Not to be overlooked but....

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2007)

Jack IS the film. Let me start by saying that i am no fan of Steven King, but the fact that Nicholson is ion this one, makes it more than worth seeing. For all you King fans who whine about it being different than the book, DUH! That's what Hollywood does. But it only helps. The problem with this film is that the mother (Shelly Duvall) and the kid (Danny Lloyd) are so damned annoying by their bad acting and that women's bug-eyed histrionic whining of hers that I was rooting for Jack Torrance to get them with the damn ax.
I almost wish one could take Rebecca DeMornay and Courtland Mead from the miniseries and put them in THIS one. There is a particularly beautifully done scene that literally had me on the edge of my seat in the maze of hedges at the Overlook Hotel. Just the fact that Kubrick found a way to go from a shot of the miniature of the hedges to the actual hedges was just mind blowing for me. And the changes from the book (pay attention Steven King Fans) were GREAT! This made it a surprise even for those who had read the book. I won't give away the surprised for those who have not yet seen the film.
Anyway, there are some genuinely frightening scenes in this horror epic and it still beats the hell out of the crop of slice and dice films calling themselves horror today.