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Awix (3310 KP) rated Doctor Sleep (2019) in Movies
Nov 1, 2019
What-time-d'you-call-this-then Shining sequel/follow-up doesn't have the magisterial formal brilliance of Kubrick, but scores consistently for solid storytelling and simple entertainment value. Many years on from the nastiness in the snow, Dan Torrance has tried to put his special faculties to good use, working in a hospice. However, a gifted young girl he has befriended becomes the target of a pack of inhuman killers who feed on the souls of psychics, and he finds himself compelled to intervene. Faced with a terrifying enemy, he finds he may have to make a reservation at a certain hotel.
The prospect of a two-and-a-half-hour sequel to a Kubrick movie, made by someone I hadn't really heard of gave me pause, to be honest, but Doctor Sleep rapidly develops into an engrossing and satisfying dark fantasy, with mostly good performances and impressive set piece sequences. Most impressive is the way it works hard to stand on its own merits, saving all the crowd-pleasing Shining references until late on, by which time it feels like it's earned them - almost. It's still probably self-indulgently overlong, and the climax likewise feels a bit overcooked, but this is still a cut above the majority of Stephen King movies.
The prospect of a two-and-a-half-hour sequel to a Kubrick movie, made by someone I hadn't really heard of gave me pause, to be honest, but Doctor Sleep rapidly develops into an engrossing and satisfying dark fantasy, with mostly good performances and impressive set piece sequences. Most impressive is the way it works hard to stand on its own merits, saving all the crowd-pleasing Shining references until late on, by which time it feels like it's earned them - almost. It's still probably self-indulgently overlong, and the climax likewise feels a bit overcooked, but this is still a cut above the majority of Stephen King movies.
Peter Segal recommended Dr. Strangelove (1964) in Movies (curated)
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Doctor Sleep (2019) in Movies
Nov 11, 2019 (Updated Nov 12, 2019)
39 Years Later: Redrum aka Murder
Doctor Sleep- if you dont know is the sequel to the shining. I have been waiting for this movie to come out ever since it got announced. I read the book over two years again and i loved it. I didnt even know their was a sequel to the shining until i read the book. The book is phenomenal, it is acutally my first stephen king novel that i read and finshed, so to say at less, i was hyped and very anticpated, so what did i think. I thought it was good. I liked it alot.
Ewan McGregor was a perfect cast for Danny Torrance and Rebecca Ferguson was excellent as Rose The Hat and newcomer actress Kyliegh Curran was great as Abra Stone. Mike Flanagan was amazing choice for the dirctor. I liked his other movies that he directed and also loved The Haunting of Hill House which he created and directed.
The Recreated sences from the oringal film was intresting, i liked it not to bad. The hotel looks the same, old, crooked, haunted, scary, horrorfying and terrorfying. The replacements for Dick Hallorann, young Danny, Wendy and Llyod/Jack were intresting. I really liked the actress who played Wendy. As for Dick, i liked the actor who played him. As for young Danny he was good and Llyod/Jack the actor who played him was okay/bad, he just did a impression of Jack Nichoslon and looked like a young Jack Nicolson.
This is intresting, i just found this out: Danny Lloyd, who played Danny Torrance in The Shining, makes a cameo appearance as Bradley Trevor's father. Lloyd had been retired from acting for roughly 38 years, and was direct-messaged on Twitter by Flanagan to appear in the film. Producer Trevor Macy said of Lloyd's involvement, "[Lloyd] was excited to do [the cameo]. He hadn't acted since [the original]. He's a schoolteacher, and a very successful one at that, [who] like[s] making the world better. He came back for a day, and we were thrilled to have him." When pressed as to why the filmmakers did not extend the same offer to Jack Nicholson, Macy responded, "With Jack, I knew that they approached him for Ready Player One, and that he seems to be very serious about being retired. I had known that he was supportive [of the sequel] but retired." Flanagan admitted, "I didn't know how that would really work. Even if he were to come back, if he were appearing as a different character, I thought that would set people's hair on fire. He was absolutely a presence on set, though, whether he knew it or not."
So thats intresting. I would of loved to see Jack Nichloson come out of retirement and play old Jack Torrance.
Doctor Sleep was a great/excellent sequel to the shining and what Mike Flanagan did was perfect he toke elements from Stanley Kubrick's film and made it his own. The cast is great, the story is great, the hotel is great.
