King Kong (and Rumor Has It)

The truth is, most people thought of King Kong as a joke. Sure, the original, way back when, was apparently scary to audiences. But today, the clumsy little stop-motion gorilla doesn’t have the power to do much with current audiences. Certainly not scare them. The campy 1970s remake — with the very timely energy crisis subplot — doesn’t really do it for today’s audiences either.

Peter Jackson remembered, though, that Kong used to terrify audiences. Lucky us.

The 21st century King Kong not only features an utterly convincing giant gorilla and actual compelling characters and a great Depression-era setting, it also is the scariest dinosaur/giant monster movie to date. The bug scene will send arachnophobes screaming for the door and Kong versus not one, not two, but three tyrannosaurs makes the Jurassic Park series look like a lot of smoke and mirrors. Combined with the best version of Kong’s climactic stand-off with the fighter planes, this is easily the best version of the classic story to date.

Unfortunately, this all adds up to a long, long movie. It’s worth it, but be prepared for at least one intermission along the way.

Peter Jackon’s King Kong gets my highest possible recommendation for fans of the previous films, the Jurassic Park series, the radiant Naomi Watts, Peter Jackson or giant monster movies in general. Great, thrilling stuff.

• We also saw Rumor Has It, which is a strange little movie.

  I suppose if you’re a woman under 40 who also happens to love The Graduate despite being a woman under 40, this might be your favorite film ever. As it is, while Jennifer Aniston is charming in an exactly like her role on Friends way, and you feel badly for Mark Ruffalo, who plays her fiance whose biggest crime seems to be not being Kevin Costner, this falls sort of flat.

  It’s clever in a borderline obsessive-compulsive about the Graduate and (sort of strangely) the city of Pasadena way, but that’s not really sufficient for a recommendation.

1 Comment »

1. I loved King Kong. It was one of the most convincing love stories I’ve seen in some time. The “blonde” scene near the end was classic. Glad to see people really enjoyed the film, since most people didn’t seem interested in what I consider a modern day classic.

   Comment by Arune Singh — May 23, 2006 @ 20:55

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