King Kong

In watching this movie, and I'm talking about actually scrutinizing it intently, I was shocked at the amount and the extremity of the violence that was in the picture. Natives were being bitten, swallowed and purposely stepped upon by Kong. The sailors were chased, trampled and eaten by the dinosaurs and then we have all the New York City violence on top of it all where Kong tosses a woman to her death and bites on a bystander. Also, for it being an 85+ year old movie, the special effects STILL stand up rather well and STILL look convincingly realistic. In fact, I believe these FX are of a …

CinemaSerf

2022-06-13

⭐ 8

Shown recently by the BBC and wow, how fantastically this has stood the test of time. I can see why there have been so many remakes of this iconic tale of ambition, power and true love but none that shine a candle to this - even after over 80 years. Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray do their bit as the producer and the starlet, but the true stars are lighting, photography and special effects which are masterful as we visit this ancient island divided by a great wall (how on earth did the natives ever manage to build it?) that keeps the prehistoric monsters at bay. This is adventure cinema at it's …

GenerationofSwine

2023-01-10

⭐ 10

So this is the bar, and this is the reason that people don't like any of the remakes... except the 2005 remake, people don't like that because it stinks. But this shot for the moon. It promised the audience a giant ape, it gave the audience a giant ape... and a sort of love story that was really cute and relatable that brought it all together. It reached for the stars visually, it grabbed one, and it told an amazing story along with it. It was a win on every front. So, now, when people watch King Kong remakes, they look at them and they don't live up to the effort that this movie p…

Dr Nostromo

2026-03-17

⭐ 8

77/100 Giant ape on isolated island brought back to NYC. Chaos ensues. I've seen clips and have heard about this film my entire life but I've never just sat down and watched it. My goodness! Not only did this exceed my expectations, it's downright gruesome. Kong chomping on people, people bouncing as they hit the bottom of a canyon, bloody monster fights, etc. They pulled out all the stops and I would suspect that the viewer's sensibilities of the era where quite traumatized. The sexual mores of the time were humorous but to be expected. Overall, fantastic film! -- DrNostromo.com