If you havent seen the shining than watch it and read it. If you havent seen this movie, than go watch it and read it.
Ewan McGregor was a perfect cast for Danny Torrance and Rebecca Ferguson was excellent as Rose The Hat and newcomer actress Kyliegh Curran was great as Abra Stone. Mike Flanagan was amazing choice for the dirctor. I liked his other movies that he directed and also loved The Haunting of Hill House which he created and directed.
The Recreated sences from the oringal film was intresting, i liked it not to bad. The hotel looks the same, old, crooked, haunted, scary, horrorfying and terrorfying. The replacements for Dick Hallorann, young Danny, Wendy and Llyod/Jack were intresting. I really liked the actress who played Wendy. As for Dick, i liked the actor who played him. As for young Danny he was good and Llyod/Jack the actor who played him was okay/bad, he just did a impression of Jack Nichoslon and looked like a young Jack Nicolson.
This is intresting, i just found this out: Danny Lloyd, who played Danny Torrance in The Shining, makes a cameo appearance as Bradley Trevor's father. Lloyd had been retired from acting for roughly 38 years, and was direct-messaged on Twitter by Flanagan to appear in the film. Producer Trevor Macy said of Lloyd's involvement, "[Lloyd] was excited to do [the cameo]. He hadn't acted since [the original]. He's a schoolteacher, and a very successful one at that, [who] like[s] making the world better. He came back for a day, and we were thrilled to have him." When pressed as to why the filmmakers did not extend the same offer to Jack Nicholson, Macy responded, "With Jack, I knew that they approached him for Ready Player One, and that he seems to be very serious about being retired. I had known that he was supportive [of the sequel] but retired." Flanagan admitted, "I didn't know how that would really work. Even if he were to come back, if he were appearing as a different character, I thought that would set people's hair on fire. He was absolutely a presence on set, though, whether he knew it or not."
So thats intresting. I would of loved to see Jack Nichloson come out of retirement and play old Jack Torrance.
Doctor Sleep was a great/excellent sequel to the shining and what Mike Flanagan did was perfect he toke elements from Stanley Kubrick's film and made it his own. The cast is great, the story is great, the hotel is great.
If you havent seen the shining than watch it and read it. If you havent seen this movie, than go watch it and read it.
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated Doctor Sleep (2019) in Movies
Nov 3, 2019 (Updated Nov 4, 2019)
Love or Death
Doctor Sleep is a perfect companion piece to The Shining giving us more insite to the story it told while being carful not to stand on its toes. A chilling film that creates such a great atmosphere by using a great score and tight direction to keep you on edge and unnerved with shivers down your spine. This accompanied with a grim, cold, errie visual style and lingering slow camera pans you have a film that echos the original in some respects but feels very current too. Cinematography is also gorgeous with vast haunting establishing shots, dim lit rooms, cold fog drenched roads and lonely lights lost in the darkness. But what i found truly facinating is the continuous theme of life and death here which had me gripped/wanting to explore the film deeper and more intricatly with every scene. Every single life is precious and the film depicts how many of us seem to just take that for granted, waste it, live it alone, abuse it or spend it hung up on the past or on extream circumstances choose to take it from another without care or thought to what value that persons precence in the world held. Its all very powerful, deeply saddening and thought provoking stuff which gives the film its own soul rather than echoing the shining. Theres a lot to say about how we view death too these days, be it when its from natural causes or murder we all just seem to have in a way become desensitized to it or in a rush to forget and move on. Child trauma, grievence and the torment plus the dangers of locking things up and trying to forget can bring are also facinatingly explored also.
Characters are all so likable and we spend a good chunk of time with all (including the menacing and creepily intimidating villains) which I thought was really nice and this helps create great attachment meaning that when a death hits you really feel the impact of the loss adding poweful emotion and a small amount of grievence to each one (and adds to the running theme of all life being important and death being something everyone fears/cant escape). Acting is great especially with the new cast replicating old characters from the shining. Doctor sleep also gets nostalgia right using parts of the shining respectfuly and tastfully rather than just simply replicating them for a cheap cash grab, instead choosing to intrigate them as crucial parts of the plot. All in all this movie unnerved me, engrosed and provoked me making me think more on the subject of death the journey we all take towards and how we should all pay more care and give more thought to the ones we let go.
