When i first heard that Stephen King was writing a sequel to "The Shining," my first thought was that he'd lost it and was exploiting his older works to make a buck because he'd run out of ideas. it wasn't a very charitable thought, I know, but I loved the original "The Shining," and I couldn't imagine any way to continue the story that wouldn't suck, to be quite honest. Luckily, no one asked me, and I should have had more faith in Stephen King and his ability to write a good novel out of almost anything, because I read "Doctor Sleep" and I ended up loving it, almost more than I loved the original. And like King's other works, filmmakers soon descended on it like vultures, eager to make some money off as sure a thing as you can get. Stephen King's name almost assures you will make lots of money, so people keep making films out of his books, even though most of the movie adaptations of his works have been kinda terrible. There's just no way to condense most of his stories into a two hour running time, and something about his books just doesn't translate well on film. So I wanted to watch this movie (being a Stephen King fan) but I also didn't want to see it, because I didn't want to watch them ruin it. I've successfully procrastinated watching this movie for years, but Hulu recommended this one to me, and I guess it's time for me to stop avoiding it. Let's see what I think.
How do i even summarize what this movie is about without spoiling things? I know it's my job but it's really hard sometimes. ok here goes. Dan Torrence, the little boy from the original The Shining, is now an adult, but he struggles with alcoholism and is still traumatized by the events that happened at the Overlook hotel when he was a kid. He's fighting his demons (which are more demonic than most) and he falls into his father's footsteps, using alcohol to self-medicate just like dear old dad. He tries to get clean and live a peaceful existence, but that peace is ruined when he meets a teen girl who has the same gift of "shine" that he has. Together, the two of them must band together to fight an evil, cultists group of people who are preying on the "shine" they see in innocent children. They live and become immortal by feeding off the "shine" power that these children have. And yes, that's just as creepy as it sounds when you see it happening. Will the unlikely duo of Dan and the teenage girl, Abra, be able to stop this evil crew and end their reign of terror? Or will the demons of his past thwart him attempt to atop the bad guys?
I talked to a friend about this movie once, and he told me not to watch it because it made him uncomfortable, and he wouldn't elaborate on why or what it was that made him uncomfortable. I told this to another friend who had seen the movie, and she said "oh! I know exactly the scene he's talking about. it made me uncomfortable too." So I'll be honest, half the reason I'm watching this movie tonight is because I want to see if I can pick out the scene they're talking about. There's a lot to be uncomfortable about in this movie. the cult that feeds on children, Dan becoming an alcoholic like his father, the scenes of the cult being cult like and creepy. At first I didn't see anything jumping out at me as a scene that would make someone uncomfortable, but I did appreciate the acting. it's been awhile since I read the book, but I remember enough to be impressed with how they translated some of the more esoteric scenes onto film. It's too bad I have the Hulu with ads, because it's very distracting to see all the action stop for the sake of the ads, but that's not the movie's fault. At least I have a place to take a break if I need to pee.
There’s some pretty horrific scenes in this movie. The cult that preys on children is just plain creepy, and watching them torture a kid so they can suck his life force out of him is harrowing stuff. I don't like to see kids getting hurt. And while they age Abra up a bit for the sake of this film (in the book she's 10) the actress still looks young enough to pull it off (it's not like those movies that use 30 year Olds as teenagers) so i didn'twant to see her get hurt, either. Ewan MacGregor plays Dan, and he's a good enough actor. I told people before that if they ever make a Batman movie with the villain Clayface, they need to use Ewan MacGregor for the role because he IS Clayface, he can mold his face to fit any role he's given. He just about makes the perfect Dan Torrence. I never would have thought of him for the role, but he did it well. The movie is really really long (two and a half hours long) but it was a long book as well, so I can see why they had to make it run long. My hopes of getting to sleep early tonight are shot now that I've started watching the movie that never ends.
The movie changes a lot from what I remember of the book. Like there's not as much girl-on-girl action in the movie as there was in the book (seriously, the book puts the L in LGBT). I knew how long this movie was and I decided I didn't mind, but I began to mind when it was after ten and the movie still had at least a half hour left. Talk about sucking your life away, this movie is sucking my life away with every scene that occurs. It had better be worth it in the end or I'll be pissed. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the original film adaptation of "The Shining." Yeah yeah yeah, I know that everyone loves it and thinks it's a masterpiece, but I've never been able to watch it through from beginning to end in one sitting, because I keep flying into an uncontrollable rage abd having to turn it off. over the years, I've watched the beginning, the middle, and the end of the movie so I tell people I've watched it because I have seen all of it, just not in order. it's been so long since I've seen the ending of the movie that I forgot that they changed it from the ending of the book, so I was wondering why the Overlook hotel is standing in one piece and not burned to the ground, but then I remembered that the ending to the movie is different. I think my biggest beef with "Doctor Sleep" is that it definitely could have been pared down a lot to be less than a million hours long. Get an editor in here, stat. I never did figure out what scene it was that made my friend so uncomfortable, either. But I really liked the ending scene on the stairs with the axe. And they actually made the original movie look good with their flashback scenes. It's probably time I revisited the original movie anyway since it's been so many years. Perhaps I'll be able to make it through the whole thing in one sitting this time. As for this movie, despite its overlong running time, I did like it. unlike Kubrick's adaptation, I feel like this movie stays true to the spirit of the book from whence it came even though they changed a lot of details. The ending kinda feels like an afterthought, though it was pretty spectacular to see. The real ending, that is. There is an epilogue after the ending that really didn't need to be there. This movie doesn't know when to shut up (but then neither do I, so I don't have much room to talk). In the end, I think this movie is good (better than The Shining 2 has any right to be).
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