Stanley Kubrick Doesn't Like People!

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2002)

(Some character spoilers) As a fan of the book, I hated this movie. To begin with...does anyone believe Jack Nicholson would be married to Shelley Duval? In the book this is a family which loves each other. The father has a drinking problem and has had problems in the past, but he loves his son. I no more believed Nicholson loved this kid than I believed he was married to Shelley. The gore was laughable and superfluous. Shelley Duval starts out as a totally neurotic, chain smoking woman which, of course, gives her nowhere to go with the performance. There is no family here. Kubrick's 2001...brilliant. Dr. Strangelove...Incredibly Superb. But you don't have to care about those people. Here, you need to...and you don't. Watch the TV version which follows the book. This is the family King wrote about. And the horror.