VividSimon Simply Perfect

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

bobbylurch When I found out about this, I was curious to see what this would be like. But when I sat through the whole thing, i took the disc and case and though it away in the garbage, because that's what this is. A bag of s**t!Where do I start? Let's start with the comparison to the source material. Is it faithful to Stephen King's hit novel? Yes, yes it is. Unfortunately, this faithfulness to its source material is what makes this mini series suck so much, because clearly King doesn't understand the differences between literature and film. Film and literature are two completely different mediums and thus, everything that worked in one medium won't have the same effect in the other!I've noticed the reviews praising this mini-series have one thing in common: they all say the mini series is great for being faithful to the novel. If you actually judge this film by the acting, atmosphere, and directing, its no contest that Kubrick's version is the far superior version.First off, the acting. Steven Weber is horrible and completely emotionless. He doesn't act anything like an actual psycho, which makes Jack's descent into madness completely horrible and poorly done. Maybe Jack's mind deteriorated the way King wanted it to, but the guy's bad acting ruined it.Next off, Courtland Mead. I absolutely hated this kid! He's annoying and emotionless. Plus, the way he kept his mouth open the entire time made me think this kid took acting lessons from Kristen Stewart.The next part, the scares. Nothing about this adaption was scary at all! I don't even need to compare them to the Stanley Kubrick version. All the scares here look like they were thought up by a 12 year old! The hose with teeth is just stupid! Unless it snakes into someone's pants and bites off their penis, I'm never gonna be scared by that! The hedge animals were just dumb, plus their bad cgi made it look even worse. The woman in the tub started to make me feel scared, until i heard what she said. "With a little boy here, a little boy there, here a boy, there a boy, everywhere a boy, boy." WHAT? What was going through King's head when he thought of that? It's just stupid!I know some people say it doesn't matter if it isn't scary. But it's HORROR!!! Of course it matters!!!! Especially it it's based off of one of the most horrifying novels ever written!!!This mini-series may be faithful to the novel, but it doesn't stand up to its reputation! If anything, this adaption damages King's novel! Being faithful to the source material doesn't automatically make a film great, because it seems the die hard King fans are too hypnotized by that fact to recognize how horrible it is! Stephen King created this just to satisfy his wounded ego over Kubrick's far superior version!If you hated the Kubrick version, that's fine. But please don't waste your time with this. It will ruin your view of the novel. I watched this and in the process, I lost a good portion of respect for Stephen King.

geolot1256 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.

lomaran-1 So many people are unfairly comparing this to the movie of the same name but each should be considered separately as each is a presentation from its own genre. The movie, although a classic and VERY scary, was not true to King's book. This version, however, was and ~ being a fan of the book ~ I prefer this version. Granted, one may claim this moves slowly in places but again ~ this is a mini-series. It has more time to develop the characters, which it does. We SEE Jack evolve as the hotel begins to possess him more and more. We see the love he has for his family: his wife AND son and in fact, it is the love for his son that saves them all in the end (mild spoiler). We LIKE Jack. Does anyone like the Jack of the movie? One cannot truly compare Kubrick's version to this one. They are as apples and oranges but this one IS truer to the book.

larapage Absolutely no way on earth should this have a rating of 6. This is a really well scripted, shiveringly atmospheric, thoughtfully created, beautifully produced miniseries which in my opinion, is far greater than the better known movie version.Two things make this version better than The Shining movie. Firstly and most importantly, the characters are actually developed. We get to see the family in their everyday struggles before they move to The Overlook, we understand their motivations, their fears, their idiosyncrasies, their relationships with each other, so that when they reach the hotel, we have already been drawn into their lives enough to empathise with their situation and isolation. By the time the haunting begin, we feel every bit of the characters' fear with them. The same is said for Danny who, although seemingly suffering from a really annoying cold for most of the movie, is again a properly developed character who we get to know and understand.By contract, the old Shining movie throws the whole family straight into the hotel without really showing their relationship, their life before the hotel, their motivations or anything about them. The kid doesn't even speak! Secondly, the setting in King's version is perfect. He shows us the landscape, the vast mountains, the hotel in all weather conditions, we as voyeurs are invited privately into rooms, suites, bars and receptions as the first signs of haunting take place, so that it's as if we're there experiencing the apprehension along with the other characters.Another thing I love about King is his fascination with snow, winter and themes of being isolated and cut off from help, which is beautifully exemplified in Storm of the Century but not as well as it is in this. You feel like you need a huge winter jumper and a big mug of chili hot chocolate while you're watching this, it literally makes you shiver! The ultimate transformation from Jack's Vermont persona of a teacher trying to control anger outbursts and alcoholism and doing the best he can for his family to a wild, reckless, paranoid monster at the end of the film is mind blowing.In the movie version, Wendy hasn't been fully developed as a character and we're not really compelled to identify with her, so when Jack goes crazy in the famous 'hammer through bathroom door' scene at the end, I kind of thought 'So what?'. We don't have enough of a connection with her character to feel fear or sympathy. Whereas in this version, Wendy has already been developed as an outwardly vulnerable, inwardly strong, caring and supportive wife and mother. So when Jack turns on her in the end, we truly feel the terror of her predicament.Yes it's long - that's King films for you. But there's no better way to spend a cold winter's Sunday afternoon than curled up on your sofa watching this chilly tale unfold!