Maybe one of those times when the studio should have taken the film from the director and edited it down to size. Way too much exposition in the beginning. Too much development of minor characters who get squashed in the jungle early on. Repetitive allusions to Conrad's Heart Of Darkness that don't quite fit or go anywhere. Too much time spent on extraneous bug attacks and people running ridiculously between the legs of dinosaurs stampeding Pamplona style. Robert Armstrong's derring-do in the original film version has been rewritten as smarminess for Jack Black, who fits the bill but doesn't have enough manic intensity to pull off the Orson Welles thing he's going for. And taking a cue from Mighty Joe Young, this Kong is much more user-friendly than the perpetually ticked off 1933 model. Director Peter Jackson's post-Koko take on the interspecies communication savvy of the gorilla creates a marvelously textured, funny, thoughtful modern update of the beast. Naomi Watts emotes tolerably well toward a blue screen, but really, after being in Kong's fist the entire time he's kicking dinosaur assunlike Fay Wray, who spectated from a logshe would've had such a case of whiplash she wouldn't have been able to move her neck for a year.
I first saw the original King Kong when I was ten years old, in a dark run-down movie theater in Jackson, Tennessee. Since then I've often seen parts of it on television, but last night I watched the entire film for the second time from the balcony of the Castro Theater, and although the stop-action animation is decades old, the sight of Kong rampaging across the big screen is still mightily impressive. The film is so light on its feetthe cornball jokes still work, and they reach the island in the first twenty minutes of the movie and then almost as soon as they return to New York Kong is loose again. Watching it as a prepubescent kid, I was oblivious to one of the film's biggest charmsFay Wray. Several months ago, when the Castro screened a festival of Columbia pre-Code films, I watched every one that starred her. I have a huge crush on Fay Wray. What gams! What a mug! What a dame! She was stunning, and given a decent role was also a good actress. I'd rather get my paws on her than Naomi Watts any day.
I first saw the original King Kong when I was ten years old, in a dark run-down movie theater in Jackson, Tennessee. Since then I've often seen parts of it on television, but last night I watched the entire film for the second time from the balcony of the Castro Theater, and although the stop-action animation is decades old, the sight of Kong rampaging across the big screen is still mightily impressive. The film is so light on its feetthe cornball jokes still work, and they reach the island in the first twenty minutes of the movie and then almost as soon as they return to New York Kong is loose again. Watching it as a prepubescent kid, I was oblivious to one of the film's biggest charmsFay Wray. Several months ago, when the Castro screened a festival of Columbia pre-Code films, I watched every one that starred her. I have a huge crush on Fay Wray. What gams! What a mug! What a dame! She was stunning, and given a decent role was also a good actress. I'd rather get my paws on her than Naomi Watts any day.