Stephen King's Shining

This television series was so dreadful, so dull and cheesy, how could any intelligent person possibly endorse it? Sure it was a much more faithful adaptation of King, but, for Christ's sake, it was shot like an after-school special, suffered the WORST miscasting, had some of the most godawful CGI effects (the moving shrubs made our entire roomful of viewers crack up), and lacked any mild attempts at atmosphere or terror. How could anyone EVER be scared by Steven Weber? It's like watching Barney descend into madness. What Kubrick lacked in direct interpretation he so greatly compensated for with a beautiful, disturbing and personal film. Remember people...BASED on the book by Stephen King. There was a reason many things never made it into the original film...they would look absolutely stupid (ie the shrubs) in direct translation and would most certainly detract from the film. Earlier quote - "Kubrick was a bit of a bad director(have i made any one cry just then)" No, you just made me laugh at you!

When I first saw this mini-series I thought it, despite being more faithful than Kubrick's film, was pointless and nowhere near as atmospheric. Watching it again, I think I was being unfair. I do consider Kubrick's film the superior and more atmospheric film overall(I shall never forget the Here Comes Johnny and Woman in the Bathtub scenes), but aside from being much more faithful to the book, which is excellent by the way but as far as King's works go I prefer It and The Stand, there are improvements made here. Jack's transformation is much more subtle, and his and Wendy's relationship is explored much further here. Rebecca DeMornay also is a far better female lead in my opinion, and Steven Weber brings a more human touch while being quite frightening too. The mini-series does look good, the photography and production values are fine, the sound and music are atmospheric, the story is compelling and the dialogue is mostly good. My complaints however are the overlong length, some of the CGI effects which were sometimes unnecessary and the pace is occasionally a little dull. Overall, it is a solid mini-series and much better the second time of viewing. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I liked the fact that the film was more faithful to the book - one of my all-time favorite books, incidentally.

However, that's about the only thing that was better. This version was long, boring and the acting was absolutely horrid. I've never seen a movie where EVERYONE overacted. Elliot Gould as Stuart Ullman was terrifying- Gould tried way too hard, and his performance was wooden.

In fact, it seemed as if all the actors were reading from cue cards the entire time. If someone without any cinematic skills like me can notice this, couldn't the people involved with the film have noticed too? There's no way they wanted people to act like this.

OH well. I didn't think anything could make me think the original Shining was a great movie once I read the book, but I have to say, I'll take the "unfaithful" version anytime.

After reading the book I knew I wanted to watch this version. I feel like it did a service to the book and Steven Weber did a great Jack.

I have loved Kubrik's interpretation of The Shining since the first time it scared me. But that's what it really is, an interpretation. It's well known how Kubrik did his work and the limited amount of input that King had in the original movie. This new interpretation stays closer to the book and you genuinely get the idea that it's the hotel that is evil, while I've always felt that Kubrik's design made it feel more like the Jack went mad. The final scene of Kubrik's version, where he pans over the photos and you see Jack in all of them, has always felt like an homage to what the true meaning was supposed to be. This new version filled me with chills and goosebumps the whole way through. In one scene, when all the chairs in the dining area slide from their tables to the floor, not only was I shivering but I actually jumped. I've read the book; I knew it was coming but it was so perfectly executed that the creepiness was sustained throughout the entire show. That kind of horror/suspense is so rare nowadays, especially for a television mini-series! I truly feel that both versions stand on their own and applaud King for showing the chutzpah to go back and show us another view of The Overlook.