King Kong

I had first seen the outstanding original of 'King Kong', still transcendent and captivating in its then-prescient use of special effects wizardry, then Sir Peter Jackson's recent remake, which was still extremely impressive. I had only heard horrible things about the 70's version, but I have come to admire Guillermin's films that I had watched, and look at that cast, so when I found the blu used, for a good price, I took a chance. It's definitely the runt of the litter, but is by no means a disaster. It's intriguing that they had originally wanted Joseph Sargent to direct with Peter Falk star…

John Chard

2019-06-12

⭐ 5

No, you're dead wrong. He was the terror, the mystery of their lives, and the magic. 1976 and I had already been spellbound and terrified by Jaws the year previously, I mean I was only 10 years old. Having been introduced by my film loving parents to the original King Kong from 1933, as soon as this update - in colour - was released, I stood in that queue for two hours to see it. I was spellbound, absolutely loved it, telling everyone in school or on the playing fields how great an experience it was. Those things never leave you, it's love of cinema with youthful eyes, and none of us should…

JPV852

2021-05-07

⭐ 6

A bit long but not terrible and had some adorably funny moments like seeing a man in an ape outfit tossing around a model train or hiding behind a building to avoid a helicopter. But seriously, the ape costume wasn't bad however his expressions were at times creepy, especially when looking at Dwan. Certainly one of the lesser of the Kong movies (though haven't seen King Kong Lives) but I guess watchable. **3.0/5**

CinemaSerf

2022-11-04

⭐ 5

OK, so it was always going to be very difficult to get anywhere near the 1933 version so I suppose the question here is - why bother? Well, they did - and what we have here is a bit of a shocker. The character names have been changed and the plot line updated to suggest this is more about oil exploration than beastie hunting, but thereafter the story is the same as the glamorous "Dwan" (Jessica Lange) becomes the apple of the eye of our eponymous giant ape. Taken deep into his jungle lair, the pair are pursued by Jeff Bridges ("Prescott") and Charles Grodin ("Wilson") who face all sorts of per…

GenerationofSwine

2023-01-10

⭐ 10

Usually I hate remakes... but I also used to not like DC. And then the heavily bashed New 52 came around, I was talking to a friend of mine, and the Flash in New 52 wasn't his Flash. He hated it out of principal. I think that is what happened here, because the '33 film reached for the stars. The technology they had wasn't all there, and they did their absolute best with it to make the absolute best film they could. And it paid off, sometimes when you shoot for the moon you actually reach it. This King Kong suffers from the 33 film. It's not a bad movie, but it's not really stretching it'…