Hello to all my fellow b-movies fans. I've missed all of you (except for AshTheCat of course) Final are over and I am now once again able to watch movies. In preperation for the upcoming Peter Jackson Kong movies I've decided to revisit the classic (and not so classic) Kong movies.
So two days ago I rented the 1970's King Kong, since I became interested in reseeing this also.
Boy this one sucked, I don't remember it sucking but hey I was a little kid when I last saw it.
Since I'm not very good with walls of text I thought I do a simple pro and con list.
Pro (good stuff right?):
Changing the exhibition from a film crew for a movie to an oil crew for oil worked well for me. It didn't really take anything away from it (though we couldn't have a Carl Denham like character with this scenario) Not necessarily good nor Necessarily bad.
I kinda like the new gate. I mean it didn't suck so that's a pro.
Now I like the look of the Kong suit, it was a good suit to use if they weren't going to use stop motion, however Kong walked like a man and not like an ape so that part failed. But it's a good suit.
Jack Presscot, not him in general. He's not a great character but I did feel kind of sympathetic to him as he watched Kong get killed by the choppers and I did agree that they didn't have to kill Kong. (then again gassing him into submission wouldn't have been as exciting) however I wouldn't have cheered with him when Kong through that gas tank and blew up those flame thrower soliders, I mean those men had families and they just died! Other then this bit of sympathy he wasn't much of a character (and he needs to shave.)
The giant snake. If there's no dinosaurs then I guess I have to take what I can get. I liked the snake in some shots it looks pretty scary and at least the fight between it and Kong was kind of neat sadly that's the only monster fight in this movie.
Kong's rampage through New York was kind of cool. It did feature some good explosions.
Kong's execution atop the World Trade Center (rest in peace) was gruesome and disturbing. Unlike getting just a bit of blood on his chest in the original, this Kong has chunks of his skin torn off and blood soaking his fur. Nicely done, and Dwan pleading with Kong to stay near her so they won't shoot was a nice touch (though I 'm sure many would disagree also this is probably the one good thing Dwan did, other than being stupid)
Kong's heart beat, growing fainter and fainter as he dies was another good touch.
Finally and most importatly, this movie inspiried a very exciting feature of the Universal Studies tour. I've been on it twice and both times I had a blast! (literaly that part had fires very close to us)
And the end credits (of course)
Con list:
Biggest one: NO DINOSAURS!!!!! (enough said).
Dwan was a total air head. Unlike Ann Darrow whose was a bit naive. Quite a killer this con
Fred Wilson holds no candle to Carl Denham the enthusiastic film director. Denham wasn't evil just a risk taker while Wilson was a greedy corporate oil guy (booo hiss!)
The log scene. This was obviously a set and it wasn't a very good one, I remember this being exciting but it wasn't. The guys just fall off the log into a ravine. Not very well done.
Kong air drying Dwan with his breath. Ew, I doubt he brushes his teeth.
Kind of vague but the movie was just plain boring in most parts, parts that should have had intrigue or building up to moments of excitement. Pretty much all of the pre-island and quite a bit of the Kong scenes were boring.
Jack, I already mentioned. Except for one scene he's bad in the others.
I'll admit , creating a pit that was full of the vapors from open container of a knock out chemical and placing that pit in front of the gate was a nice alternative to the gas bombs. However this took out the opportunity to have Kong go on a rampage in the village, and thus this took out more excitement from the movie. I name thy good plan a con!
Kong needed more rampage. Already said but too true!
Now I know the pro list has more length to it than the con list but , Kong was meant to be full of excitement this movie had little of that. Having too many boring scenes in a film does a lot of damage. It had some good parts but these are too few and they occur to far into the movie. Unlike the original the New York scenes were more exciting than the Jungle scenes.
In a nut shell: More excrement than excitement.
Later on I'll probably do a list for the original King Kong, in a bit I'm going to watch Son of Kong and probably write up on that also.
Revisting King Kong(s) Night #2.
After the pretty lame 70's Kong I just had to watch something even better. I couldn't decide which to view next which would it be?
*whisper*: Try the one that started it all.
Oh yeah!
King Kong (1933)
I'm not at all so I'm going to keep this shorter than the last one. Though this classic deserves better I think it's use to it.
Pros:
Great build up to Kong's first appearnce, the night before Denham and crew leaves, the voyage over the sea, the tribe's ceremony and music.
Carl Denham. I can't help but like this guy, he's got huge ideas and isn't afraid of anything (almost)
Glorious stop motion animation. I was amazed by these effects when I was merely 5-7 years old when I first watched this class.
Dinosaurs and so many (YES!)
The entire Sauripod chase, log scene, Kong vs Rex sequence. I know this is several scenes but it's almost no stop action here.
Plenty of Kong fights.
Plenty of Kong rampaging.
How could we forget his classic last stand a top the Empire State Building.
The final line.
Plenty of Entertainment and thrills.
Cons:
A lot of screaming. 85% of it from Fay Ray's character.
Though pretty likable not much character development.
