Wonderful character development!

Absolutely Fantastic

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

But it's boring. It is finally done, so good. There it is. Now, glad it rests, for posterity. Kubrick's version has a timeless quality that this sadly does not. It is a parody of itself, even though it's more faithful to King's book.Kid is awful here. Really bad casting decision. Imo)5 bags of popcorn and a windows 95 boot disk

I just re-watched what I will call the "real" movie (even though it wasn't the Stephen King authorized version) and then watched the miniseries version the next day. Wow, the miniseries was an amateurish joke with no comparison to SK's version (I don't care that it departed from the book, since we are talking about movies here).The TV version was flat, cheesy, overdone with the ghosts (which took away their effect). The series just seemed like it was going through the paces to get the plot elements on screen as quickly..The ghost in the black tuxedo was pathetic and the one in the white one wasn't much better. The hotel was not spooky in the slightest and the hedge animals were as scary as Jar-Jar Binks. There was no atmosphere to the location and there was no feel or mood to the scenes.. it was just so one-dimensional in comparison.The actors for the two male roles were also not suited to them IMO. I know people complain about Jack Nicolson being too crazy from the outset, and this departs from Stephen King's version, but I am OK with that after having seen it done both ways.. In the TV version, he never gets there and you can tell he isn't capable of getting there. And the boy: OMG so annoying and flat. The conversations between him and mom with dialog like "it's not dad, it's the hotel..." unconvincing and no true fear, just cold and robotic.The Danny Loyd version was chilling and the TV one was annoying and formulaic.Shelly Duval also did an awesome job of conveying the fear and despair of Wendy's predicament- very believable.I could go on, but won't.... suffice it to say, I was embarrassed for the TV miniseries creators after seeing it.

This is an excellent movie. It's very scary and entertaining. I loved the animals carved out of plants coming to life scene. That's one of the scariest and best scenes. I also loved the part with the ghost in the bath tub. That was just wildly intense. It doesn't matter how faithful to the book a movie is. It just matters how good the movie is. Both this and the 1980 version are very good. Jack doesn't use an ax in this one when he has gone completely insane. He uses a croquet mallet but the terror is no less. In fact I would say the terror of that is more intensely done. The music in this is very good too. It's very creepy. Watch this. It's entertaining from beginning to end.

In my view this is the superior version of the Shining, not just because its closer to the book but because its a better overall and more compelling story than the Kubrick version. I really think the best way to do this review and let people know what to expect is to address a couple of the complaints with it: First of all many people complain about Steven Weber being to nice to be the villain, they totally miss the point, because the Overlook Hotel, not Jack Torrance, is the true villain of the story. If the final ten minutes or so doesn't convince you of that, then I don't know what would.Second of all, the people that stated that they almost hoped Danny would get caught in this movie, to me that's a reflection on our society just becoming darker and more brutal. When did we enter a state where anything sweet and innocent is irritating? Whats the matter with people? Last of all, they complain about the CGI too. Truthfully this is such a small part of the story I didn't even deem it relevant. I mean, seems to me those who say this is just a watered down story just don't even perceive the deeper more emotional elements. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a flawless adaptation, or that I dislike the Kubrick version I don't. But I fail to see whats so deep about it, to me a flawed but overall nice and loving family being beset by an evil hotel makes for a more compelling story than a dysfunctional family of weirdos having their problems merely enhanced by the evil hotel.