I would think Stephen King would be more p|ssed about the just plain awful documentary, Room 237, than the movie it's based on.
I need to make a retraction: Not one day had past when I wrote a review that said the masterpiece The Shining should be taught in film schools, I saw Room 237 and thought differently. Just enjoy the classic for what it is. If you look as deep as these buffoons did, you're missing the extreme pleasure it is just to watch it.
Let's get the "synopsis" out of the way so I can really tell you what's going on: Five (or six?) strangers, unseen by viewers, provide their conspiracy theories disguised as commentary of 1980's The Shining and their stories range from wildly outrageous to downright nitpicking. Meanwhile, as they're telling their stories, completely unfitting and distractedly horrible stock film footage "paints" the picture of what they're trying to convey. Too bad; neither their background nor the stale footage is interesting.
And what gives? Why didn't anyone want to reveal themselves? Why couldn't we see anyone? Hell, I would've preferred the standard "professor in front of a bookcase with raised eyebrows" shot than Tom Cruise (from Eyes Wide Shut) relentlessly and ridiculously playing one of these invisible loonies. (I hope he threw a fit for being associated with them.)
I digress. I guess these are all "professionals" and are well-known, well, to some. But, I've never heard of them, at least prior to the showing and they only give me the impression that they're all snobs and never held my attention for more than a few seconds. I'm glad I don't know who they are, because I wouldn't care to follow them.
I get the point of the faux-pas "live" audio commentary. It was not just to get the nobodies (to me) to tell their first or 1,500th feel for The Shining, it was for them to desperately try to convince people of the deeper meaning behind the movie, or at least, show the movie goofs. Three theories that I can recall are extremely far-fetched, but I guess people see what they want to see:
A> Director Kubrick made the movie about the oppression of the Native Americans.
B> Director Kubrick made the movie about the Nazi holocaust.
C> Director Kubrick made the movie about the "fake moon landing footage." (This one was my favorite conspiracy theory and made me laugh the hardest.)
Now, I completely agree on the central theme: Kubrick was a genius in his cinematic achievements and even without so much researching his background, reading any of the books based on his life or even seeing all his movies, I can see him adding many, if not hundreds, of subliminal tidbits in his movies, namely, The Shining. So, some of what these comedians were pointing out, made me raise an eyebrow, but not much else.
I could go to any movie, masterpiece or not, and see the color blue in every room, in one form or another and say the movie was about The Great Depression. Heck, people read the Bible and can spend this much time as Room 237 did to point out on how it fits their agenda.
At any rate, going back to the three biggest conspiracy theories, which by the way, can't all be right at the same time – or maybe, Kubrick laid these breadcrumbs for fools to follow so he can be further amused when he was alive, the Native American one was the most obvious. They verbally spoke about and visually showed artifacts, paintings and symbols throughout. My six-year-old niece, who shouldn't be watching this scary movie in the first place!, could've pointed that out.
The second one, the oppression, obsession and ominous killing of the Jews in WWII, was a little deeper, but quite a reach. Again, I, too, could see the number "42" or three additional numbers that could be added or multiplied to make "42" as say it was either about the year Hitler began his genocide, or I could say it was a cozy reference to the Brooklyn Dodger's Jackie Robinson. I mean, I could even throw in that there was "a black chef who, we all know, chefs love baseball and he was, well, black."
The third one, the moon landing fictional film, I've heard before. Not in reference to The Shining, but in passing. This one did make me laugh, enough so, that I couldn't even remotely believe what the commentator was trying to preach. He went as far as to change letters, or create anagrams out of words in the movie. I guess since one character basically becomes an "iceman" and dies at the end of the original film, then the director could be saying "cinema" will die eventually, as well.
Seriously. I should do this. I should make a "Checking Back into Room 237" sequel and come up with anything I want to make of it. I'll start off with " As you can see, Jack gets a drink poured on him and he's lead into a red bathroom, which is an obvious reference to Stephen King's Carrie, to which Kubrick was trying to say he was p|ssed that he missed on making that movie over this one. And, to further my point, there is a ton of blood pouring from the elevators, which, as we all know, elevators go up and down, like the pig's blood that went up and eventually down on Carrie at the prom "
Wow. I'm even starting to convince myself that I am right in my theory. In fact, perhaps I should watch The Shining again to see if I can make more stuff up.
Final words: Tommy Wiseau's The Room is a helluva lot more entertaining than this Room was. Skip this. See the masterpiece, instead.
