Home - Review Archive - Artwork - Chat - Contact - Links
 |
The Shining Directed by: Stanley Kubrick Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers Reviewed by: Scott West |
| Final Score: Movie:  DVD Extras:  Overall Score: |
|
I really shouldn't like this movie. I have never been a huge fan of Kubrick. I did like A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket, but not enough to add them to my DVD collection (not yet anyway). I did avidly read Stephen King's books back in high school, but never liked any enough to collect except for the Dark Tower series and a few of its related spin-offs. That said...I really enjoyed The Shining. I've read that this particular movie translation is Stephen King's least favorite of all the stuff that's been done. However, I think that says that King just doesn't have good taste in movies. Other than Storm of the Century and the Creepshow films, all of the King-based films have been total crud. While Kubrick changed a bit from the book and altered the overall tone, the basic premise is the same. Jack Torrance (Nicholson) is a recovering alcoholic writer who takes a job caring for the remote (and supposedly haunted) Overlook hotel during it's winter shut-down season in the hopes of having a little peace and quiet to work on a new book. He takes his wife Wendy (Duvall) and son Danny (Lloyd) along for the ride. The family is obviously a little dysfunctional. Wendy's a skittish fearful lady and little Danny, as we learn early on, has an imaginary friend named Tony who helps him deal with things. However, we also learn that Danny has a gift known as "the shining" that allows him to see and sense things that other people can't. With this gift, Tony cues Danny in on the horrors that are to come. As the winter rolls in and the Overlook is cut off from all civilization, Jack becomes prey to ghosts, both of the hotel's past as well as his own. The DVD itself is pretty bare. The video is solid and shown in the original full frame 4:3 ratio since that's how it was filmed. The sound, while listed on the packaging as 5.1 hasn't been changed much, so there's no real surround sound frights-from-behind here. However, this is all fully approved by Kubrick, so it stays true to what he intended with the film and I'm all for artists having the final say. The only other bonuses here are a trailer for the movie and commentary from the director's daughter. However, even with the sparse extras, this is still a creepy masterwork that's worthy of your library. Back to Reviews |
Contact Information - About Creep-a-Go-Go!
Some of the graphics here were collected from free clipart sites.
If you see anything here that infringes on anyone's copyright, let me know and it'll disappear.
The Creep-a-Go-Go logo and all other website design is copyright 2005 Swank! Design.
All artwork, reviews and stories are copyright their respective owners.
This site is maintained by Swank! founder Scott West
bravenet.com