Characters are all so likable and we spend a good chunk of time with all (including the menacing and creepily intimidating villains) which I thought was really nice and this helps create great attachment meaning that when a death hits you really feel the impact of the loss adding poweful emotion and a small amount of grievence to each one (and adds to the running theme of all life being important and death being something everyone fears/cant escape). Acting is great especially with the new cast replicating old characters from the shining. Doctor sleep also gets nostalgia right using parts of the shining respectfuly and tastfully rather than just simply replicating them for a cheap cash grab, instead choosing to intrigate them as crucial parts of the plot. All in all this movie unnerved me, engrosed and provoked me making me think more on the subject of death the journey we all take towards and how we should all pay more care and give more thought to the ones we let go.
Piper (13 KP) rated Doctor Sleep (2019) in Movies
Nov 27, 2019
Impressive Casting (2 more)
Excellent Ending
Beautifully Shot
Ridiculous Running Time (1 more)
Low On Scares
Doctor Sleep: The Long Haul
Contains spoilers, click to show
Watch enough horror movies, and you develop a certain tolerance: that said, I don't think you'd have to watch many to see this film and still not be scared. There are a couple of grisly moments, and Flanagan does an excellent job of building tension, but I had the feeling coming out of this film that I hadn't just seen a horror film at all. And I think that might have been the point: this was more about the story than the scares.
The story, overall, was well-adapted. About two-thirds of the way in the film really starts to veer off the path the book had laid out, but what it does with that last third is probably the best part of the movie. Spoilers follow: the end of Kubrick's "The Shining" left the Overlook Hotel intact (if a little sad) rather than burning it down as in the novel. Mike Flanagan does two things with this film, both adapting the novel and following on from Kubrick's film, and the Overlook features heavily in this ending and wraps up the Shining story quite nicely. In fact it seems the main purpose of the ending was to do justice to Stephen King's original vision, and in honesty it's a better ending than that of the novel.
Where "The Shining" largely ignored character's motivations and development and treated them essentially as set-pieces, "Doctor Sleep" spends far too long bringing them together. The characters are expertly cast, and Ewan McGregor almost takes a back-seat to let Kyleigh Curran's Abra shine (pun intended). Interactions are played off nicely and there's a self-referential cameo from Flanagan's other King adaptation that doesn't feel too shoe-horned in. The characters that are obviously just there to die die rather obviously, and one in particular serves purely as motivation for another to keep on fightin'. The acting itself excels, with a star turn by Rebecca Ferguson. The issue is that it simply could have been half an hour shorter, with half an hour less build-up. By the end of the movie I was just glad we had finally returned to the Overlook and things were starting to really happen.
The film is shot beautifully, and where scenes or characters from "The Shining" are re-created or referenced it's done with a great amount of care. I might have been the only one that found Rose flying above the clouds a little naff, but I still have to admit it was at least shot nicely. Overall, this was a brilliant film that could just have benefitted from a little trimming down, but Flanagan clearly cared about these characters and wanted us to feel for them and I think he certainly achieved that - and I have to stress again how ridiculously impressed I was with the ending.
The story, overall, was well-adapted. About two-thirds of the way in the film really starts to veer off the path the book had laid out, but what it does with that last third is probably the best part of the movie. Spoilers follow: the end of Kubrick's "The Shining" left the Overlook Hotel intact (if a little sad) rather than burning it down as in the novel. Mike Flanagan does two things with this film, both adapting the novel and following on from Kubrick's film, and the Overlook features heavily in this ending and wraps up the Shining story quite nicely. In fact it seems the main purpose of the ending was to do justice to Stephen King's original vision, and in honesty it's a better ending than that of the novel.
Where "The Shining" largely ignored character's motivations and development and treated them essentially as set-pieces, "Doctor Sleep" spends far too long bringing them together. The characters are expertly cast, and Ewan McGregor almost takes a back-seat to let Kyleigh Curran's Abra shine (pun intended). Interactions are played off nicely and there's a self-referential cameo from Flanagan's other King adaptation that doesn't feel too shoe-horned in. The characters that are obviously just there to die die rather obviously, and one in particular serves purely as motivation for another to keep on fightin'. The acting itself excels, with a star turn by Rebecca Ferguson. The issue is that it simply could have been half an hour shorter, with half an hour less build-up. By the end of the movie I was just glad we had finally returned to the Overlook and things were starting to really happen.
