Sadly, because Kubrick's version is so well known it's difficult to try to review this without comparison, so instead I will simply make some comparisons.
With all due respect to Jack Nicholson, who is a fantastic actor in many rolls, he was a problem for the Kubrick movie, because from the beginning you get the impression that he's losing it.
Kubrick's version of Jack was a man on the edge taking a natural path because he's stuck in isolation. This version is a flawed man who is trying to do better, driven to extreme violence by the forces in the hotel.
It should be the other way around. The Kubrick version glossed over his flaws, and this version laid them bare. Yet this version shows a Jack that you can relate to, and even feel sorry for, while Kubrick simply made him monstrous and a problem to be written into not being a problem any more.
Kubrick's Jack is essentially just keeping the lights on. This Jack is a custodian doing a job.
This version honors both the book and the characters in it in a way that Kubrick didn't even seem to try, and I suspect that the current low rating has more to do with being annoyed that it isn't like the Kubrick movie (WHICH WASN'T THE SOURCE MATERIAL!) than it does with the actual quality of this version, or the story in it.
With all due respect to Jack Nicholson, who is a fantastic actor in many rolls, he was a problem for the Kubrick movie, because from the beginning you get the impression that he's losing it.
Kubrick's version of Jack was a man on the edge taking a natural path because he's stuck in isolation. This version is a flawed man who is trying to do better, driven to extreme violence by the forces in the hotel.
It should be the other way around. The Kubrick version glossed over his flaws, and this version laid them bare. Yet this version shows a Jack that you can relate to, and even feel sorry for, while Kubrick simply made him monstrous and a problem to be written into not being a problem any more.
Kubrick's Jack is essentially just keeping the lights on. This Jack is a custodian doing a job.
This version honors both the book and the characters in it in a way that Kubrick didn't even seem to try, and I suspect that the current low rating has more to do with being annoyed that it isn't like the Kubrick movie (WHICH WASN'T THE SOURCE MATERIAL!) than it does with the actual quality of this version, or the story in it.