Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick & Diane Johnson
Based on the novel by Stephen King
Currently #45 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone and Joe Turkel
Started off my Birthday Moive Blog-a-thon, I wanted to see a movie that is very iconic that I have never seen. The first thing that came to my mind was The Shining. I have seen clips of the movie, but I have never seen the actual movie until now. I don't know if it's just me, but I don't get was the fuss is all about.
A former schoolteacher turned struggling writer, Jack Torrance (Nicholson) moves his family into the Overlook Hotel in Denver as the hotel is closing for the winter. Jack, his wife Wendy (Duvall) and his son, Danny (Lloyd) have the whole hotel is themselves for the next five months. Prior to their arrival, Jack was told by the keeper of the property Stuart Ullman (Nelson) that the previous caretaker killed his wife and children years prior. Keeping that from the family, they discovered that the spirits of the hotel are out to get them one way or another.
The hype surrounding the movie was palpable. I was fully expecting to have a great time with the movie, but I found the movie was very boring. I know that Kubrick wanted to created a mood of cabin fever, paranoia and the slow decent to madness, but I was wishing for it to hurry the fuck up. I thought that Jack Nicholson was in a completely different movie than the rest of the cast. I thought he was the best part of the film and the others were in some low rent B movie. I couldn't stand Shelley Duvall's characters with her googly eyes and her pretending to be scared of Jack. She was awful. The thing that really distracted me was the horrible clothes that she had on. The little boy, Danny was fine, but he got annoying towards the end of the movie.
I felt that the movie was all built up and no pay off. I enjoyed the sequence in the maze, but I felt that those moments were too far between. The choice of music for the film was jarring, because it was trying to build the suspense that leads to nowhere. The ending of the movie, I saw coming from a mile away. I felt disappointed with the movie, because I felt I would be creeped out and scared, but I didn't. It's a shame. I wanted to like this movie, but I didn't.
My Rating
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