you will ever see.
I was like "What the shit? Why is he in the picture? HUH?". I didn't get the ending at first but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I researched what really happened in the end. Now, I understand. It was a hidden twist, a metaphorical twist and a twist of all twists.
I gotta give it to Stanley Kubrick, he has created a horror masterpiece of multiple layers. You think you got it all mapped out until the end but then, once you reach the ending, you realize that the director was going in a different way. You can see, but you don't observe. He puts numerical references, intentional continuities and clues that makes Dan Brown run for his money.
Jack Nicholson on the other hand, gives off one of the creepiest performances ever in cinema history. His villainy factor is in par with Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Lee. To be honest, he is even scarier than the ghosts! He has created a creepy character that will not be forgotten.
So I suggest you get off your high horse and if you have not seen this film, you are missing out a lot. Very truly uberly highly recommended. -
MCT:January 4, 2009
I am wat ching this one for the umpteenth time! I love this movie! Jack Nicholson is such a great actor! Those 2 little girls are effing creepy! Such a good old movie! I love the 80's!
Comments
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Juliaistoocoolposted 176 days ago -
could some-body please explain the ending of this to me ........what was the deal with him being in the photograph ??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????
posted 193 days ago -
REDRUM REDRUM. (People have gotten jack nicholsons face from the movie poster tattooed on them.Thats how good this movie is)
posted 206 days ago -
I see that the short version of this film has just been reissued on DVD in the UK again. What a wasted opportunity. And who cares what Stephen King thinks or doesn't think about Kubrick's "The Shining"? As far as I'm concerned, he forfeited the right to complain about lousy adaptations of his work when he directed one of the worst: "Maximum Overdrive".
posted 296 days ago -
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Stephen King may be a talented writer, but he is an IDIOT for saying that his version of The Shinning, which aired on I believe it was the Sci-Fi Channel, is scarier than the original. He probably felt chaffed that he didn't have the artistic control over the movie, which I heard he didn't want & gave up willingly when he signed the rights to the book over to the studio, but he grew disenfranchised with it over time.
This is a MUCH scarier and better version than the thing that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel!posted 349 days ago -
i love this movie! couldn't take a bath again for a while. I was really young when i watched this film.
posted 361 days ago -
Well,its one of my favorite movies,but just if you dont relate it with Stephen Kings book,Kubrick changed almost everything!!! the characters are great,but if you read the book at first and you are a King´s fan...you can hate the movie.
posted 430 days ago -
if you like the shining have a look at this - it's very funny and the guy doing jack is amazing.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZVhXxzzG58posted 490 days ago -
Amazing. Along with Clockwork Orange And 2001: Oddisey... The best of Kubrick. Different from the book, a lot. But I'm not comparing, I'm saying that, as a movie, is simply a classic, and one of the best. With Misery and It, the best movies bassed on King's movies.
posted 510 days ago
