Reviews of The Shining

The Shining review

Posted : 3 weeks ago on 8 December 2009 07:41 (A review of The Shining)

The Shining is an absolute masterpiece from Stanley Kubrick. This is the phenomenon of horror films. I loved pretty much everything about this film. The Shining is a scary, haunting and psychological film that makes me feel really good which is very rare of a horror film. That is one of the main reasons why The Shining is the greatest horror film of all time. It is like a fantasy film when you look at it in a deeper way because of the visions within Jack's mind and Danny's as well. It was scary but not scary enough for it to freak me out. It wasn't so much the characters but it was the music that did it for me. It is scary because it is a massive hotel which is beautiful, clean and peaceful. What I find really twisted about this is that its a nice hotel in the countryside but unfortunately it is possessed and the Torrance family are the unlucky ones. They are torn apart by the hotel through Jack. This teaches about a lot of things in life particularly wherever you are it is never 100% certain that you are safe. It was a very clever horror film not just because it is a piece of work from the late Stanley Kubrick, not just because it stars Jack Nicholson and that it's a novel from my favourite novelist Stephen King but because of the cinematic qualities it has and how well it was filmed.


Jack Nicholson delivers one of the most terrifying performances I've ever seen. Jack has always been one of those actors who plays really entertaining characters both heroes and villains. When he is Jack Torrance he shows how scary he really can be. I get an impression that people underestimated Nicholson as a villain before The Shining. I think Jack's performance leads to his role as the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman because of the real psychological side of seeing Nicholson as a complete psycho. I really liked Jack's determination to this film because he made the acting decent to watch especially because Shelley Duvall was pretty bad as Wendy Torrance. There are quite a few reasons for this. I don't think she took Wendy's character which is what should be done in a film particularly from a director like Stanley Kubrick I also realise that Wendy is an innocent woman who's husband is going mad and her son is wrapped up in his own world as well, so she is suffering from this but what annoyed me about Shelley was that she always pulled the same face when upset, she was constantly wailing and wasn't even crying. I also think that she didn't quite say her words in a correct way of professional acting. Even director Kubrick said that her performance was dreadful. I saw this on a documentary called "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures " on Kubrick's work. He stated to Shelley Duvall during filming of The Shining: "You've got to sound serious, Shelley, or else you re just wasting everyone's f***ing time". Kubrick was right about that though. But I will Shelley credit for how scary she looks when freaked out so that's where her acting was decent. I liked Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance as well. Because of him being a child star in a horror film, I find it a close similarity to Linda Blair as possessed girl in The Exorcist.


I cannot believe that Kubrick earned a Razzie nomination as Worst Director. I think he directed it pretty well with camera angles especially the "Here's Johnny!" scene. He just did what he does best and that is that he directs his films in his own way. Directs them very similarly as zooming out/in camera angles. He directed Jack Nicholson's actions well but I admit he didn't do very well with Shelley Duvall's which could have been improved. I have always admired King's work but I think that this film is the closest film to its book. The script was half original-half adapted because most horrors are original but The Shining is like an epic horror film which makes it the first and only of that kind. Epics are films that are written into adapted scripts.


The Shining is a haunting and epic masterpiece. It is one of Jack Nicholsons best and one of Kubricks best as well. It is one of the most iconic horrors of all time if not the most iconic. I think that this film is almost perfect (apart from Shelley Duvall) which is why The Shining is the greatest horror film of all time.

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Faz jus ao cargo de Clássico

Posted : 4 weeks, 1 day ago on 30 November 2009 08:46 (A review of The Shining)

A tempo que eu tentava assistir The Shining, porém, por diversos motivos, nunca consegui. Até que decidi apelar para a pirataria e baixar da internet, maravilhosa internet.
Quando um filme carrega a fama de 'clássico' nas costas, tenho que admitir que eu sempre assisto com um pé atras, principalmente depois da minha frustrada experiência com A clockwork orange e voalá! The shining é do mesmo diretor.
Sempre senti atração pelas obras literárias de Stephen King, apesar de só ter lido um livro dele. Ao pesquisar sobre o filme, li várias criticas negativas sobre a adaptação. O filme ainda estava baixando e eu já perdia as esperanças de ver um clássico que prestasse, o diretor era o mesmo sujeito que fez o, para mim péssimo A clockwork orange e estava sendo massacrado por não ser fiel ao livro de Stephen King.
Comprei um cachorro quente, desliguei tudo, sentei na frente do computador (o qual nunca foi meu preferido meio de ver filmes) e comecei. Achei engraçado um filme clássico começar com um erro tão gritante quanto o que vi. A sombra do helicóptero que filmava aparecia sem cerimônia pelas montanhas. É, o filme começou mal.
Mas esse, junto com a péssima atuação de Shelley Duvall -que mais parecia uma retardada (sem mais delongas)- foram os únicos pontos ruins do filme. Pior que até a péssima atuação dela as vezes parecia legal. Mesmo.
O filme tem um clima fantástico, a ambientação no hotel não tinha como ser melhor, até o pequeno ator Danny Lloyd fez um ótimo trabalho, junto claro, de Jack Nicholson, que conseguiu subir pontinhos comigo após o filme.
O desenrolar da trama é sensacional, fazendo duas horas e meia de filme passarem sem você perceber, não sendo maçante e chato como A clockwork orange.
A parte final é cheia de suspense e ação, deixando o filme somente melhor e melhor a cada cena. Pouco me importa se o filme não foi fiel ao livro, já que não li o mesmo, o que importa é que, como filme, The Shining é um clássico de letra maiúscula. Deixando tantos outros suspenses e pseudos-clássicos no chinelo.
Se quer um filme de qualidade, que te faça ficar realmente preso a cada cena, não tenha medo, The Shining é concerteza um clássico absoluto do gênero, com uma posição muito merecida na lista de filmes para se ver antes de morrer.