I need to make a retraction: Not one day had past when I wrote a review that said the masterpiece The Shining should be taught in film schools, I saw Room 237 and thought differently. Just enjoy the classic for what it is. If you look as deep as these buffoons did, you're missing the extreme pleasure it is just to watch it.
Let's get the "synopsis" out of the way so I can really tell you what's going on: Five (or six?) strangers, unseen by viewers, provide their conspiracy theories disguised as commentary of 1980's The Shining and their stories range from wildly outrageous to downright nitpicking. Meanwhile, as they're telling their stories, completely unfitting and distractedly horrible stock film footage "paints" the picture of what they're trying to convey. Too bad; neither their background nor the stale footage is interesting.
And what gives? Why didn't anyone want to reveal themselves? Why couldn't we see anyone? Hell, I would've preferred the standard "professor in front of a bookcase with raised eyebrows" shot than Tom Cruise (from Eyes Wide Shut) relentlessly and ridiculously playing one of these invisible loonies. (I hope he threw a fit for being associated with them.)
I digress. I guess these are all "professionals" and are well-known, well, to some. But, I've never heard of them, at least prior to the showing and they only give me the impression that they're all snobs and never held my attention for more than a few seconds. I'm glad I don't know who they are, because I wouldn't care to follow them.
I get the point of the faux-pas "live" audio commentary. It was not just to get the nobodies (to me) to tell their first or 1,500th feel for The Shining, it was for them to desperately try to convince people of the deeper meaning behind the movie, or at least, show the movie goofs. Three theories that I can recall are extremely far-fetched, but I guess people see what they want to see:
A> Director Kubrick made the movie about the oppression of the Native Americans.
B> Director Kubrick made the movie about the Nazi holocaust.
C> Director Kubrick made the movie about the "fake moon landing footage." (This one was my favorite conspiracy theory and made me laugh the hardest.)
Now, I completely agree on the central theme: Kubrick was a genius in his cinematic achievements and even without so much researching his background, reading any of the books based on his life or even seeing all his movies, I can see him adding many, if not hundreds, of subliminal tidbits in his movies, namely, The Shining. So, some of what these comedians were pointing out, made me raise an eyebrow, but not much else.
I could go to any movie, masterpiece or not, and see the color blue in every room, in one form or another and say the movie was about The Great Depression. Heck, people read the Bible and can spend this much time as Room 237 did to point out on how it fits their agenda.
At any rate, going back to the three biggest conspiracy theories, which by the way, can't all be right at the same time – or maybe, Kubrick laid these breadcrumbs for fools to follow so he can be further amused when he was alive, the Native American one was the most obvious. They verbally spoke about and visually showed artifacts, paintings and symbols throughout. My six-year-old niece, who shouldn't be watching this scary movie in the first place!, could've pointed that out.
The second one, the oppression, obsession and ominous killing of the Jews in WWII, was a little deeper, but quite a reach. Again, I, too, could see the number "42" or three additional numbers that could be added or multiplied to make "42" as say it was either about the year Hitler began his genocide, or I could say it was a cozy reference to the Brooklyn Dodger's Jackie Robinson. I mean, I could even throw in that there was "a black chef who, we all know, chefs love baseball and he was, well, black."
The third one, the moon landing fictional film, I've heard before. Not in reference to The Shining, but in passing. This one did make me laugh, enough so, that I couldn't even remotely believe what the commentator was trying to preach. He went as far as to change letters, or create anagrams out of words in the movie. I guess since one character basically becomes an "iceman" and dies at the end of the original film, then the director could be saying "cinema" will die eventually, as well.
Seriously. I should do this. I should make a "Checking Back into Room 237" sequel and come up with anything I want to make of it. I'll start off with " As you can see, Jack gets a drink poured on him and he's lead into a red bathroom, which is an obvious reference to Stephen King's Carrie, to which Kubrick was trying to say he was p|ssed that he missed on making that movie over this one. And, to further my point, there is a ton of blood pouring from the elevators, which, as we all know, elevators go up and down, like the pig's blood that went up and eventually down on Carrie at the prom "
Wow. I'm even starting to convince myself that I am right in my theory. In fact, perhaps I should watch The Shining again to see if I can make more stuff up.
Final words: Tommy Wiseau's The Room is a helluva lot more entertaining than this Room was. Skip this. See the masterpiece, instead.