The film is shot beautifully, and where scenes or characters from "The Shining" are re-created or referenced it's done with a great amount of care. I might have been the only one that found Rose flying above the clouds a little naff, but I still have to admit it was at least shot nicely. Overall, this was a brilliant film that could just have benefitted from a little trimming down, but Flanagan clearly cared about these characters and wanted us to feel for them and I think he certainly achieved that - and I have to stress again how ridiculously impressed I was with the ending.
Merissa (11800 KP) rated Her Knight in Shining Stone in Books
Sep 26, 2017
Her Knight in Shining Stone (The Gargoyles of New York #1) by Tamsin Baker
Her Knight in Shining Stone is the first short story in The Gargoyles of New York series. We meet Roman, the elder of four brothers, all gargoyles who have yet to find their mate (Beloved). He is suffering pain when he shifts, a clear sign that he needs to meet his Beloved soon or he will be stuck in his gargoyle form. He finds her working as a waitress and the connection between them is instantaneous. Whilst she feels the connection, Cristiana also has doubts over whether she can be with Roman when she won't see him at all during the day.
Being as this is a short story, it moves along at a very swift pace. I would have preferred to have it 'fleshed out' a bit more - more detail on the history of Gargoyles, the mystery surrounding the danger that is coming to them, Cristiana's history - but that is just me. This was very well written, with no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow. I have been left wanting to know more, especially about Rafe. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it as a quick read, coffee break, book.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Being as this is a short story, it moves along at a very swift pace. I would have preferred to have it 'fleshed out' a bit more - more detail on the history of Gargoyles, the mystery surrounding the danger that is coming to them, Cristiana's history - but that is just me. This was very well written, with no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow. I have been left wanting to know more, especially about Rafe. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it as a quick read, coffee break, book.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Dork_knight74 (881 KP) rated The Clovehitch Killer (2018) in Movies
Dec 14, 2018
Well done
This low budget thriller was quite the find. It's a very thought provoking, emotionally stirring tale about a teenage boy who starts to realize that his "all american dad" might be a serial killer. The acting was good and the cinematography was decent enough. The story was the shining glory here. It unfolded beautifully and is a wonderful example of how a movie can be EXTREMELY good even without a big Hollywood budget. Everything fell into place perfectly throughout and it even had a bit of a twist at the end. Nothing too gory or flashy in this one but I highly recommend it. Especially if you're into "true crime" style movies. Worth a watch!
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Room 237 (2012) in Movies
Jan 8, 2021
If the people speaking in this documentary were to be believed, The Shining is actually about the Holocaust, the American-Indian genocide, sexual liberation, sexual abuse, the destruction of society, the number 42, the ancient Greek legend of the Minotaur, all wrapped up in a confession about how Stanley Kubrick helped fake the moon landing. Also, you should watch it in reverse whilst simultaneously watching it normally, preferably with both projected over one another...
I'm not sure just how much I buy into any of that, but there's certainly some wild shit being thrown around in this documentary. Worth a watch, complimented with alcohol, or maybe even some of the Devil's Lettuce.
I'm not sure just how much I buy into any of that, but there's certainly some wild shit being thrown around in this documentary. Worth a watch, complimented with alcohol, or maybe even some of the Devil's Lettuce.
Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated Excalibur (1981) in Movies
Sep 4, 2019
Lush, beautiful visuals (1 more)
Stellar performances from all involved
Long movie, but feels like it rushes from highlight to highlight without fleshing out the story. (1 more)
More mythic fantasy of "knights in shining armor" as my younger self would have conceived it than anything grounded in reality.
Long on visuals, short on narrative cohesion and characterization
Excalibur is a classic, and deservedly so. The visuals and performances from the entire cast are outstanding, and you get to see early appearances from the likes of a then-unknown Patrick Stewart or Liam Neeson. The film is epic in scope, and that's part of the problem--in trying to tell the entire Arthurian legend, the film only has time (even at nearly two and a half hours) to hit the highlights without adding sufficient connective tissue to make sure that we care about the characters. Then there's the fact that the film caters to more of a child's fantasy version of knights in shining armor than anything else. I don't mind the anachronism of plate armor in the "dark ages," but characters living in their plate day on and day out, in peacetime, in the middle of their fortress? That crap is uncomfortable! Ten year old me would have bought that reality, but this film would have been (and in fact specifically WAS) denied to ten year old me based on the nudity and gore. I'm not asking for gritty realism, but I also wasn't expecting a return to the fantasties of my youth. Worth seeing, to be sure, but not timeless or without it's flaws.