It is closer to the book than Kubricks masterpiece. Not counting the over sentimental added ending, that was completely unnecessary.
But this is horrible. From the low budget, to the terrible acting to the censorship of TV, that doesn't allow for any f-words or any graphic violence.
Steven Webber is no Jack Nicholson. But he does a decent job as the only one in the small cast. But he's still just a TV-actor confined to TV-censor-ship.
Everyone else is just terrible. The kid playing Danny and the guy playing Hallorann are the worst. Because compared to fantastic Danny Lloyd and Scatman Crothers in the feature film, they are terrible. They are the ones with the ability to shine and they need to be powerful characters. In this TV-crap Danny is an annoying brat with way to many lines and Hallorann is just a pathetic old man.
Rebecca De Mornay does her best, but she never seems truly scared like Shelly Duvall in the feature film.
5 and a half hours is how long the miniseries last. And until Danny finally enters room 217 and find the lady in the bathtub it drags on and on with nothing happening.
This is especially a problem with The Torrances making several trips to Sidewinder and meet people there. This ruins the sense of isolation and being alone in the hotel. Because they can leave anytime they want to until the snow comes.
And explaining everything in detail to us very apparently dumb viewers doesn't help either.
The special effects are horrible. From the crappy looking cgi hedge animals, to the model of a snow-cat, to the hotel blowing up in the end, it all looks terrible.
The ghosts of the hotel, apart from the well made rotting lady in room 217, looks like ordinary people wearing Halloween makeup to look like ghosts.
The hotel itself seems too small, compared to the one in the feature film to ever be scary. In the feature film the enormous hotel itself, is a character. Here it's just a ordinary looking hotel that looks mostly like it's shot on sound-stages, which makes it that less believable.
I don't even think a graphic profanity filled version with a big budget on a pay per view channel could have made this any better. No matter what it would have still paled to Kubricks version.
The hotel in the feature film seemed very real and very scary.
I think Stephen King should have pulled his head out his ass and considered it an honor that Stanley Kubrick took his mediocre novel, not suitable for a movie adaptation at all, and turned it in to one of the best horror movies ever out of it. And that one of the greatest actors of that time Jack Nicholson played the lead.
I can only agree with King on one thing here. In Kubricks version Jack Torrance got mad too fast. But there was not enough time to show his decent into madness. As far as the alcoholism goes it is also shown in Kubricks version, but in a much better way.
Everything is just better in Kubricks version.
I can only warn people not to watch this.
But this is horrible. From the low budget, to the terrible acting to the censorship of TV, that doesn't allow for any f-words or any graphic violence.
Steven Webber is no Jack Nicholson. But he does a decent job as the only one in the small cast. But he's still just a TV-actor confined to TV-censor-ship.
Everyone else is just terrible. The kid playing Danny and the guy playing Hallorann are the worst. Because compared to fantastic Danny Lloyd and Scatman Crothers in the feature film, they are terrible. They are the ones with the ability to shine and they need to be powerful characters. In this TV-crap Danny is an annoying brat with way to many lines and Hallorann is just a pathetic old man.
Rebecca De Mornay does her best, but she never seems truly scared like Shelly Duvall in the feature film.
5 and a half hours is how long the miniseries last. And until Danny finally enters room 217 and find the lady in the bathtub it drags on and on with nothing happening.
This is especially a problem with The Torrances making several trips to Sidewinder and meet people there. This ruins the sense of isolation and being alone in the hotel. Because they can leave anytime they want to until the snow comes.
And explaining everything in detail to us very apparently dumb viewers doesn't help either.
The special effects are horrible. From the crappy looking cgi hedge animals, to the model of a snow-cat, to the hotel blowing up in the end, it all looks terrible.
The ghosts of the hotel, apart from the well made rotting lady in room 217, looks like ordinary people wearing Halloween makeup to look like ghosts.
The hotel itself seems too small, compared to the one in the feature film to ever be scary. In the feature film the enormous hotel itself, is a character. Here it's just a ordinary looking hotel that looks mostly like it's shot on sound-stages, which makes it that less believable.
I don't even think a graphic profanity filled version with a big budget on a pay per view channel could have made this any better. No matter what it would have still paled to Kubricks version.
The hotel in the feature film seemed very real and very scary.
I think Stephen King should have pulled his head out his ass and considered it an honor that Stanley Kubrick took his mediocre novel, not suitable for a movie adaptation at all, and turned it in to one of the best horror movies ever out of it. And that one of the greatest actors of that time Jack Nicholson played the lead.
I can only agree with King on one thing here. In Kubricks version Jack Torrance got mad too fast. But there was not enough time to show his decent into madness. As far as the alcoholism goes it is also shown in Kubricks version, but in a much better way.
Everything is just better in Kubricks version.
I can only warn people not to watch this.