Kubrick's Weakness

Rating: 3/10 (10 May 2003)

This movie had such high production values and the director had such a penchant for perfection that one must wonder why this movie falls into the basic guidelines of a horror movie. How disappointing...
The suspense is rather lax because many of the characters wind up as caricatures that we can't sympathize with...not to mention the ending makes no sense in context with the rest of the story. Kubrick's prior masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, relied on the enigma of space to project a story without explaining everything to the audience. Here, the movie only tells us half the story then leaves us on the wayside to make it up as we go, thereby making no sense.
I wanted to like this movie. Sadly, I popped John Carpentar's The Fog in after this and was shocked as to how much superior of horror quality was present.
In conclusion, this movie has only it's powerful cinematography and performance by Jack Nicholson going for it. Everything else passes off as inferior, cliche, and mood-destroying. See any other Kubrick movie for a better experience. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars.