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Post by pain93 on Jun 25, 2008 23:50:58 GMT -5
It had been A VERY LONG time since I have seen 'The Shinning' but tonight after getting the DVD a few days ago I popped it in and boy could I not be happier or more freaked out. Jack Nicholson gives a hands down Oscar worthy performance as the ever psycho and scary Jack Torrance. Some of his line delivery is pure magic..." 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 *beep* in. Ha, ha." or the ever famous,"Here's Johnny!" But I really found myself loving Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance. For one, I couldn't keep my eyes off of her she is so odd looking and for two I really like her as an actress. I hear people complain a lot saying she almost ruined the film or how annoying she was, I don't think so. I thought she was brilliant. The film is truly disturbing as well as scary-hell it might be one of the scariest films I have ever seen. My favorite scenes were Near the end when Wendy is running through the hotel and she sees the guy in the weird costume giving the other guy head and then she sees the whole hotel in cobwebs and skeletons and I love the famous 'bathroom here's Johnny segment Over all a truly fascinating and now after a most needed re watch a favorite film of mine and not just horror 10/10 (This is going in my top ten)
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Coffin Jim
Administrator
What is blood? It is the reason to exist!
Posts: 619
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Post by Coffin Jim on Jun 26, 2008 0:01:34 GMT -5
"Don't you mean The Shining?" "Ssshhh! You wanna get sued?!" ;D I love it too, and wish I had it on DVD. It's one of the best slow-burners of all-time. My only complaint is that Jack goes nuts too quickly (he's practically crazy in his first scene). Otherwise, I think it was superior to the book in every way. King thought he was proving a point by making that TV adaptation, but he was really just making an ass of himself.
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mdgeist316
Gorehound
The cake is a lie....
Posts: 29
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Post by mdgeist316 on Jun 26, 2008 7:16:23 GMT -5
"Don't you mean The Shining?" "Ssshhh! You wanna get sued?!"
Dammit Jim, you beat me to it!
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jessicaligula
Horror Fiend
Cut word lines Cut music lines Smash control images Smash the control machine
Posts: 66
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Post by jessicaligula on Jun 26, 2008 21:06:29 GMT -5
The Shining will forever be in my top ten. Kubrick's films are so visually stunning and unfortunately, Shelley Duvall is considered not to be. But I cannot picture it without her. You say, "you couldn't keep your eyes off of her." Kubrick knew exactly what he was doing when she was cast. I think she is also visually stunning in a weird, what the fuck am I looking at, kind of way.
I think the scene with Gradey (Grady sp?) and Jack in the restroom of the ballroom is possibly my favorite scene of all time.
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Post by obscure437 on Jun 26, 2008 21:51:47 GMT -5
10 from me too. One of the first horrors I saw, and responsible for the obsessive film geek I am today.
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Post by The Question on Jun 28, 2008 9:14:32 GMT -5
I'm going to be the voice of dissent here on this film. I think it's very good technically and looks great, this is a Kubrick film afterall and it was an impossibility for the man to do otherwise, but other than that I think it's one of his least accomplished movies. For the story to work, it has to be about the people, and them all being essentially trapped together inside this creepy hotel, the claustrophobia driving them all to extremes, especially the father who's slowly being driven insane. It's a boiling pot of psychosis and the supernatural, and from the start you know it's going to explode it's only a matter of when, and it's that anticipation that ratchets up the tension. Kubrick was too obssessed with the technical details, the infamous take-after-take strive for perfection works against it in this case. Aside from the odd creepy shot of some empty part of the hotel, most of the time it falls flat because of Kubrick's meticulous, majestic eye for detail - like the blood from the elevator, it's just too beautiful to be scary and serves no purpose.
The pacing is too languid at points and the conclusion comes too suddenly without any build-up. How many times do you actually see Jack doing anything leading up to him suddenly going off the wall and trying to kill his family? Not enough to have been worrying about him the whole time and being scared for his wife and child. Also, Nicholson just being allowed to go OTT and finally embrace just being "Jack Nicholson" on screen...a lot of people like it, I don't. I've seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I know he can do better when he's actually challenged by another actor almost knocking him off the screen (Brad Dourif, in that case), here he had no competition and is just amusing rather than frightening, it's lazy acting. People complain about Shelley Duvall, but her acting is a hell of a lot better, since really she was so traumatised by Kubrick and almost at the point of a nervous breakdown it's hardly acting. The problem with that is she grates on the nerves because of it, the kid is pretty uninspiring as child actors go, so there's no sympathy for their plight or slowly-building fear for their well-being. Frankly, if Jack had hacked them to bits and served them as pate I could have cared less.
The biggest problem is the "supernatural" elements - it doesn't know how to play it. For a good length of the movie, only Danny can ever see any of this supernatural gunk, so it hints maybe it's just in his imagination etc, but it affects only him. There's no evidence at all of it working on the adults. So maybe you have a The Innocents situation, where you can suggest it's really just the isolation and simmering family issues driving a wedge between them and Jack mad - his alcoholism, his feeling like a failure as a writer, abusive father etc. But NO! Then it whacks you in the face with things that can only be supernatural in the last half - the boy communicating with Scatman Crother's character telepathically, the freezer/storeroom door locking shut of its own volition, so it's inconsistent in that respect.
*takes a deep breath*
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest...I think there are better haunted house movies out there and this one gets far too much praise, because of the King/Kubrick/Nicholson thing. It's good, but not great.
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