Charlie the ship's cook. Painful to watch.
The mechanic of Kong's head isn't that great, though I bet back then it was great.
An awful lot of debate on weither there are many metaphors when Cooper has clearly said that the movie is a strictly adventure film.
Spider Pit scene remains undiscovered.
I think that's about it.
BTW I must put in a word for the new special edition DVD. On the second disc it features what looks like several documentary scenes. One section feature Peter Jackson's crew in fact RECRETE the missing Spider Pit scene. They even us stop motion animation! Hell not only that but they found some un used music. I think it looks great but I agree that the original scene should proparly was wise to be removed. I give them an A+ for doing such a good job.
The 8th Wonder of the World!
Revisiting King Kong #3: Son of Kong.
Saying that King Kong was a success is a huge understament. The people went crazy for it and wanted more. RKO was ready to due a sequal but would it top the seemingly untopable King Kong? Weeellll....
summary: Carl Denham is underfire from practically everyone in New York, since he's the one who brought Kong to the city. The great Denham is now broke and getting tired of all the sueing so he along with Englehorn ,from the first movie, set out from the country for new business. On the way they stop at a island and run into the very man that first gave Denham the map to Kong island, the ex-captain wants to get off the island so he makes up a story about a treaurse hidden at Skull Island. Since Denham doesn't have anything to loose he goes for it. What kind of adventures will he face this time?
Pros:
Carl Denham get's the spot light this time and some development, since he's my favorite character from the last movie.
Hilde, this movies heroine, is quite pretty but most importantly she doesn't scream nearly as often as Ann Darrow. (phew!)
Though we don't see any real action for about 45 minutes the human scenes are rather interesting.
Once again the stop motion animation is excellent.
Some neat creatures: Kong's son, a horned dinosaur (can't recall it's name), a giant bear, a small sauripod like creature, and some sort of dinosaur that lived under the water.
Not quite as exciting but Young Kong's bouts with his enemies are quite good.
Young Kong's got character.
Sad but touching last stand from young Kong.
Cons:
Not nearly as riveting as the first movie.
Charlie's still sterotypicaled but at least not as painful to watch.
More dinosaurs would have been cool.
More time could have been spent at Skull island, since this a 69 minute movie with 45 mintues of human action one does feel that the Island was rather left out.
Depending on who you are you could find Young Kong annoying.
This certainly isn't a bad sequel it's quite good, it's just a smaller adventure movie and that sort of works since it's about Young Kong.
Speaking of sequels next up is King Kong Lives.
Let the Kong study continue!
Revisiting King Kong #4: King Kong Lives.
The journey continues with the sequal to Dino de Laurintis's King Kong, King Kong Lives.
It's been ten years since Kong's fell from the World Trade Center and he didn't die, he's just been in intensive care at the Universtiy of Atlanta (which is in Georgia). Meanwhile a female Kong has been discovered and has been brought over to give Kong a blood transfusion. Kong receieves a new heart but seeks out the female and rescues her. Now the two are on the run from the EVIL military. Will Kong survive? It's in the title of course he does!
Pros:
Thouhgh it was done seriously, it's a pretty funny idea.
Kong at least moves more like a gorilla then the last movie.
Not much Kong rampage but plenty of Kong vs. the military scenes.
This movie doesn't put me in such a "bored out my mind" state as the original Dino film.
Kong's final battle is pretty cool and bloody.
The EVIL colonials death is pretty funny. XD
Cons:
Corny as hell.
Kong's suit is a step down from the last one.
Pretty negative view of the military.
Just too much dumb. And I don't care about my grammer.
Let's see now, I've done two movies from the thirties, one from the seventies, one from the eighties. I'm debating weither to do the ninties Kong movie "The Mighty Kong" or the sixtie's "King Kong vs. Godzilla" next.
HMMM
The adventure continues!
Keep watching all these Kong movies will make you go ape... I say do the King Kong vs. Godzilla. I like that one for the super cheese factor.
Okay I didn't listen to ThadC I went with the "The Mighty Kong" for tonight, and then probably Kong vs Godzilla tommorow since my brother has work at night and we don't want to see it during the day when it's packed.
Anyway this'll be short.
"The Mighty Kong" or the Kong movie of the ninties.
Pros:
.......urm.
Cons:.
Everything.
Tommorow: King Kong vs. Godzilla.
I've never seen any of the King Kong films
Scottie! You poor soul!
A man that didn't see King Kong as a boy, pity.
See.. you should have taken my advice. It has to be good just because Godzilla is in it..:)
Okay I watched part of the 1976 version last night on AMC and I had forgotten how terrible it really was. The scenes where Kong was running around in the jungle could compete in the cheese competition with any Japanese giant monster movie. All he fought was a big rubber snake!
I bet Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange don't put this on their resumes.
Trivia : Kong is played by SFX makeup guy Rick Baker in a suit Baker built himself. There was also a giant animatronic Kong built by Carlo Rambaldi (ET, Alien, Dune) that was only seen in a couple of shots.