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Shining review

Posted : 1 month ago on 26 November 2009 07:43 (A review of The Shining)

Well no doubt this has plenty of classic moments, but thats mainly because this movie is 20 hours long and it has Jack Nicholson in it. He pretty much has to carry the film the whole time and try to make it look halfway good in the prescene of horrid actress Shelly Duvall who seems to enjoy making retarted facial expressions just to see how much it will piss off the viewer. The movie's pace is slower than molassas and sometimes is just downright funny because of all the freakin overacting. They cut out a bunch of stuff from the book and turned it from "supernatural" horror to "psychological" horror. In other words, Mr. Kubrick turned it from imaginative and entertaining to crappy and annoying. Overall this movie still was pretty good considering the parts that everyone knows and quotes and also a few others as well. Still not enough to save it from being the so called "classic" that it is. Ah well.

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The shining example of horror.

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 10 November 2009 12:23 (A review of The Shining)

''Darling. Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in. I'm gonna bash 'em right the fuck in. Ha, ha.''

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Jack Nicholson: Jack Torrance

Shelley Duvall: Wendy Torrance

The Shining as soon as it begins, as soon as the music eerily plays and the landscape zooms in and past, you instantly know this is a piece by Kubrick. I mean it's so blindingly obvious.

The film is based on Stephen King's novel and the combination of Stanley Kubrick bringing it to life on the big screen, we have before us gold.
We get a boy who right from the off is made apparent he has a psychic gift and visions of things best not seen.
Danny Lloyd plays Danny Torrance with remarkable skill for a boy so young which is a wonder to behold.
Shelley Duvall who portrays Wendy really annoyed the hell out of me. I mean here we have this strange looking woman who delivers her lines in such a flimsy fashion, and I mean some of the clothes she wears are so distasteful it makes The Shining in areas a horror movie for all the wrong reasons. Her scared disposition is believable in parts though and she doesn't do a totally bad job.
Moving on to the main attraction of Shining and yes you have guessed it, it's Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance who steals the limelight and ultimately the show. He's so insanely nuts and off the chain, my humour called for me to laugh every single time he went psychopathic. I mean he totally captures and freezes onto frame the sheer madness of Jack's character. Whether it be visions from his mind perhaps of figures from the past or real supernatural influences from the Hotel, we are treated to his mind and left to make up our own conclusions. Are the figures real or merely part of his sub conscious being drawn out? It's definitely an excuse for discussion and Jack going completely ape is an excuse to re-watch this horror masterpiece.

''Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in.''

The Shining features some of the most warped music which reminded me of the other greats of Kubrick like 2001 and Orange. The Cinematography especially the last scene in the dizzying maze and the start with the countryside being shown is virtually faultless.

Be it the creepy visions the boy has of past occurrences, rooms splashing with blood, or a pair of twins who were blatantly murdered by a previous caretaker. Be it Jack's spiraling maddened journey into the dark side, or his conversations with a surreal bar man who appears to be from the past and part of Jack's weathered conscience. Shining really shines as a masterful piece in the horror stakes and will remain a shining performance for Jack Nicholson and a directorial achievement for the late Kubrick.
The REDRUM and ''HERE'S JOHNNY!'' has become iconic and it's not hard to see why.

Overall I felt Shining is a work of genius that obviously will be replicated and copied by many more horror films trying to achieve the same shocking outcome but alas they all pale in comparison. The ending wasn't as bloodthirsty as I would of hoped, and the closing part with him in the picture wasn't totally understood by me. But the more I think about it, the cleverer it appears to be, like The Shining is telling me Jack has been consumed and become one with a Hotel and place that has buried an ancient angry foreboding embodiment of anger.

The shining grand achievement of Kubrick.

''Heeere's Johnny!''

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REDЯUM

Posted : 11 months, 2 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 12:46 (A review of The Shining)

Nearly thirty years after we first saw Jack Nicholson hack his way through the toilet door, 'The Shining' continues to put the frighteners viewers old and new. I've watched this film a couple of times, and even though I now know exactly what's coming and where, it still sends an uneasy chill up my spine. It's downright disturbing, is what it is.

