Friday, January 6, 2012

King Kong (Part 2)



Well, here we go, I've watched the 1976 King Kong. I'm afraid this won't be the most favorable review ever.

This movie is set in the "Present Day" (the seventies)
Instead of a film crew out trying to shoot a jungle picture, the story starts with an oil tycoon out to strike black gold on a newly discovered uncharted isle. The hero, Jack Prescott, is a paleontologist who stows away on the departing tycoon's ship hoping the legends he's heard about an ancient civilization and giant monsters may be true.

The cast is joined by a shipwrecked wannabe actress Dwan. ("Y'know, it's like Dawn, but with two of the letters switched!") She's a dumb blond. Not quite blond enough to be funny, just blond enough to be annoying.

So they land on the island, Dwan gets sacrificed to Kong, Blah blah blah.

Kong looks and moves like a guy in a gorilla suit. In classic jungle movies and serials, when they put a guy in a gorilla suit, he at least tries to move like a gorilla.

If you were expecting skull island to be inhabited with a ton of monsters, you'll be disappointed this time around. All you get is a blink-and-you-miss-it fight between Kong and a giant snake.

While this is going on, the executives discover the island is a bust as far as oil is concerned, and they decide to head home, taking Kong with them as an advertising gimmick.

Jack had potential in the beginning, but he was all okay with the native rituals and sacrifices until
he found out Dwan was the one being sacrificed. And then as soon as Kong starts stomping New York he's saying "You can't kill him! He's an endangered species!"

They didn't even get the ending right. Helicopters shoot King Kong off the top of the World Trade Center!

While I did enjoy parts of the movie, I was just bored by the end. Perhaps it would have been better if it was about half an hour shorter...

Well those are my thoughts.
See you next time.

2 comments:

  1. `Like Dawn but with two of the letters switched' is that an actual line from the movie? (Snicker.)

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  2. Yup. The movie went steadily downhill from that point on.

    ReplyDelete