- Actors: Rebecca De Mornay, Steven Weber, Courtland Mead, Wil Horneff, Cynthia Garris
- Directors: Mick Garris
- Writers: Stephen King
- Producers: Elliot Friedgen, Laura Gibson, Mark Carliner, Stephen King
- Language English
- Classification: 12
- Studio: Warner
- VHS Release Date: 1 Oct 1999
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004CWL0
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 20,391 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
Product details |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stephen King's The Shining is a new adaptation from the author himself, made for American television, that bears very little resemblance to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick version. Which is not surprising since Kubrick practically threw out most of King's novel and presented his own version of the story. Here King redresses the balance in a mini-series 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 Courtlan Mead plays Danny, whose unique gifts give the story its title, as one of those infuriating TV brats who overacts left right and centre. Fortunately, there are enough creepy moments and a fair few frights to hold the whole thing together: the woman in the bathtub scene being a stand out 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.
On the DVD: Stephen King's The Shining is a nicely packaged set, with the film spread over two discs complete with a commentary featuring Stephen King himself, instantly making this set a must-have for his fans. There are also several deleted scenes which add some interest to parts of the movie. The transfer is good, considering its TV origins, and the crisp sound captures every spooky moment on this well-thought-out and presented set. --Jonathan Weir
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
If it weren't for the clear problem with budget limits and censorship for TV this would easily be getting a 5 Star rating because unlike the film version of the Shining by Stanley Kubrick this TV series actually is The Shining and not just the setting, characters and a few plot points completely rewritten that the 1980 movie was. But the trouble is it clearly suffers from a lack of budget and censorship limits for TV. Ideally an adaption of this book should be a movie, even if it has to be a movie of this length (over four hours). The hedge animals could have been done better and there were some scenes that really needed to go above the 15 rating that the series has to portray the more sinister parts of the novel. The acting however is superb. I think that Steven Weber is a good choice as Jack Torrance and portrays Jack's growing madness well and the series makes it clear that Jack going mad was not natural but rather the supernatural influence of the hotel. All in all very good.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This was a little long in places but this was necessary as the whole story was much closer to the original book, with the development of the story and the gradual build up to the end of the story. The actors all slightly underplayed their roles making the whole situation more believable. The parts when the topiary animals creep up on unsuspecting members of the family is especially creepy.
Personally I preferred it to the film version starring Jack Nicholson as that version seemed to just use the most dramtic parts of the book to make a horror film while missing out the background leading to situations.
Personally I preferred it to the film version starring Jack Nicholson as that version seemed to just use the most dramtic parts of the book to make a horror film while missing out the background leading to situations.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Now I'm not going to disrespect the Jack Nicolson/Kubrick version of The Shining because that one is awesome. But if you have read the book and want to see a great representation of what the book really covers. Madness, greed, depravity, murder (redrum), and dependance. This is the movie for you.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
More faithful to the book than Kubrick's version
It is hard to picture Jack Torrance being played by anybody other than the iconic Jack Nicholson. Steven Weber somehow manages to make the role his own and Rebecca De Mornay is... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Camilla Macaulay
Stephen King - The Shining.
My daughter is verry happy with the dvd's because the series is much better then the Movie and it arrived before time and in verry good condition.
Published 3 months ago by Dolores Hayes
Sadly, A Missed Opportunity...
This has to be one of the greatest disappointments in recent memory. You would have thought the involvement of King himself in the screenplay and as producer would produce a... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Tee Double You Bee Esq
WONDERFULLY CREEPY
Usually re-makes aren't that good. This film doesn't fall within that category at all. It's brilliantly cast and acted and is just as creepy as the original - but it stands on it's... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mimsey
Exactly like the book, much better than the Jack Nicholson version
After reading the book I watched the Jack Nicholson version and was so disappointed. My friend showed me this version and, even though it's loooonnng (about 4 hours as is an old... Read more
Published 9 months ago by George
Not... quite... there.
I first saw the Kubrick version about 15 years ago and must have seen it at least 10 times by now. I remember being shocked by this film and almost too scared to continue watching! Read more
Published 20 months ago by L. J. M. Humphries
The Shining in life
An excellent film with some give aways relating to telepathy well acted it was a fascinating film
Published 21 months ago by Mr. John Saunders
Stanley Kubrick vs Shinning Novel
First of all, I saw Stanley Kubrick The Shinning way back when I was a kid and yes it did scare the crap out of me, fortunately I got in to reading books, so I picked up a copy of... Read more
Published on 29 April 2010 by scott daniel
Stephen King's The Shining [DVD] [1997]
Excellent ! You got to hand it to Stephen King.
Certainly remaked this movie into another one of
his masterpiece's. Read more
Certainly remaked this movie into another one of
his masterpiece's. Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2009 by Gange@
Not bad!
I havn't read the novel but from what I have heard about it this sounds the more faithful out of the two movies. Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by Mr. A. J. Ralph
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