This timeless horror stars Nicholson as a struggling novelist who, along with his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd), takes a job as winter caretaker in an apparently empty hotel. The fact that's it's the scene of a previous grisly murder and built on an Indian burial ground should set alarm bells ringing, but it seems there's only one person willing to point out how bad an idea the whole thing is. And that's Tony, the gruff-voiced "imaginary" friend who talks through Danny's finger. Suffice to say, they should all have listened to the kid's finger.

Nicholson's display in this is quite simply superb. His gradual descent into outright madness seems slightly unfounded, but there's a strange credibility to his performance that makes such logic seem almost irrelevant.

Director Stanley Kubrick but brings to the story his own brand of visual perfection. Long shots down endless corridors underline the sheer size of the hotel, whilst rapid cuts to an increasing array of ghostly apparitions are unnerving in a way few films have been able to match since.

If Kubrick's intention is to unsettle the viewer, then his film's got its objective down to a tee. The film is riddled with perplexities yet taking your eyes off it is virtually impossible.

One of the horror genre's finest, this isn't a film to watch if you're about to spend the winter alone in a hotel Full of ghosts and axes.



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"All Work & No Play...."

Posted : 1 year, 4 months ago on 4 August 2008 03:31 (A review of The Shining)

First of all, I'm always partial to Stanley Kubrick. IMO, he tends to make movies that are an inch away from being abstract beyond understanding, but keeps the flow of the film reeled in just enough to make seem like it makes sense on some kind of creative level. Add in the grounding of a Stephen King story & a role taylor made for Jack Nicholson, & what you have is one of my top favorite horror movies of all time. And with very little slashing, gore, or shock that most films of this genre (especially today) tend to rely on in order to frighten their audiences. The horror stems more from Jack's delivery & facial expressions as his character, writer Jack Torrance, gradually slips into the madness of a haunted hotel's dark intentions.
The phrase "Here's Johnny!" wouldn't be a very scary line at all if it weren't for Jack's maniacal mug peering thru the door's craggled "peephole", freshly smashed thru by the axe-wielding author who suffers from writer's block & a possesed spirit, not to mention from a severe case of "redrum" on his mind.




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a classic

Posted : 1 year, 6 months ago on 14 June 2008 12:24 (A review of The Shining)

A most satisfying horror-thriller, with some of the best actors. Shelley Duvall's character is annoying, but the cast is perfect. Some scenes are truly terrifying and that is what makes this movie remarkable.
Definitely Kubrick's best work.


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The Shining

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 1 February 2008 04:04 (A review of The Shining)

From the very title scene I liked it. The aerial shots with brilliant camera and haunting music..
The casting is perfect 10/10. Though i hated Shelley Duvall at the beginning, she and the kid wins it.
the favourite scenes are the long shots of the kid's ride through the lobby and Duvall's discovery of her husband's incredible work!
and of course Jack getting angry at her. wow this movie is one of the best horror -thriller ever

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Heeeeeere's Johnny!

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 27 January 2008 09:07 (A review of The Shining)

Kubrick at his finest, Nicholson at his finest. What else could anyone want? This version of Stephen King's book has almost nothing to do with it. And that's one of the best things about the film.

In 1997 King did a remake with many more elements of the book, and the film is a sleeper. I had to watch it like four different times to get through it.

Anyway, I'm not here today to write about the 1997 version, but Kubrick's version. Which is much more worthy.

The story is about Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) an unemployed writer who gets a temporary job as the caretaker of a summer-time hotel, during the winter. All alone up there with his wife, Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd) as time goes by the father begins going crazy because of the solitude and also that he can't work on his book.

Kubrick with his masterful direction makes everything about the Overlook Hotel scary, even when Wendy and Danny are playing in the garden, shortly before the snow falls.

One little thing that bothers me is that the film answers a question that I feel could remain without an answer: Are the ghosts that Jack sees all over the hotel real or not?

But this doesn't compromise at all the film. It is supposed to be scary and it is. Kubrick-like scary, what makes it so much better.

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Horror classic

Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 24 August 2007 04:00 (A review of The Shining)

Does this film really need a review? I mean, it's The Shining! Everyone has seen it, right? And if you haven't whats wrong, why aren't you running to the video store to buy it? It's certainly Stephen King's best adaptation, but I think it is not because of King himself (who hated this version, and was determined to re-make a more true-to-book version several years after this one). The real reason it shines is because the genius Kubrick was at the helm.

If you think about it, not much happens in terms of 'horror', but this film is terrifying simply from the atmosphere and well filmed scenes. The intro is one of the best in any film, showing a car driving down a winding road with majestic mountains everywhere, which that tense classic piece playing. It really sets the tone and gives a sense of just how remote this hotel is.

This is by far my favorite Nicholson performance; he played a family man that decends into madness absolutely without a fault.

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