Bottom line for me is that The Shining is a better movie than it is a book. I liked the book, it was okay, but it didn't fill me with the same visceral dread that the film did. And it was nowhere near as rich, thematically.

Well - yes and no... Of course he has a right to defend his material, that doesn't mean that others cannot take it and make something superior out of it. Case and point Kubrick's Shining vs. the Stephen King written TV Mini series.

That's kinda silly. By that reasoning, Jackson's King Kong is a remake of the one with Jeff Bridges. No.

I love the original but I don't know that I have ever chuckled at it much. Cringed certainly. The second one, many laughs. I'm honestly very curious what "unintentional humor" you found in the first movie.

^ This. A million times. This. I'm hard core fan of the originals and I felt this was a PERFECT way to reboot/continue the series.

The original was NOT slap-stick - that was the sequel. The first was straight horror - not comedy.

You could also see the end as a pretty creepy revenge fantasy too. The mom who basically bought David as a toy for her own gratification, in turn ends up becoming a toy for him.

I don't know how many times it has to be pointed out, but that ending in AI is *all* Kubrick. It's been discussed to death. Everyone blames it on Spielberg but everyone involved in production has confirmed it was Kubrick.