Rebecca De Mornay Movie:

Editorial Review:
Stephen King's The Shining is a new adaptation from the author himself, made for television, that bears very little resemblance to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick version. That's not surprising since Kubrick threw out most of King's novel and presented his own version of the story. Here King redresses the balance in a miniseries that follows his original almost to the letter, and manages to be effectively creepy despite the budget and censorship limitations of the TV format.

Stephen Weber takes over the role of Jack Torrance, the caretaker who slowly descends into madness in the haunted Overlook Hotel. His performance is as far from Jack Nicholson as you could get, with his insanity building slowly and menacingly rather than being virtually mad from the get-go. Rebecca De Mornay is superb as Wendy Torrance, struggling to hold her fragile family together amid the spooky goings-on. Young Courtland Mead plays Danny, whose unique gifts give the story its title, as one of those infuriating TV brats who overacts left, right, and center. Fortunately, there are enough creepy moments and a number of frights to hold the whole thing together, the woman-in-the-bathtub scene being a standout shocker. Sure, there is nothing quite like Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" moment, but this is the story King wanted to tell and it still shines brighter than most of the other recent screen adaptations of his work. --Jonathan Weir

The Shining [Region 2] Reviews:
TV Edition more Scarey then Movie
2009-10-16 - Want a good scare for you and your TRICK, well this is a Halloween TREAT

The Shinning
2009-10-14 - We purchased it because we love the Stanley Hotel. This is the movie that was filmed in the hotel. Contrary to what many people know the first movie was not filmed at the Stanley in Colorado. This is the one. Good souvenir. Movie is ok

Don't waste your time
2009-07-30 - I had high expectations of this miniseries, given it's creation under the auspices and consultancy of Mr. King himself. It turned out to be a drawn out melodrama, full of gimmickry and with very little of the artistic panache of the original movie. The hotel itself was attractive enough, but from there on, it went downhill. Neither the malevolent, carnivorous topiaries in the garden, nor the two lame ghost plot participants did much to create a haunted atmosphere in the hotel. The hotel's creaks and groans and auto-swinging doors were trite and none of the characters were truly convincing. Rebecca de Mornay as Wendy is alright, Jack Torrance, played here by Steven Weber is an annoying exercise in waffling, being an aggressive boozer one minute, and a pathetic whimperer the next. He never seems to be able to make up his mind who he is or what he wants, an irritatingly disjointed character who himself seems to have no idea where he is going. Consequently, the whole thing is ultimately a three hour bore. While the original movie may have had it's shortcomings in its abrupt structure of the progression of the story, it was nevertheless far more convincing than this mushy rendition which seemed to be nothing more than the product of the mercantile minds at Warner Brothers, doing their level best to wrest additional revenue from a classic story.

The Shining by Steven King (1997)
2009-07-06 - I feel that this remake may have been more like Steven King's original concept but fell short of Stanley Kubrick's screen vision. I read the original story years before seeing the Kubrick version and agree it is almost a different story. However, I really feel that Kubrick's film was superior.

After inspecting the Amazon votes for both films I noticed that out of a sample size of something like 800 for the Kubrick film, it received approximately 4.5 stars from the larger movie going public. This version received a significantly lower score from a much smaller sample size, despite the fact that the majority were probably fans of Steven King. I also felt that Jack Torrence was played by a very inferior actor in the King version of the film which may actually have ruined the film for me.

I generally find that the movies made for TV miniseries are a little slow moving because of the timing imposed by the format. Although not terribly important, the make up and special effects in the King version of the film were also a bit inferior, but not too bad for a made for TV movie. If I had to be critical of one special effect in particular it would be the animated hedges omitted from the Kubric film. I am, nevertheless, glad for having had the opportunity to see this remake, and rate it at four well earned stars.


Very Good Book Adaption
2009-04-23 - I absolutely love Stanley Kubricks version of the shining. But if you are a big fan of the book and want a more faithful adaption then this would be the movie for you. It has almost every scene from the book included in this version,(Stephan King did the screen play) including the famous moving hedges. The acting was not superb but pretty decent for a made for tv movie. Overall for what it was i really enjoyed it.