I have to agree with Vanilla on The Shining, I've just never been able to get into that movie. I find the wife so unbelievably annoying that I actually root for Jack Nicholson to axe her and the kid was really nothing to write home about either. Having read the book I'd say the book is arguably better, but it's not my favorite King novel. There was a late '90's/ early '00's TV movie that was a much more truthful adaptation of the book, but overall The Shining is just a property that I cannot get into, but to be nice to it, it did inspire one of the best Simpsons Halloween parodies so it's not all in vain.
In regards to Drive, I think where the appraisal comes from is the fact that it is avery different movie than what the title leads you to believe. I think a lot of people went into it thinking it would be some Fast & the Furious knockoff and then was surprised when it was actually a kind of art house action movie. It's very nicely juxtaposed where you have lots of character development and story progression, and then you have someone getting their faced caved in in an elevator. Most action movies are so chaotically filmed and edited that they have no real standout moments because it's just so action packed, it's hard to focus on anything or even remember anything. I think it also helped that while it was a story focused movie, it did have scenes of graphic violence bestowed upon people we don't like for what is ultimately a just reason (in the movieverse anyways) and people respond to that pretty nicely.
Anyways given that I'm not above pissing on people's parades, what the hell is the big deal about the Halo games?
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